Their Eyes Were Watching God

I wasn't sure when I started the book, and initially the dialect was had to read. But as the story continued, both the wonderful descriptive writing and the insight into the Negro experience and culture of the time were very enlightening. Highly recommend this book.

Why did it take me so long to read this beautiful book? It also took me too long to write this review because I finished this book about a month ago. During this time, I have not forgotten Janie or Tea Cake. They are characters that will stay with me. The story is Janie’s, her journey through life and towards happiness. Written decades ago, it feels timeless. The writing is seamless. Not a spare word, but at the same time there were stunningly vivid descriptions of people and places that brought out every sense. My dad, an avid reader and writer, has always said that the most talented authors can say it all in fewer words, and that she does, writing with intention and purpose. I did not find the dialect hard to read, perhaps because I live in the south, but also it is consistent throughout, and it added so much to the authenticity of time and place in the story. As I mentioned above, Janie is very much on a journey. The first chapter foreshadows that she’s been on a journey that’s not gone well, and she’s now home. For the entire book, I thought I knew what that journey may have been, how it went with Tea Cake, and I was entirely wrong. I loved every bit of that because the journey was a complete surprise to me. Through a series of marriages, she finds her true love, and through him, love for herself. I have to mention the hurricane Janie and Tea Cake experience. Having lived through several myself, I never had to experience on literally on the ground, on foot, running to escape the winds and rising waters. I felt like I was alongside them as they make their treacherous escape. One of the biggest messages in the story is that people are complex and imperfect. You can love a person and not love everything they do. When characters are drawn this way, as they are in this book, they become living, breathing real people, and that’s exactly how I felt the entire time I read this book. I’m disappointed with myself that I didn’t write this review sooner after reading because I think my feelings would have flowed better. If this is a classic you haven’t read, it’s more than worth the read. Between the spare writing and shorter length, it’s a quick read, too. As many of you know, I hardly ever re-read, but this is one I will re-visit because I know I will get even more out of it the next time. As it is, I highlighted dozens of beautiful passages. Zora Neale Hurston was an immensely talented writer, and this book was not given the recognition it deserved during her lifetime. I look forward to exploring her other works.

Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, is a powerful read for all. It teaches both men and women, adults and children, the power of respect, equality, love, and freedom, especially for women. This book is a solid 4 out of 5 and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a great story, that is not overwhelming to read. In my opinion, the book starts slow and is sometimes difficult to read on, however don’t give up on it. About a quarter of the way through, my eyes were glued to this book. I felt a connection to Janie and I wanted to see how her life panned out. When I reached the final few pages, I was actually sad it was over (which shocked me because I was so bored in the beginning). This book originally grabbed my attention because it was narrated by a strong female character. Janie is a fair-skinned African American woman who grew up in poverty with her traditional grandmother, Nanny. Stuck in the time before “equality” existed, Nanny wanted Janie to live a life of leisure, something she was unable to have. She married Janie off to Logan Killicks at a very young age. Janie then left Logan to venture to a new town with Joe Starks who offered her a grandiose and comfortable life, where she didn’t have to work and he could show her off. In a naive way, she believed that Joe loved her and wanted nothing but the best for her, however as he became more obsessed with his store and his town, she became more oppressed by his harsh words and head kerchiefs he forced her to wear. As Janie moves onto her third marriage to Tea Cake, she finally finds the relationship she is looking for. She knew “he could be a bee to a blossom--- a pear tree blossom in the spring.” This was something she dreamed of, having a relationship wear she could lay under a pear tree and simply be in love. This book sends a powerful message about the importance of an equal relationship. Janie is oppressed by Logan and Joe, leaving her sad and lonely. When Tea Cake comes along and takes her to picnics, hunting or fishing, and teaches her to drive she realizes what she has been missing for years. He even chopped down a tree she didn’t like, along with “all those signs of possession” in Joe Stark’s house. Despite the strong relationship they have, Tea Cake still has control over Janie. He takes her money and goes off spending it without her permission, but she can’t say anything about it. This made me very angry. He also whips her when she talks to another man, though nothing was going on between them. He believes that “being able to whip her reassured him in possession.” She doesn’t let these things affect her because she loves Tea Cake and believes God is working in her life. When she comes to terms with this, she finally finds peace. At the end of the novel, when she is completely free of all relationships and ties to people, Janie is truly a happy woman. She is described pulling in “her horizon like a great fish-net” and “calling in her soul to come and see” the life in its meshes. At this moment her life is fulfilled. This book hit all emotions. I was sad and felt empathy for Janie, I was happy, and I was angry beyond belief. Sometimes I laughed, while other times I wanted to tell one of the characters off. This story that Hurston created is so relatable that I felt aspects of Janie’s life in my own, even without the many years of experience she had. I truly believe that I could go back and read this book in a couple of years and learn a whole slew of new lessons.

For centuries, marriage has evolved into a contract rather than a proclamation of love; it dictated the roles the man and woman would play and suppressed the woman under the influence of the stronger man. In the brilliantly-written novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston explores whether marriage could be built on trust and love rather than submission and negotiation by detailing the intricately woven life of Janie Mae Crawford and her experiences with marriage. In the beginning of the novel, Janie is quickly ushered into an arranged marriage with Mr. Logan Killicks, a rich and older African-American man. Janie only agreed to the marriage because she had thought that eventually “she would love Logan after they were married...Husbands and wives loved each other, and that was what marriage meant. It was just so” (Hurston 27). Ever since the day Janie was sixteen and sat underneath a pear tree and gazed up at the bees merrily buzzing in and out of the blossoms, she believed that a marriage could be one of love and self-fulfillment. She tried to have that love but quickly discovered that she was never going to love Mr.Killicks the way the bees loved the pear tree’s blossoms: “She knew that marriage did not make love” (29). One cannot simply walk into a marriage without loving the other person first. Love already has to be present in the relationship for there to be love in the marriage. Love does not grow from unfamiliarity; it stems from trust. When Janie married her second husband, Joe Stark, he became infatuated with power rather than with her. As the mayor of Eatonville, he left her to do the chores around the house and would yell at her for making mistakes in their store. Janie’s personality remained hidden inside of herself; she could not do as she pleased and obeyed her husband’s commands like a slave. Joe “wanted her submission and he’d keep on fighting until he felt he had it” (64). He also believed he was “building a high chair for her to sit in and overlook the world [but] she [was] pouting over it” (57). Because there was no true communication between the husband and wife, both were left unsettled by the other. In order for a marriage to last, there has to be honesty between the two partners. Both of them would have needed to drop their pretenses in order to fully accept and understand the other person. However, because Janie kept a part of herself locked away from Mr.Starks and because Joe kept demanding her submission rather than allowing her to be herself, she could never truly love him nor would he ever know her. It was not until Janie’s final marriage to Tea Cakes that she began to feel happy and loved. Tea Cakes always wanted to be with her. He taught her to play checkers, made her laugh, and provided anything for her. He was even the only man Janie compared to her pear tree: “He could be a bee to a blossom-a pear tree blossom in the spring” (90). Though their relationship had its flaws, there was trust and honesty between the two. Their marriage may have been the briefest, but it was the only one that left Janie truly grieving when it was over: “No expensive veils and robes for Janie this time. She went on in her overalls. She was too busy feeling grief to dress like grief” (149). In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston expertly weaves the truths behind marriage through Janie’s experiences with failed and lost love. In the end, marriage is a contract; it does have its rules and obligations, but it is also about working together to build an open and caring relationship, not a dictatorship.

*spoilers This book deserves 5 stars for the language alone. Hurston's lyricism and use of the African-American vernacular of the period is just brilliant. I've never read a book where the characters and time are so vividly rendered through speech. The blending of the narrator voice and characters perspectives is masterful. While race is very important in the book Hurston was not overtly political and this was one of the reasons she fell into obscurity. Her themes about freedom and love are universal but she also provides many insights into different forms of oppression, particularly of women. Her characters are not defined by the relationship to white society and she explores life in a black community in all its facets, showing both the positive and negative sides of this community. I thought it was very poignant when Janie admitted to herself that she hated her grandmother because her limited worldview, shaped by the experience of slavery, meant she couldn't dream of anything more for her granddaughter than a loveless marriage. Janie wants more from life and she's willing to risk everything to find it. It's ironic that her first attempt at freedom lands her in a gilded cage and it's only after her second husband dies that she finds real love through Tea Cake. Their time together is the happiest of her life and his terrible death confirms how much they meant to each other. I did find it a bit annoying that they had to do manual labour in the Everglades because Tea Cake refused to live off her money and his conversation with the other men about beating her was very disturbing but realistic. Throughout the book Janie is defined by her marriages and I really wanted to know more about her life after Tea Cake died. Did she carry on as an independent woman or was she infected by rabies when her bit her and destined to follow him to the grave? There was never any mention of her taking serum but as the doctor knew about the bite maybe we are supposed to assume that she did. Overall a fascinating, enjoyable read.

This story about Janie Crawford, a black woman in the South who wants to love and be loved, is spectacular. In Zora Neale Hurston's capable hands, the reader vicariously experiences several incarnations of Janie's life from poor to rich, disrespected to loved, and desperate to satisfied. Steeped in the Black vernacular of the times, a ripe understanding of people, and told in brilliant poetic prose, Their Eyes Are Watching God is a lush read. A simple sentence by Hurston transports me to Janie's world, "The morning road air was like a new dress." Her descriptions gift us with a character's essence, "Daisy is walking a drum tune. You can almost hear it by looking at the way she walks. She is black and she knows that white clothes look good on her, so she wears them for dress up. She’s got those big black eyes with plenty shiny white in them that makes them shine like brand new money and she knows what God gave women eyelashes for, too." Her deft portrayals of life enthrall, "The wind came back with triple fury, and put out the light for the last time. They sat in company with the others in other shanties, their eyes straining against crude walls and their souls asking if He meant to measure their puny might against His. They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God." Her takes on humanity resonate, "Then the band played, and Tea Cake rode like a Pharaoh to his tomb. No expensive veils and robes for Janie this time. She went on in her overalls. She was too busy feeling grief to dress like grief." Her many memorable, quotable lines shine bright, "Rumor, that wingless bird, had shadowed over the town." In 1973, Alice Walker had a headstone placed at her gravesite with this epitaph: “Zora Neale Hurston: A Genius of the South." Indeed.

Was a different version than pictured. Still the same book but was not the exact one that is pictured in the profile.

This is a fantastic story. I loved the plot. It's complex, yet easy to understand (once you get used to the colloquial dialect). SPOILER ALERT - I like how the story unfolds. All the poor black people are finally done with work, so they sit on their porches and watch Janie as she comes home. Everybody gossips and wonders where she has been and what has happened to her. Her friend Pheoby goes to ask her, and Janie tells Pheoby all about what has happened in her life. She tells Pheoby about what Nanny said. What happened was that when Nanny saw Janie kissing a boy, she (Nanny) decided to tell Janie that she always wanted to see Janie get married, instead of ending up like her (Nanny). She tells Janie that she (Nanny) was a slave, and that the overseer was the father of Janie's mom, and that the overseer's wife said she was going to see her (Nanny) punished for having a baby with her husband, the overseer. So one night Nanny and the baby (Janie's mom) escaped. Eventually they were taken in by nice white people who helped put Janie's mom through school. Then Janie goes on to explain that one day her mom literally crawled back home to Nanny. It turns out she (Janie's mom) was molested by a schoolteacher, of all people. That's how Janie ended up coming into the world (she never meets the schoolteacher, who is her natural father. He's out of the story. He's just barely mentioned). Anyway, Nanny said that she didn't want any of that sort of thing to happen to Janie. So Janie met Logan Killicks and married him. At first he was nice to her, but then he treated her like dirt, so she left him for another smooth-talking guy named Joe Starks, who was also called Jody. Joe was very ambitious. He married Janie, then made himself become the mayor of the town, and of course, Janie became the mayor's wife. At first, Jody was nice to her, but then he was less and less kind and sweet as time went on. For example, he didn't let her wear her hair down. He scolded her about every little thing. They ran a grocery store, but he always told her she was doing everything wrong. Also, he didn't like to see her talking to anybody. He was very bossy and controlling. After about 20 years, Janie became hardened and eventually told him off. She didn't hate him or anything, but she didn't let him mistreat her anymore, especially when she noticed that he was not as handsome as he used to be, and he had begun getting saggy and flabby and frail and weak. He soon died from poor health After about eight or nine months, Janie was visited by another smooth-talker whose nickname was Tea Cake. They started hanging out together, and cooking fish and corn bread and eating together, and going hunting and fishing and to the movies. Eventually Janie and Tea Cake got married. Tea Cake wasn't a bad guy at all, although he was mainly good for only gambling (and winning), and growing beans. Growing beans is what he did when they moved to the Everglades in Florida. Then there was a terrible hurricane. Tea Cake and Janie seemed to be watching the sky (but "their eyes were watching God", to see what God would do about the hurricane, and to see whether God would let them live). While trying to escape the hurricane, Tea Cake got bitten by a dog when he was trying to prevent the dog from attacking Janie as she hung on to the tail of a cow in order to survive the hurricane floods. Eventually, Tea Cake ended up getting rabies (it wasn't specified in the book, but the symptoms of rabies were described---for example, Tea Cake could no longer tolerate water). When he lurched toward her with a gun in his hand, she had to end up shooting him dead. She went to trial and was found innocent. After the trial, she picked herself up and went back home, and the story ends with her telling her friend Pheoby that this was the way things happened.