Reviews for Their eyes were watching God

The average rating for Their eyes were watching God based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-01-15 00:00:00 Feroz Vilsing Janie saw her life like a giant tree in leaf with the things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branches. I've spent many years wanting to read this book, but also not wanting to read it because the title made me think it was going to be heavy on religion, which is something I generally avoid in books. It's not, though. It's a wonderful, lyrical tale of a woman's life and search for independence. Now I'm fascinated by interpretations of the title because religion and God don't feature much in the story at all. I’ve been reading about the idea that the title implies how Janie must look to God - not white people, not husbands, not well-meaning family members - to determine her future. While this theory doesn't give her much agency, it does fit with her search for a life outside of others' expectations (except God's). It's set in Florida in the early 20th Century, at the height of Jim Crow. The novel begins with Janie Crawford sharing her life story with her friend Pheoby. We are taken back to her youth and sexual awakening-- an event that triggers her grandmother's insistence that she marry for protection. Nanny, herself, is fascinating. You feel both Janie's frustration toward her controlling grandmother, and Nanny's desire that Janie will have a better life and be taken care of. "She was borned in slavery time when folks, dat is black folks, didn’t sit down anytime dey felt lak it. So sittin’ on porches lak de white madam look lak uh might fine thing tuh her. Dat’s whut she wanted for me – don’t keer whut it cost. Git up on uh high chair and sit dere. She didn’t have time tuh think whut tuh do after you got up on de stool uh do nothin’." As you can see from above, the novel's dialogue makes strong use of dialect and colloquialisms. Through three marriages and many instances of physical abuse, Janie remains fierce and unapologetic. It was a terrible time in America for a black woman to find freedom and independence, but Janie pursues it nevertheless. It's now eighty years after the book's first publication and Janie's indistinguishable spirit is as captivating as it surely always was. In the end, the book is about defying expectations and living for oneself. Everyone in Janie's life wants and expects something from her. Her Nanny wants her to marry for protection, white men want to keep her down, darker-skinned African-Americans feel she should emphasize her lighter skin, each of her husbands wants her to behave and dress in a way that suits them. But Janie remains wholly herself throughout. I love her. Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Youtube

Review # 2 was written on 2016-09-10 00:00:00 Winston Hahne I read this masterpiece for the first time in high school. The love story of Janie and Tea Cake is one of stupendous beauty. Zora Neal Hurston's text is a treasure: "So she went on thinking in soft, easy phrases while all around the house, the night time put on flesh and blackness." Early in life, Janie is taken care of by her grandmother Nanny, "Every tear you drop squeezes a cup uh blood outa mah heart" As she grew, "Janie waited for a bloom time, a green time and an orange time." She is married off to an old, rich man, but grows restless, "There are years that ask questions and years that answer." Ultimately , she gets an answer takes off with the ambitious Jody Starks. But, her hopes are shattered as Jody's ambitions in Eatonville, FL (coincidentally Hurston's hometown) where she feels, "Four walls squeezing her breath out." as Jody ignores her and builds his empire in the town. He passes away and Janie meets her true love Tea Cake and she seems to have found her inner peace: "So she sat on the porch and watched the moon rise. Soon its amber fluid was drenching the earth, and quenching the thirst of the day." Tea Cake gives her some lessons of wisdom: "See dat? You'se got de world in uh jug and make out you don't know it. But Ah'm glad tuh be the one tuh tell yuh." She sheds her reticences and fears in her love for him: "He drifted off to sleep and Janie looked down on him and felt a soul-crushing love. So her soul crawled out from its hiding place." She never takes on any religion for: "All gods who receive homage are cruel. All gods dispense suffering without reason. Otherwise, they would not be worshipped." Her love is her temple as she dreamed of under the pear trees as a young girl with Nanny. Disaster eventually strikes, as it always does, gods dispensing their unreasoning suffering. "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." This novel was a forgotten masterpiece published in 1935 but forgotten until Alice Walker rediscovered her - and her gravesite - in 1977. Since, it has been appreciated as the quiet, beautiful monument to a woman's strength and endurance. A must read in these times of women-hating rhetoric in Drumpf's amerikkka. The attacks on Planned Parenthood and the bullshit "reverse discrimination" are just two of the many demonstrations of why this book is important as both a feminist and anti-racist classic. Their Eyes Were Watching God is one of the most beautifully evoked portraits of a woman of color that I have ever read.