My Review of Their Eyes Were Watching God

As we read Their Eyes Were Watching God, I quite enjoyed the book as a coming-of-age story. At first, I was not a huge fan of the dialogue in the book, as it made it harder to read, but by the end of the first few chapters, I was able to read it much more easily and found that it really added to the setting of the story. The narrative was gorgeously written and there was beautiful imagery in almost every section of narrative. The characters were well-developed in general, but I got very annoyed with some of them--especially the men--and at times felt like the story got a little repetitive. There were also a few times in the book when Hurston wrote conversations or monologues that had almost no context and were very difficult to follow, or did not add to the plotline at all. I feel as though this story could be taken in many different perspectives--such as an innocent love story, or a judgment of the black people and reinforcement of many negative stereotypes--and judged very differently on the way that it is viewed. Personally, I see this story as one of growth, love, and loss; essentially, a coming-of-age story. It was easy to see changes in Janie's character from the innocent girl, to the abused woman, a lady in love, and finally a person who had lost her one and only love. However, this character as well could get annoying at times, in fact, there were a few times in the book when I wanted to slap Janie in the face. Overall, though, I liked the book and loved many of the themes and gorgeous examples of imagery in the pages of Their Eyes. I would recommend this book to other teen readers, but it would not be my highest recommendation.

My Rating: Three and 3/4 Stars

Me, the Reviewer (riding Okay, the Shetland)

Imagery in Their Eyes Were Watching God

This novel by Zora Neale Hurston is also filled with imagery. Imagery is words or phrases that form a picture in the reader's mind. Many pictures are certainly formed in the reader's mind during this book as Hurston's descriptive language enhances the storyline immensely. This list includes a quotation of imagery in Their Eyes, the page number it was found on, and a short explanation of the imagery, all classified by chapter.

Chapter 1

1.  “The great rope of black hair swinging to her waist and unraveling in the wind like a plume,” Description of Janie’s hair, which is a big symbol in the novel. Page 2

2.    “Time makes everything old so the kissing, young darkness became a montropolous old thing while Janie talked.” Time loomed on as Janie told her story to Phoeby. Page 7

3.    “These sitters had been tongueless, earless, eyeless conveniences all day long. Mules and other brutes had occupied their skins. But now, the sun and the bossman were gone, so the skins felt powerful and human.” The gossipers sitting on their porches were treated as no better than pack animals when they were working during the day, but in the evening, they could finally act like humans again. Page 1

Chapter 2

1.  “She had glossy leaves and bursting buds and she wanted to struggle with life but it seemed to elude her.” This compares Janie to the blooming pear tree and how it is blooming as she is growing up and becoming a woman. Page 11

2.  “Mind- pictures brought feelings, and feelings dragged out dramas from the hollows of her heart.” Nanny is trying to raise Janie while remembering the past things from her life, and trying to do better this time. Page 16

3.  “’Have some sympathy fuh me. Put me down easy, Janie, Ah’m a cracked plate.’” Nanny calls herself a “cracked plate,” meaning that she has been through a lot of hardships in her life and they have affected her deeply. Page 20

Chapter 3

1.     “The new moon had been up and down three times before she got worried in mind.” It had been a long time before Janie started to worry that she wasn’t falling in love with Logan as she hoped she would with time. Page 22

2.    “She knew the world was a stallion rolling in the blue pasture of ether.” Life is fast changing and constantly moving. Page 25

3.    “He ain’t kinnin’ yo’ mouf when he carry on over yuh lak dat. He’s kissin’ yo’ foot and ‘tain’t in uh man tuh kiss foot long.” Nanny is saying that when Logan is doting on Janie by bringing in wood, he is sucking up to her, not showing his true love. Page 23

4.    “She knew that God tore up the old world every night and built a new one by morning.” Every day is a new start.  Page 25

Chapter 4

1.  “They sat on the boarding house porch and saw the sun plunge into the same crack in the earth from which the night emerged.” This is symbolizing the start of a new day, and Janie has a new start for happiness. Page 33

2.  “Ah aims tuh run two plows, and dis man Ah’m talkin’ ‘bout is got uh mule all gentled up so even uh woman kin handle ‘im.” When Logan states his intention to have Janie help plow with a mule, it refers back to the image of the black woman as the mule of society. Page 27

Chapter 5

1.  “And furthermo’ everything is got tuh have uh center and uh heart tuh it, and uh town ain’t no different from nowhere else. It would be natural fuh de store tuh be meetin’ place fuh de town.” Building a store in Eatonsville symbolizes that the town is really becoming a community with a center. Page 40

Chapter 6

1.     “The fact that the thought pictures were always crayon enlargements of life made it even nicer to listen.” Listening to stories and talking makes life seem a lot better than it is to Janie; it idealizes things. Page 51

1.  “Every morning the world flung itself over and exposed the town to the sun.” This quotation is talking about the emergence of a new day in Eatonsville. Page 51

Chapter 7

1.  “She was a rut in the road. Plenty of life benieath the surface but it was kept beaten down by the wheels.” Janie eventually was so worn down by Joe’s abuse, that she had no reaction to anything and showed no emotion. Page 76

2.  “For the first time she could see a man’s head naked of its skull. Saw the cunning thoughts race in and out through the caves and promontories of his mind log before they darted out of the tunnel of his mouth.” Soon,  Janie began to be able to predict what Jody was going to do, say, and the meaning and emotions behind it long before he actually said or did the thing. Page 77

Chapter 8

1.  “Death, that strange being with the huge square toes who lived way in the West. The great one who lived in the straight house like a platform without sides to it, and without a roof. What need has Death for a cover, and what winds can blow against him? He stands in his high house that overlooks the world. Stands watchful and motionless all day with his sword drawn back, waiting for the messenger to bid him come. Been standing there before there was a where or a when or a then.” This is the image that Janie has in her head of Death, which she knows will soon claim Jody. Page 84

2.  “Rumor, that wingless bird, had shadowed over the town.” Rumors had spread across town that Jody was dying. Page 84

3.  “The icy sword of the square-toes one had cut off his breath and left his hands in a pose of agonizing protest.” Joe Starks has died, in the midst of protesting against Janie’s accusations. Page 87

Chapter 9

1.   “She sent her face to Joe’s funeral, and herself went rollicking with the springtime across the world.” Though Janie presented a mournful face to Joe’s funeral, she is really ecstatic. Page 88

2.  “Like all the other tumbling mud-balls, Janie had tried to show her shine.” Just like everyone, Janie had tried to dig through the layer of problems that tried to smother her shine. Page 90

Chapter 10

1.  “’B’lieve Ah done cut uh hawg, so Ah guess Ah better ketch air.’” Tea Cake is saying that it looks like he has upset Janie, so he had better be gone. Page 97

2.  “So its [the moon’s] amber fluid was drenching the earth, and quenching the thirst of the day.” Janie watched as the light of the moon seemed to spill over the ground and cool it from the heat of the sun. Page 99

Chapter 11

1.  “’Look lak we done run our conversation from grass roots tuh pine trees.’” Tea Cake is saying that he and Janie have talked so long and about so many things that their conversation  is spent and it is time for him to go. Page 106

2.  “He seemed to be crushing scent out of the world with his footsteps. Crushing aromatic herbs with every step he took. Spices hung around him. He was a glance from God.” Janie is describing Tea Cake as though he is a gift from God and even the air around him smells like it is full of herbs. Page 106

Chapter 12

1.  “’Ah jus lak uh chicken. Chicken drink water, but he don’t pee-pee.’” Pheoby is saying that she can listen to secrets, but she will keep them inside and not tell anybody else. Page 114

Chapter 13

1.  “Janie dozed off to sleep but she woke up in time to see the sun sending up spies ahead of him to mark out the road through the dark. He peeped up over the door sill of the world and made a little foolishness with red. But pretty soon, he laid all that aside and went about his business dressed in white.” This is describing the sunrise, with the first little rays of light, then red light, and finally the white light of the sun that lasts until sunset. Page 120

2.  “So her soul crawled out from its hiding place.” After being hidden deep inside her for many years while she was married to Jody and could not show much emotion, Janie’s soul is finally coming back up to the surface. Page 128

Chapter 14

1.  “It’s hard trying to follow your shoe instead of your shoe following you.” It is a hard life when you are walking around to find money and work instead of the work and success coming to find you. Page 131

2.  “People ugly from ignorance and broken from being poor.” The people who were coming to the much for work were certainly not glamorous and confident, but dirty and desperate. Page 131

Chapter 15

1.  “A little seed of fear was growing into a tree.” Janie’s fear that Tea Cake would leave her for Nunkie was growing. Page 136

2.  “’You’se something to make a man forgit tuh git old and forgit tuh die.’” Tea Cake is saying that Janie is so beautiful, he could focus on her and completely forget to grow old or die.  Page 138

Chapter 16

1.  “Janie’s coffee-and-cream complexion and her luxurious hair made Mrs. Turner forgive her for wearing overalls…” Janie’s complexion and hair were different from that of other black people and drew Mrs. Turner to her because they were similar to the features of white people. Page 140

2.  “Like the pecking order in a chicken yard. Insensate cruelty to those you can whip, and groveling submission to those you can’t.” Mrs. Turner sees the relationship between people of different skin colors like that of a chicken yard, with the darkest skinned people at the bottom. Page 144-145

Chapter 17

1.  “’She figgers we’se jus’ uh bunch uh dumb n**gers so she think she’ll grow horns. But dat’s uh lie. She’ll die butt-headed.’”  Mrs. Turner thinks that she will have power in the muck because she is better than everyone else, but Tea Cake says that she will not have any power over the people of the muck. Page 149

2.  “It got so the floor was knee-deep with something no matter where you put your foot down.” Mrs. Turner’s diner was so destroyed by the end of the fight that broke out that the entire floor was covered in glass, tables, chairs, and many other things that one could not step without stepping in layers of debris. Page 182

Chapter 18

1.  “It woke up old Okechobee and the monster began to roll in his bed. Began to roll and complain like a peevish world on a grumble.” The storm made lake Okechobee begin to churn and rush, as if it was waking up from a slumber. Page 158

2.  “They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God.” In the midst of the raging hurricane, Janie, Tea Cake, and Motor Boat realized that their lives were truly in the hands of God and only He could save them. Page 160

3.  “Night was striding across nothingness with the whole round world in his hands.” The darkness of night had taken hold of the world, and there was no light to see by. Page 158

Chapter 19

1.  “And then again Him-with-the-square toes had gone back to his house…His pale white horse had galloped over waters, and thundered over land.” Death had swept over the land with the coming of the hurricane, but now it was over, and its consequences had to be dealt with. Page 159

2.  “But something Sop had told him made his tongue lie cold and heavy like a dead lizard between his jaws.” Tea Cake wanted to talk to Janie about his awful sickness, but something that his friend had told him made him stay quiet and filled him with dread. Page 179

Chapter 20

1.  “The day of the gun, and the bloody body, and the courthouse came and commenced to sing a sobbing sigh out of every corner of the room; out of each and every chair and thing.” Janie’s horrible experience of the day when Tea Cake died all came together and made the very room seem to sigh with memories. Page 192

2.  “She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder. So much of life in its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see.” Janie had lived a full life, so she sat back to reflect on the things she had seen in her life, rather than constantly moving and chasing her dreams. Page 193

My favorite piece of imagery from Their Eyes is found on page 25 and reads, "She knew that God tore up the old world every night and built a new one by morning.”  I love this imagery because it describes how each day is a blank canvas. Each sunrise brings a new day to start fresh and new without the burdens of the last day to drag you down. It also recognizes that God is the one who builds the world and causes everything to happen. These two themes truly resonate with me.

Symbols in Their Eyes Were Watching God

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston has many, many symbols. This is a list of the most prominent symbols and some less prominent ones.

1. Roots of Trees
1. Symbolizes: African people without any roots

2. Trees (especially the Pear Tree)
1. Symbolizes: Janie's womanhood and coming of age

3. Mule - Black Women
1. Symbolizes: Black women getting the worst treatment in society
2. Example: Logan tired of treating Janie as a princess and then wants her to work, so he buys her a mule for heavy labor

4. Gate and Road
1. Related to the metaphor in the beginning of the book
2. Gate is the shore and the road represents the waves as Janie tries to find her dreams in the "sea"

5. The New Horizon
1. Janie is constantly looking over the gatepost, down the road, to a new horizon (a dream or new start)

6. The Eatonville General Store
1. Represents the center of the first all-black town

7. The illumination of the lamppost
1. Symbolizes: The start of a new all-black town
2. Also shows that Joe Starks is all-powerful and likes to make others bow down to him, including Janie

8. Joe and Janie's two-story house
1. Represents his similarity to a plantation owner, while the townspeople would be like slaves living in shack-style homes

9. Tobacco spittoon
1. Represents Joe's wealth and power

10. Head rag
1. Symbolizes: Joe's control over Janie

11. Long braid/hair
1. Symbolizes: Janie's freedom

12. Blue
1. Tea Cake and Janie's willingness to make compromises in their relationship
2. Symbol of love

13. Fish and Frying fish
1. Symbolizes: Sharing relationship between Janie and Tea Cake

14. Checkers
1. Symbolizes: Janie's equality in Tea Cake's mind

15. Booker T and Mrs. Turner
1. Booker T symbolizes getting rid of racism
2. Mrs. Turner symbolizes racism, so does not like Booker T 

16. Dirt/Soil of the Muck
1. The rich soil represents the working class, growth, and the ability to be oneself

17. Hurricane
1. Symbolizes: God's almighty power

18. Rabid Dog
1. Symbolizes: That when something good happens, life then changes; things can't stay the same

19. Guitar
1. Symbolizes: The playful side of people that is often shown in the Muck

20. Overalls
1. Symbolizes: The working side of people

21. Packet of Seeds
1. Symbolizes: New life and simultaneously remembering love

The Zora Neale Conflict

The book Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is now considered a classic story by most, but when it was written, the book was heavily criticized by other black writers of the Harlem Renaissance. These writers criticized her on the basis of her portrayal of African-American men and women, saying that it reinforced the stereotype that they had been labeled with by the whites and that the book portrayed African-American life as too idyllic. However, most white authors praised her story and writing style.

One of the most famous critics of Hurston and her book was Richard Wright. About Their Eyes Were Watching God, Wright says, "Miss Hurston voluntarily continues in her novel the tradition that was forced upon the Negro." He also spoke about how Hurston wrote about negro life in a way that was meant to appeal to the white audience, who could read the story with a "piteous smile on the lips of the 'superior' race." Another critic was found in black author Alain Locke. He wrote a criticism almost as negative about the book as Wrights. Though Locke highly praises Hurston's writing ability, he too says that Their Eyes is guilty of, "...oversimplification!"

In my opinion, Their Eyes Were Watching God does not deserve this harsh criticism. Even though I am not even halfway through the book, Zora Neale Hurston has developed her characters very well already and I almost feel like I know Janie. The portrayal of her life is very realistic and added to by the fact that it is written with the southern dialect. For the most part, I also do not agree with the claims that her life is portrayed too idyllically. Janie's story is told with the harsh realities of her husbands' abuse--physical and verbal--and the struggle for the black people of Eatonville to build their own town.  However, I do agree that the book can be oversimplified at some points and very confusing at others. Overall, I think that this story deserves the praise that it is recieving now, not the harsh criticisms that it gained while Hurston was still living.

Sources:
Alain Locke Review : Opportunity, 1 June 1938.
Richard Wright Review : New Masses, 5 October 1937: 22-23

About the Author: Their Eyes Were Watching God

Zora Neale Hurston

1. Zora Neale Hurston was born in Notasulga, Alabama in 1891.
2. Hurston grew up in Eatonville, Florida -- the first incorporated all-black town in the US -- and returned there after college to do a field study in anthropology that influenced her writings.
3. She attended Howard University, Barnard College, and Columbia University where she was taught by anthropologist Franz Boas.
4. She was interested in and collected folklor of Jamaica, Haiti, Bermda, and Honduras. Some of her folklore and folk custom collections are Tell My Horse and Mules and Men.
5. Many of her writings addressed issues such as race and gender and related them to searching for freedom.
6. Their Eyes Were Watching God, published in 1937, is Zora Neale Hurston's best-known novel.
7. She was a prolific writer and some of her other fiction and nonfiction works include Jonah's Gourd Vine, Seraph on the Suwanee, Dust Tracks on a Road, and some short stories, plays, and journal articles.
8. Though the subjects of her writing were not political, Hurston's work created conflict in the black community because of her "...character's use of dialect, her manner of portraying black culture, and her conservatism..."
9. Hurston is noted for her, "...metaphorical language, story-telling abilities, and interest in and celebraiton of Southern black culture in the United States."
10. Zora Neale Hurston died of several health problems in 1960 impoverished and without recognition from the literary community.
11. However, in the 1970s, her works were rediscovered and republished by a new generation of black writers and she went on to inspire great authors including Ralph Ellison, Alice Walker, and Toni Morrison.

Sources:

Zora Neale Hurston Picture: http://www.literaryhistory.com/20thC/Hurston.htm

Their Eyes Were Watching God Picture: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37415.Their_Eyes_Were_Watching_God

Information: "Zora Neale Hurston." Microsoft® Student 2009 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2008.

Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Their Eyes Were Watching the Harlem Renaissance

1. The Harlem Renaissance was and African American cultural movement that was centered around Harlem in New York City.
2. This event took place in the 1920's and early 1930's
3. It marked the first time that mainstream publishers and critics took African American literature and arts seriously and even put it in the public eye.
4. The Harlem Renaissance was primarily a literary movement, but also related to developments in African-American music, theater, art, and politics.
5. In the early 1920s, three works--Harlem Shadows, a volume of poetry by McKay; Cane, a novel in poetry and prose by Jean Toomer; and There is Confusion, a novel by writer and editor Jessie Fauset--laid the groundwork for the beginning of the Harlem Renaissance.
6. There were three events that really launched the Harlem Renaissance: Charles S. Johnson's dinner to recognize young, black writers and introduce them to the white literary establishment of New York; the publication of a book by Carl Van Vechten that covered the elite and baser side of Harlem; and the production by a group of young black writers their own literary magazine, Fire!!.
7. Some common themes in the Harlem Renaissance were an interest in the roots of the 20th-century African American experience in Africa and the American South, a strong sense of racial pride, a desire for social and political equality, and diversity of expression.
8. The literature and music of this Renaissance appealed to the African American middle class, the white people seeking out Harliem nightlife, and the book-buying white public.
9. The Harlem Renaissance's decline was caused by many factors, including the Great Depression, the switching of organizations' (such as the NAACP and Urban League) from the Renaissance to economic and social issues, the fact that many key black writers and literary promoters left New York City, and finally a riot in Harlem in 1935.
10. The writers and literature of the Harlem Renaissance inspired many great writers even after it ended, as well as providing upcoming African American authors and artists with publishers and public who were more open to their works.

Important People of the Harlem Renaissance


Claude McKay

• Claude McKay was a Jamaican-born American author who lived from 1890 to 1948.
• He wrote novels and poems depicting black life.
• McKay was one of the first black authors to attract a large white audience.
• His poetry and prose used traditional forms to express unfamiliar ideas and themes.
• McKay's novels include Home to Harlem, Banjo, and Banana Bottom. Some of his other works are an autobiography called A Long Way from Home and a sociological study titled Harlem: Negro Metropolis.

Josephine Baker

• Josephine Baker was a singer and dancer in the Harlem Renaissance.
• In the mid-1920's, she moved to Paris, France.
• While in France, she helped introduce European audiences to African American dances and music.
• Baker was married and divorced three times and never depended on a man for financial support.
• After becoming a well-known celebrity in France, she returned to America to fight segregation in the states.
• Josephine Baker singing "Paris, Paris, Paris" : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyuMNkgyyvA&feature=player_embedded

Countee Cullen

• Countee Cullen was an American poet, novelist, playwright, and educator.
• Not many details are known about his early life, other than that he was raised mostly by Elizabeth Porter (possibly his grandmother) and the by the Reverend Frederick Cullen.
• His poems were very traditional and influenced by John Keats, sonnets, ballads, and other traditional forms.
• Cullen attended De Witt Clinton High School and earned a bachelor's degree from New York University.
• Cullen's poems and compilations include Color, The Caroling Dusk: An Anthology of Verse by Negro Poets, The Black Christ and Other Poems, and On These I Stand: An Anthology of the Best Poems of Countee Cullen. His one novel is titled One Way to Heaven, though he wrote two children's books: The Lost Zoo and My Lives and How I Lost Them. Countee collaborated with Arna Bontemps in his only play, St. Louis Woman.

Sources

Claude McKay Picture: http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/m_r/mckay/mckay.htm

Josephine Baker Information and Picture: http://musiclinernotes.wordpress.com/2010/06/03/josephine-baker/

Countee Cullen Picture: http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/cullen/life.htm

All Other Information: Wintz, Cary DeCordova. "Harlem Renaissance." Microsoft® Student 2009 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2008.

Out of the Wild

We have just finished up Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer! Instead of a test, our class did creative projects and I chose to do a travel poster on Fairbanks, Alaska. Rather than just a regular poster with images and information, I drew a postcard and wrote a note to the Purples English class. The note read:

Dear Purples,
GREETINGS FROM FAIRBANKS, ALASKA! I hope you all are enjoying the beginnings of spring weather in Maryland, but here it is still about 25 degrees and there is still snow on the ground! So far, I have taken a tour of the museum at the University and explored some of the old gold mining sites. My best adventure since arriving by plane three days ago, though, was the wildlife viewing tour near the city. On the tour, I saw caribou, moose, a grizzle bear, bald eagles, and a pack of wolves! As for plants, I saw mostly spruce forests with some aspen, birch, and willow mixed in. Every way you turn here, there is absolutely stunning scenery!
See you all when I get back,
Margaret