Their Eyes Were Watching God

Rating:
Summary: thank you Alice Walker
Review: Even had she never written a word, Alice Walker would have secured her place as an important figure in the history of African American fiction simply by rehabilitating Zora Neale Hurston. In her own day, Hurston was recognized as a leading figure of the Harlem Renaissance, doing ground breaking work on black folklore, collaborating with Langston Hughes and writing an autobiography, several novels and many short stories. But she had the great misfortune to fall afoul of her fellow black intellectuals, like Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison, who took offense at her use of vernacular language in her stories and who thought that her writing was not sufficiently negative about the black experience in America. Her opponents were better connected politically and saw to it that she was dismissed by the Left intelligentsia. She died in obscurity in a Welfare home and her works went out of print, largely forgotten. Then, in 1975, Alice Walker wrote a piece for Ms Magazine, about her search for Hurston's grave and began a reawakening of interest in her work. Walker's attentions seem to have been amply repaid, as this fine novel seems to have been a significant influence on her own book The Color Purple.

Their Eyes Were Watching God tells the story of Janie Crawford. Raised in Florida by a grandmother, she experiences several loveless marriages, but develops into a strong and independent woman, then finds love with an itinerant worker named Tea Cake...Besides the central theme of Janie's growth as a woman, the story is similar to The Color Purple for the almost eerie absence of white people. This was, in fact, one of the complaints lodged against her in the 30's, that she shied away from the issues of race and racism that other authors were focussing on and bringing to public attention. The novel does also render characters' speech in unvarnished dialect. You can see why fellow authors would have been embarrassed by the language, but that does not delegitimize its use.

In the end, the very things that her cohort found objectionable about her work--the colorful dialogue and the relatively upbeat portrayal of black characters--make Hurston's writing much more enjoyable than the earnest but polemical, to the point of agitprop, works of folks like Wright and Ellison. I liked the book quite a bit; which actually, when you get right down to it, pretty much proves Richard Wright's point.

GRADE: B

Rating:
Summary: A rewarding and incredibly deep novel
Review: The charm in this novel is the apparent simplicity in which it was written. Readers liken Janie to a simple female who possesses an understanding of love. Unfortunately readers also sometimes liken Ms. Hurston completely to Janie. Although Ms. Hurston admitted to paralleling Janie in relationships it is the greatest mistake of readers to not fully acknowledge Ms. Hurston. Ms. Hurston is often considered the most educated writer in American history. She was educated at Columbia University and besides being a noted author she was the foremost anthropological expert for African American culture in the south-eastern United States. Ms. Hurston did not attempt to mimic the dialects of turn of the century African Americans in the south-east. Actually, scholars and linguists read Ms. Hurston's writings to determine the origins of such dialects.

A member of the Harlem Renaissance, Ms. Hurston fully incorporates the wonderful rituals of African Americans into this novel. While this book is wonderful when first read it is even more outstanding when one realizes the incredible depth of the work. I suggest that anyone who reads this book also read a scholarly analysis of the work to see Ms. Hurston's incredible writings in a more revealing light.

Ms. Hurston's complete meshing of powerful metaphors and symbolisms with the life travails of the story's main character make this novel one of the most excellent that I have ever read. I only hope that every reader appreciate this work half as much as I have.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Story and Perfect Writing
Review: Similar to what a previous reviewer said, this book was a a kind of book which I would have never have discovered if it weren't for it being a required summer reading book for my tenth grade English class. Most of these types of books are good works of literature, but are very boring to read. An example may be Iron and Silk by Mark Salzman for my eighth grade World Civilizations class. A boring book, but a good one. However, Their Eyes Were Watching God is not boring at all. It is very fun to read. And although it doesn't maintain the same suspense as books by Michael Crichton or Tom Clancy, it keeps you wanting to read more and more. The only downside in this book is that the dialogue in the beginning is very confusing, and I almost refused to go on with the book unless I knew what it meant. However, you do learn what it means later on in the book. Sometimes, because of the type of accent and speech, you have to actually analyze what each word means in a sentence to 'decode' or understand what a character is saying. Despite this confusingness among some readers, this book is an outstanding work of literature.

Rating:
Summary: Captivating
Review: I was so caught up in the drama of this book that when I finished it a part of my life ended as well. It totally captures how love takes over and engulfs your very being. You get into the flavor of the dialect in no time. One of the best books I have ever read.

Rating:
Summary: An Interesting Insight into the Black Community
Review: While at times I was confused as to the general structure or skeleton of the book, I found Ms. Hurston's most well-known work to be emotional and full of humanity. The book follows the life of the main character, Janie, through her different husbands, socio-economic statuses, and surroundings. If you enjoyed Things Fall Apart or even Lee's To Kill A M-Bird, I think you would enjoy Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Rating:
Summary: A talent that has influenced many other writers
Review: It was eye-opening to finally read this wonderful piece of literature after having read many books by authors such as Alice Walker and Toni Morrison. I see so much of Hurston's influence in the workds of these two latter-day, African-American, female writers. I thank Hurston, therefore, not only for this revealing and touching book, but also for the perpetual influence it has left on the literary world. As we see Janie looking out into the darkness "watching God", so we also see the desire by black Americans, sepcifically women, to reveal their true nature, embrace it, and share it with a mainstream society that has taken it for granted or ignored it. The emotions in this book run deep and are extremely intense, forcing the reader to care for these people, for what they are, and see their struggles as worthy of respect.

Rating:
Summary: A good read
Review: "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston is a book about the life of a Negro woman in the 1900s. The story begins with Janie telling about her life, but then the author takes over the book. In the beginning, Janie returns to see some people she used to know sitting on their porch. After they dine with food she brings, Janie begins to tell her story, with Hurston soon taking over the point of view.

We first hear about Janie's grandmother wanting her to marry Logan Killicks, an older man. She protests her decision, but her grandmother wants her to have someone who can offer Janie the security and protection of his older age and a large potato farm. The marriage occurs in the next chapter, but soon after Janie leaves her new husband to be with another man - Joe Starks.

Joe and Janie go off to another place in Florida. Joe becomes mayor of a new town, named Eatonville, of all black people. Joe also builds a store in this town. At first, Janie is enjoying this relationship. But after the town starts developing, Janie doesn't enjoy life with Joe as much. This is partly because Joe is becoming the man of the town and Janie feels left out. She is asked by Joe to run the store, as Joe is busy doing town duties as the mayor, such as getting a new street light installed.

Later, many other events happen in the story, but if I told you anymore I'd spoil the book.

The author, Zora Neale Hurston, uses the dialog of Negroes in the story. Phrases such as "Aw, Tea Cake, you just say dat tuhnight because de fish and corn bread tasted sort of good" let you imagine the dialect used by southern black people. The characters created by the author really do let us know that they were blacks. We know this because of the way they talk, and because of the life that they are living as explained to us by Hurston.

One theme of this novel relates to man versus society. In this case, man is Janie and society is the men of the south. Janie finally realizes all the hardships she has been through and how her life has changed. In a nutshell, this novel tells the life a Negro woman trying to live a happy life through difficult times.

Rating:
Summary: A gift ! There is nothing else like it!
Review: This is the equisitely haunting tale of an impoverished black woman's search for love, meaning, and freedom in pre-civil rights era Florida. The story opens with the return of Janie to the mud and shack village that she left with her first husband. Now, after experiencing Florida as a poverty stricken, dependent wife, Janie recounts to her village friend Pheoby, all the extremes of life that she has journeyed since her departure some years before. Told in black dialect, this epic self- discovery and testament to fortitude, spirit, and human dignity steals the heart of the reader who is willing to listen to and experience with Janie all the travails that are heaped upon her in 1930's Florida. Janie's growth becomes the reader's own discovery of life for a poor black woman with intelligence, need for love, and pure determination to survive in the face of enormous obstacles of human and mother nature. The characters that populate Janie's sojourn are powerfully described by the author. There are all of her husbands, her friends, animals, the Florida terrain and weather, and others. However, the most mesmerizing character in this eloquent novel is Zora Neale Hurston's lyrical and hypnotic use of language. It sets the stage of the tale at the onset of the story and makes you care deeply about Janie. Gorgeously constructed, each sentence is a thing of beauty in and of itself. The rich, "brown" tones are like an unknown music that resonates forever in your soul when you leave this incredible volume. It has a cadence, a poetry like no other. I gave this book 5 stars because whenever I see this book on my shelf, it reaches out to me, touches me again and again, without even turning a page, without even opening the cover. A lasting achievement, one that truly stands the test of time - a hallmark of American Literature.

Rating:
Summary: Their Eyes Were Watching God
Review: Hurston's "Their Eyes Were Watching God" is a beautifully written novel telling the story of Janie Crawford's search for love and fulfillment.

Janie's story filled with love, abuse, devotion, and sacrifice, begins as she tells her life saga to her dearest friend, Pheoby. It begins with brief talk of her childhood (or loss of), and first marriage to Logan Killicks. Her marriage to Killicks provides many things, but none of aid to Janie's search for love or fulfillment. Protection, security, and peace of mind for Nanny were all well, and good, but Janie's dream of love couldn't be forgotten, and she eventually leaves Logan to run off with Joe Starks.

Janie's marriage to Starks begins brightly, but fades quickly. As Starks buries himself in success, and glory, Janie begins to fade away. She becomes lonely and powerless in her relationship with Starks. Working a job she hates, hiding her beautiful hair, as Starks orders and verbally/physically abuses her. As Hurston says "She was a rut in the rode. Plenty of life beneath the surface but it was kept beaten down by the wheels." After being beaten down for nearly twenty years Janie is finally able to move on after Starks dies.

With Starks dead Janie had a new found freedom. She let her beautiful hair down, but still continued to work in the store she hated. It wasn't until she met Verfible "Tea Cake" Woods that Janie finally found her true love and fulfillment. Starting from the beginning Tea Cake was something new, and thrilling. He made her "glow inside" by treating her better than she ever had experienced. Though at first Janie is unsure she can trust him, she soon let herself enjoy the love she has always dreamed of. Janie's years with Tea Cake bring her what she had always wanted. She got to live, enjoy life-talk when she wanted, work when/if she wanted, not just "git up on uh high chair and sit dere." Though she had "nearly languished tuh death up dere" she was now living and discovering who she was and what she could do.

Hurston's heart-wrenching novel not only leads us on Janie's path to self-discovery, but also teaches us along the way. It took Janie numerous relationships to realize that " Love is lak de sea. It's uh movin' thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore and meets, and it's different with every shore." We learn from Janie that everyone must keep walking till they find their shore. Though Janie's tale is not storybook material it is filled with honest emotions and life lessons.

Rating:
Summary: Great Novel; thank you to my AP English Class
Review: This is one of those obscure but great novels--and writers--that I probably never would have discovered or read if it were not for my AP English class (it was on my required summer reading list; which only adds to my already hefty personal reading list, which is ever growing.)I at first wondered why a highschool teacher chose a work not as known or recognized, but figured it out when I realized how local the books setting was (I live in Orlando, FL, which is between most of the settings in the book, and made mention of several times.) But enough of how I came about reading it...

Hurston's novel turned out to be a beautifuly told tale. The insight into the main character, Janie Crawford, was very strong and eloquently told. Also, if you love a lot of beautiful imagery, this is a good example. Every chapter opened--and many closed--with though provoking metaphors and philosophies. The oft-aclaimed dialogue (written in the afro-american dialect of the time period) added a lot to the atmosphere. One of the few, and relatively minor criticisms I can find in this book is that large amounts of space are lost between chapters, and in some cases within them, without transition which is jarring and pulls you out of the fictional dream.

All in all, I would highly recommend this book. It has a beautiful story and is beautifully told.