Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston August 6, 2020
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Tomorrow dear readers, we gather for Virtual Book Club and I’m SO looking forward to seeing you tomorrow as we discuss The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray! Registration is open here, and I think we’re using a new meeting platform. Sign up now to get the link (which we will send out by noon Friday, but we’ll check back for any last minute registrants too). Oh, and also, in case you missed our sassy Facebook banter, we both finished the book earlier this week!
One month ago today, we shared about ReadaBook!withKara and invited you all to join us in this new book club. An amazing bookish friend shared it with me, I immediately signed up, purchased Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, and sent Ashley the link. To quote Kara’s recap: “because stories help you not be an asshole and it’s important to know what you’re talking about.” Neither of us were able to watch the Read a Book! With Kara discussion live, but I did catch it this week, so now I’m trying to figure out how to squeeze in next month’s title. If you want more information on the August 30 event, or to check out the video of the August 1 event, click here (more on the video below).
Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God feels like a book that I should have read during school but didn’t, and not because it wasn’t assigned, because either I read it or I have guilt about it (yes, I’m a recovering perfectionist and people pleaser). This title is about Janie, her life, her struggle, and, as you know I adore, includes the story of her mother, at least in part. It’s so much more than that though, originally published in 1937, this is the story of a Black woman who chooses for herself (much like Vivian, who we discussed last week). Janie is raised by her grandmother, who was born into slavery, as was her mother, but barely. That, along with the occasional presence of cars, provides our semblance of time in history.
Hurston writes the narrative pieces of the story in gorgeous, descriptive prose and the dialogue in a strong dialect, which took me some time to settle into as a reader, but added so much to the experience of the book. The contrast was stark and a testament to her skill as a writer, and the way the dialects vary slightly from character to character is inspired. When I first finished the book, I wasn’t sure what the message was, what I was supposed to learn from this tale of Janie’s life. It took me a few days of reflection (I blame vacation brain), but I figured it out, or at least part of it. Hurston tells the story of a woman who takes life into her own hands, makes of it what she can, and pivots when she gets the opportunity and also has the inclination. She pursues her dream, and doesn’t let what anyone else says or thinks get in her way. Janie is her own person, living her best life, and seeking out love. This doesn’t feel revolutionary at first, and then you consider Janie is a Black woman, living near the turn of the twentieth century in Florida. She is a character in a novel written by a Black woman in 1937. This is absolutely revolutionary! This is Black feminist writing, on top of being a beautifully written, well-developed story, and I am so thankful for the experience of reading it and of listening to Kara’s book club discuss it.
Kara and her guests, Janet Mock and Samantha Irby, made me feel like I was a fly on the wall of a fabulous cocktail hour. Yes, they discussed Their Eyes Were Watching God with all the sassy, direct, and sometimes crass, wit I didn’t know I wanted in a conversation about this classic novel. They dig into the writing, the vernacular, the story, Janie’s love life, and her self-care tactics. They discussed movie adaptations, and even did some fan casting (yes to Denzel, always). Live viewers asked these women their opinions about the men in Janie’s life and I was crying because I was laughing so hard (and texting Ashley snippets of their conversation because she still has no internets). These women also shared their experiences of reading this title as a teenager in school and now as adults. They shared their personal, vulnerable reflections on the work, and it was such a gift to listen in on their conversation. I do not suggest it for listening with any children below high school age, and even then, parts may be too crass for some listeners, but I found it a delight.
I give Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston a solid four stars. The ending wasn’t wrapped in a bow, but it felt right for Janie, and for the book. I am not likely to reread this title, but I am interested in her backlist and have Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick: Stories from the Harlem Renaissance on my nightstand (yes, in paper form) as we speak. I give ReadaBook!withKara a solid five stars and hope I can join in (or listen later) the next conversation she has, which will be on August 30 to discuss What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky: Stories by Lesley Nneka Arimah.
~Nikki
Yes, dear readers, you read that right, Ashley is still without interwebz. I’m at a friend’s house stealing some WiFi. I also just finished reading Their Eyes Were Watching God this very morning. It was both beautiful and harrowing, which is my usual response to tales of humanity. Like Nikki, it was a little difficult to get my mind around the dialect, as Hurston changed the cadence and depth of the accents depending upon the character. This is not a surprise as Hurston was an educated and trained anthropologist.
Image from Wikipedia
Zora Neale Hurston was born on January 7, 1891 in Notasulga, Alabama, but moved with her family to Eatonville, Florida in 1894. Eatonville was the setting for many of her works, including Their Eyes Were Watching God. She resumed formal education in 1917 after a brief job as a maid for the lead singer of the Gilbert and Sullivan theatrical company at Morgan College, the high school division of Morgan State University, a historically black college in Baltimore, Maryland. From there, she attended Howard University in Washington, D.C. for her associates degree, followed by Barnard College of Columbia University where she was the sole black student in 1925 earning her bachelor’s degree in anthropology in 1928 at the age of 37. She conducted copious amounts of research on African American folklore and culture throughout the next three decades. She published academic and fictional works throughout this time, and traveled extensively through the American South, Caribbean Islands, and South America. She died on January 28, 1960, in Fort Pierce, Florida, where her grave was unmarked until author Alice Walker placed a headstone in 1973 which reads: ZORA NEALE HURSTON / A GENIUS OF THE SOUTH / NOVELIST FOLKLORIST / ANTHROPOLOGIST / 1901–1960.
Several of Hurston’s life experiences are reflected in Their Eyes Were Watching God, specifically Janie’s three marriages, her research in north Florida lumber camps that could be paralleled with the Everglades farm hand quarters, and of course the experience of Eatonville’s growth. It seems that much of Janie’s character can be found in the history of Hurston herself, notably their independent search for work and love that is worthwhile. They each created their own timeline, living life as they each decided they needed to live — Hurston in academia as an older, non-traditional-aged student and researcher, and Janie through choosing the three men she married and the lives that she experienced with each of them.
Many of my highlights throughout the novel were as regards women’s experiences in marriage or courting, like how “the way Joe spoke out without giving her a chance to say anything one way or another that took the bloom off of things.” After reading and journaling along with Me and White Supremacy, I also highlighted a lot of the black woman’s experience with colorism – where all races gravitate towards and raise up the women and men of color who have whiter characteristics. Janie herself experiences this often with her ‘coffee and cream’ skintone and straight, shiny hair. Men desire her for these looks and women are jealous of her for these same reasons. Janie doesn’t seem to allow these feelings of others to change her character, she just wants to be able to love whomever she loves and enjoy life with fulfilling work during the day and laughter with the company of others in the evening.
Because of my lack of interwebz, I have not had the opportunity to watch the recording of ReadaBook!withKara, but it’s on my radar for as soon as AT&T gets on with giving me that gig speed internet. I am additionally excited to add Hurston’s posthumously published works to my TBR, especially 2018’s Barracoon. Four stars from me for Their Eyes Were Watching God.
What have you been reading to keep up with social discourse that also changes the way you see your own life’s timeline and personal relationships?
~Ashley
