Journal 9-Pastiche 2

           Joanna pulled herself out of the pool.  Gasping for breath, she stared at the scoreboard.  Next to her name shone a disappointing 2. 
           "YEEES!" came the shout from two lanes over.  Joanna's rival and teammate, Amy, hopped out of the water and performed a little dance.  "Good race, Joanna," she smirked.  Joanna gave her a small smile.  "Congratulations."
           This was the third year in a row that Amy had won the 100-yard freestyle at the state championships, and Joanna was sick of it.  Sick of the trash talk, sick of the losing, but most of all she was sick of the taunts.  Amy thought she could walk all over Joanna just because she was a faster swimmer.  She thought she could steal her towel in the locker room.  She thought she could tease her and psyche her out before every race. 
           "Stop it, Joanna," she scolded herself.  "Don't let her get to you."  Joanna knew that if she didn't let Amy get a rise out of her, she would stop.  But it seemed like every time this happened, Joanna blew up.  Amy thrived on it.  "Not this year," Joanna whispered.
           In the locker room, as predicted, Joanna's towel disappeared while she was in the shower. 
           "Come on, Amy, give it up.  Where did you put my towel?"  Amy grinned, satisfied.  "I don't know."
           So Joanna looked.  She calmly searched the locker room from top to bottom.  And when she was done, she was dry.  "Never mind, Amy.  I don't think I need my towel.  Thanks, though."
           Amy snickered.  "Okay, suit yourself!  I guess you'll never know where I put it."  With that, she sashayed out of the room.  Another job well done.

Theme: Judging others by comparing them to oneself gives humans a feeling of power and superiority over the judged.  I explained/revealed this theme by using three techniques that Hurston does: diction, apostrophe, and simple sentences. 
First, for diction, I chose words like 'smirked', 'snickered', and 'satisfied' to show how Amy views herself while she is judging and 'controlling' Joanna.  The diction I used, like Hurston's, reveals that Amy does feel powerful and superior to Joanna.  These words accurately describe her feelings.
Second, for apostrophe, I made Joanna talk to herself to calm herself down.  This shows her inner thoughts and it makes it obvious that Joanna is the one being judged.  Hurston also uses apostrophe to reveal characters' inner feelings.
Third and finally, I used a lot of simple sentences in this pastiche.  They are in bold, and I mostly used them to make it clear what the theme was. The simple sentences concisely describe how Amy feels when she is judging and teasing Joanna, and this helps to make the theme easier to understand.