The House Girl Analyzation - 9/29/14

          "Josephine stepped through the back door into the kitchen and placed the basket,                    half full with berries on the table. She felt Mister's slap still in the bones of her face, echoing down her spine, but she saw no mark when she checked in the glass above the washstand. She fixed herself with a stare: her eyes shifting color, a shadow of blue here green there, heal and brown and gray, the colors fractured together and split. 'Tonight,' she whispered. The pushing downward , the roof lifting toward the open sky."

     
Analyzation - Mood

     The mood the author, Tara Conklin, sets in me is pity, hope, and curiosity. This book is about slavery and a slave named Josephine, who tries to escape and plotting a dangerous quest to leave her  "home" and run away. I feel bad for her because she has always been treated unfairly by her masters. After all she has been through, her masters still intend to treat her roughly. All of this is making me feel bad for her and have pity. I feel hope because Josephine is trying to escape to have a better life. I hope she does escape. Josephine has to get information about other slaves who have tried to run but didn't succeed. She wants to know where they were aiming on going. Josephine has to do all of this secretly so she won't get caught. All the sneaking around she is doing is keeping me in the edge of my seat. All I can do is hope she succeeds and read on. Finally, curiosity is getting the best of me. It has been mentioned very rarely in the story but I was able to capture it. There is foreshadowing going on in this story. Though, I am not sure if there is actually until I finish the book. A foreshadow is when Josephine sees Mister going around the house to in a very direct speed with horrifying look. Then she sees a man's and a woman's silhouette by the window curtains talking and making hand gestures rapidly. Basically all this mystery is making me curious. Josephine thinks it is just an argument they are having over something but I think there is more than that. Why are they arguing?

Analyzation - Description

     Tara Conklin seems to always go in depth with descriptive writing using very few words. Just by the few word choices she uses describes so much. For example when the narrator says, "She felt Mister's slap still in the bones of her face, echoing down her spine.." It tells where she feels the slap specifically instead of just stating, "She felt Mister's slap on her face." I like that Tara added the word "bones" to be more specific. Second, there is an action in the end of this quote, "She fixed herself with a stare: her eyes shifting color, a shadow of blue here green there, heal and brown and gray, the colors fractured together and split." What stood out to me the most was the end, "..the colors fractured together and split." I feel like this created more of dramatic mood. Emphasizing that she is determines to be stronger. Tara is trying to show emotion in the character,  which in my opinion does a marvelous job at that!