"God was grumbling his thunder and playing his zig-zag lightning thru his fingers."
This is the opening line of the novel and it efficiently sets the stage for what is to come. This novel is Biblical in tone and theme and that element is hinted at right in the title with the allusion to the famous biblical character alleged to have survived being swallowed by a whale. What is key here is that this novel is a semi-fictionalized account of the life of the author’s parents. That means it is a story steeped in historical facts even if those facts have been reinterpreted for dramatic purposes. Despite this connection to factual history, however, the author’s approach to telling the story right from the opening lines insistently moves well beyond the limitations of historical authenticity. Unlike most novels that are only barely fictional, this narrative is imbued with something much greater and broadly meaningful than simple representation. Its characters and its story swirl about within the sphere of something more along the lines of folklore or even myth. The opening line situates that boldness of spirit.
"You preach uh sermon on yo'self, and you call tuh they remembrance some uh de good things you done, so they kin put it long side de other and when you lookin' at two things at de same time neither one of 'em don't look so big, but don't tell uh lie, John. If youse guilty you don't need tuh git up dere and put yo' own name on de sign post uh scorn, but don't say you didn’t do it neither. Whut you say let it be de truth. Dat what comes from de heart will sho reach de heart agin.”
This quote is informative for two reasons. First, the most obvious: some readers should prepare to navigate their way through the use of dialect in the dialogue. It is not an easy task for anyone, though obviously, it will present a far greater challenge to some readers than to others. The thing about reading dialogue written in dialect is that the more it is confronted, the easier it becomes to understand. Adjustment to the peculiar rhythm of dialect will eventually serve to enhance the entire reading experience. Secondly, this quote is central to the dominant theme of the novel which is religious hypocrisy. A protagonist is a preacher who is less than holy in his own life than he urges the members of his congregation to be in their personal lives. What is at stake here is a story of how hypocrites reconcile themselves before the God they presume to worship and serve.
"The pack waited, John knew it and was tired unto death of fighting off the struggle which must surely come. The devouring force of the future leered at him at unexpected moments. Then too his daily self seemed to be wearing thin, and the past seeped thru and mastered him for increasingly longer periods."
It is partially through the language of metaphor that the mythic nature of the story is conveyed. Metaphors, imagery, symbolism, and other types of figurative language run free and wild through the narrative and help to shape and formulate the tone and mood of the story. This quote serves as an example of how language is utilized to create imagery of becoming a force ready to devour him also serves to lift this passage beyond descriptive realism and endow it with a sinister example of the reverse of personification—zoomorphism, in which humans are given animal attributes.
