Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937)

I had been dragging my feet on reading this book, thinking that Their Eyes Were Watching God fell into that category of books that are part of a well rounded education (like Lord of the Flies), but are not that enjoyable. After finishing Zadie Smith's On Beauty, a thought provoking book about race and includes a character named Zora, I thought it was time to slog through this. What a pleasant surprise!

The main character is a fair-skinned black woman named Janie who is married off to an old man by her grandmother at a young age in the hope of giving her a 'decent' life and preventing the mistake her mother made of having an out of wedlock child. To the old man, Janie is a beautiful acquisition, but Janie feels no affection for him and runs off with a charismatic young man who becomes the first mayor of an all black community. Again though, Janie is still a trophy wife and is more of a possession than a person. Finally all changes when after her 2nd husband dies, Janie meets Tea Cake, a poor black laborer, and Janie finally finds love.

The story is beautifully written in a carefully crafted lyrical prose. The language is very colloquial and is filled with all of the dialect and grammar of Southern blacks. This could be an obstacle for people reading this book in print. I listened to the audio version, narrated by Ruby Dee. Every once in awhile a book is perfectly narrated in audio, and this is one of those instances. The emotion and feeling in this audio edition is amazing and unforgettable. Definitely listen to this one. ( )

When I started this book, I had just discovered that Zora Neale Hurston was buried not far from where I live. When I finished reading it, I felt cheated that the woman had been so close to me in time and space and I never got the chance to meet her. What a brain and soul. As a newly published author, I recently went back and read it again to see if I could ferret out what it was about the book that grabbed me so hard. Sure, the Florida story line was part of it, but there was more. That's when I noted that although her dialogue was in intense dialect, her narration was written in the Queen's English. Art and craft combined. This book is less about being "Colored" than it is about being a woman. And I'm still angry that I never got to meet her. ( )

I bought this novel recently and then discovered that the classic club had chosen it as their sync read, well I was delighted to have an excuse to read it so soon. It is a deeply touching novel, lyrical and evocative and I suspect will prove to be very memorable.
“Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the same horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men. Now, women forget all those things they don't want to remember, and remember everything they don't want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly.”
Written in the late 1930’s in those still very difficult years for African American people between slavery and the civil rights movement, Their Eyes were watching God is a novel about a young woman’s search for the freedom to be herself. Janie Crawford has been raised by her grandmother, a woman born into slavery, whose idea of freedom and security compels her to arrange a marriage between sixteen year old Janie and a middle aged man with sixty acres. Janie is a light skinned black woman, with long straight hair to her waist – her colour and appearance something for which Janie is judged for, and drooled over by both men and women throughout the novel. Janie is destined to be dictated to, decisions taken out of her hands first by her grandmother and then by the men in her life. It is Janie’s search for her own voice and independence that is at the heart of this wonderful novel. Janie finds her first marriage to be a disappointment – falling short of the ideas of love she had hoped for.
“Oh to be a pear tree – any tree in bloom! With kissing bees singing of the beginning of the world!”
When Joe Starks come walking down the road –with a story of a new town called Eatonville in Florida, a town just for black people, he turns Janie’s head and she goes off with him to start a new life.
he did not represent sun-up and pollen and blooming trees, but he spoke for far horizon. He spoke for change and chance."
Only Janie doesn’t find the freedom she thinks she will, tied to a man who likes the sound of his own voice and telling people what to do, Janie finds herself suffocated, working in the store and being criticised for what she does. It is only after this second marriage that Janie finally finds her true love, a man who seems far from perfect, going by the name of Tea-cake, he is twelve years younger than Janie, has no money and gambles, all he has to offer her is a packet of seeds. However when it comes to Tea-Cake Janie makes her own decision, ignoring the disapproval of the people of Eatonville Janie decides to take a chance on what she has always been looking for.
As the novel opens Janie – now around forty years old, returns to Eatonville after an absence of nearly two years. The last the town saw of Janie she had been leaving with Tea-cake – now she has returned alone. Did Tea-cake take all her money and run off with a younger woman? That is what the local gossips think, upon her return Janie tells her story to her friend Pheoby Watson, the story of her great love for Tea-Cake and how she has come to return on her own.
With its rich poetic language and vibrant authentic speech of depression era African-American people, “Their Eyes Were Watching God’ is a deeply poignant novel about a woman’s struggle to find herself. ( )

A nice story about a woman named Janie as she goes through life, love and marriage. The dialogue in this story really helps the reader connect to the characters along with helping the reader her the words s they would be said. ( )

I think that "Their Eyes Were Watching God' was a very interesting and entertaining book. The writing was excellent, and the use of dialect throughout the entire book gave personality and life to the characters, even if it was a little hard to understand certain words at times. Watching Janie grow and change from the beginning to the end was wonderful. Certain passages were incredibly beautiful, and caused me to go back and reread them. My favorite passage was probably on the first page, when it says "Now, women forget all those things they don't want to remember, and remember everything they don't want to forget. Then they act and do things accordingly." I would definitely recommend reading this book. ( )