Their eyes were watching god : after jody slaps janie, hurston writes: janie stood where he left something fell off the shelf inside her. then she went there to see what it was. it was her image of jody tumbled down and shattered. explain the comparison that hurston is establishing with jodys image in this passage.

Hurston establishes a contrasting image of Jody being an ideal husband in Janie's eyes.

Explanation:

Their Eyes Were Watching God is a novel written by African-American writer Zora Neale Hurston in 1937. The story is about a girl Janie Crawford who grows from an immature teenage girl to a bold and strong woman. The novel was included in TIME in the list of 100 best English-language novels published since 1923 in 2005.

In the excerpt

"Janie stood where he left her for unmeasured time and thought. She stood there until something fell off the shelf inside her. Then she went inside there to see what it was. It was her image of Jody tumbled down and shattered. But looking at it she saw that it never was the flesh and blood figure of her dreams. Just something she had grabbed up to drape her dreams over. In a way, she turned her back upon the image where it lay and looked further. She had no more blossomy openings dusting pollen over her man, neither any glistening young fruit where the petals used to be."

when Jody first time beats Janie, her image of Jody's being an ideal husband is shattered. She realizes her illusion of his goodness. We can see the choice that she of choosing Jody over Logan thinking he was perfect for her, this image of Jody is shattered in Janie's eyes.