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Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale…
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Their Eyes Were Watching God (original 1937; edition 2006)

by Zora Neale Hurston

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19,016343248 (3.99)1 / 969
Janie Crawford, a Southern Black woman in the 1930's, journeys from being a free-spirited girl to a woman of independence and substance.
Member:court4b
Title:Their Eyes Were Watching God
Authors:Zora Neale Hurston
Info:Harper Perennial Modern Classics (2006), Paperback, 256 pages
Collections:Your library
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Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston (1937)

  1. 133
    The Color Purple by Alice Walker (aleahmarie)
  2. 71
    Beloved by Toni Morrison (BookshelfMonstrosity, MistaFrade)
  3. 20
    Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid (BookshelfMonstrosity)
    BookshelfMonstrosity: Kincaid and Hurston have each set their moving, character-driven novels in atmospheric, sunny settings -- the Caribbean, and Florida respectively. Both novels explore haunting truths about identity, society, friendship and love as an African-American female protagonist gains new self-awareness and respect for her experiences.… (more)
  4. 21
    The Awakening by Kate Chopin (CGlanovsky)
    CGlanovsky: Strong female protagonist causes a stir in a male-dominated society by going after the things she wants.
1930s (20)
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» See also 969 mentions

English (337)  French (1)  Swedish (1)  Italian (1)  German (1)  Dutch (1)  All languages (342)
Showing 1-5 of 337 (next | show all)
My review of this book can be found on my YouTube Vlog at:

https://youtu.be/DP2x7m7JLjg

Enjoy!
  booklover3258 | Feb 20, 2024 |
I read this after seeing the first episode of Great American Read, and I am glad I did. Hurston wrote a masterpiece that grabbed me from the very beginning with language, characters and story. I can see myself going back to this book and devouring scenes over and over through the years.
I suggest listening to the audiobook read by Ruby Dee. This helped me get the vernacular in my mind while reading. The slow drawl of Ms. Dee is perfect for the novel. ( )
  wvlibrarydude | Jan 14, 2024 |
I loved this book. One of the best I've read in Southern lit. so far. I can't wait to read some of her other books.

I loved it again after re-reading it. ( )
1 vote DKnight0918 | Dec 23, 2023 |
My interest sagged toward the middle, and I almost decided this was a book to be tasted, not wholly read. But then Janie, Tea Cup, and the others in the ‘Glades failed to take the departure of the Seminoles seriously, nor their warning of an approaching hurricane. From then on, I couldn’t stop.
Janie irritated me in the first half of the book; life seemed to her a choice between lying under a flowering pear tree or being some man’s mule. Not that I failed to understand her preference for the one over the other, but was there no third option?
Her relationship with her third husband, Tea Cup, finally offered that third option: a chance to combine autonomy with responsibility, a love based on mutual respect. This is despite an unpromising start when he makes off with her emergency money and disappears for two days. He is disarmingly open about his shortcomings, but this gives Janie her voice.
Another initial hurdle was easier for me to jump over. That was the orthography with which Hurston approximates the speech of Florida Blacks. It forced me to slow my reading pace, but that was not a bad thing: It freed me to read with the ear as well as the eye, revealing the creative and eloquent beauty of the spoken word.
The narrator’s voice differs from the dialog she reports, yet equals it in freshness and beauty. When Janie’s second marriage deteriorates, the narrator writes: “The spirit of the marriage left the bedroom and took to living in the parlor.” Further, “For the first time she could see a man’s head naked of its skull.”
This book abounds with fresh imagery and unforgettable characters. It was well worth reading. ( )
1 vote HenrySt123 | Dec 17, 2023 |
This book is a real treasure---quite possibly the most beautiful piece of writing, short of the Psalms, that I've ever encountered. Parts of it literally made me feel warm inside---this author had a uniquely precious gift of language.

Here are some of my favorite passages:

pg. 20 "Put me down easy, Janie, Ah'm a cracked plate."

pg. 21 "There are years that ask questions and years that answer."

pg. 191 "Love is lak de sea. It's uh movin' thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore it meets, and it's different with every shore."

...and the last page, of course, which I will not include for the sake of avoiding spoilers.

I'm so so happy I read this! This will be a lifetime favorite, for sure. ( )
1 vote classyhomemaker | Dec 11, 2023 |
Showing 1-5 of 337 (next | show all)

» Add other authors

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Hurston, Zora Nealeprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Boyd, ValerieContributorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Danticat, EdwidgeForewordsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Dee, RubyReadersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Diaz, DavidCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Eley, HollyIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Gates, Henry Louis, Jr.Afterwordsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Pinkney, JerryIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Smith, ZadieIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Washington, Mary HelenForewordsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Williams, Sherley AnneAfterwordsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Williams, Shirley AnneForewordsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

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Epigraph
Dedication
To Henry Allen Moe
First words
Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board.
When I first read Their Eyes Were Watching God, in the early 1970's, I devoured it as one devours the most satisfying romantic fiction - the kind that stems from reality and that can, in the broadest sense, become real for oneself. (Introduction)
I first encountered Zora Neale Hurston in an Afro-American literature course I took in graduate school. (Afterword)
Quotations
This singing she heard that had nothing to do with her ears. the rose of the world was breathing out smell. It followed her through all her waking moments and caressed her in her sleep. It connected itself with other vaguely felt matters that had struck her outside observation and buried themselves in her flesh. Now they emerged and quested about her consciousness...

She was stretched on her back beneath the pear tree soaking in the alto chant of the visiting bees, the gold of the sun and the panting breath of the breeze when the inaudible voice of it all came to her.
Love is lak de sea. It's uh movin' thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore it meets, and it's different with every shore.
Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branches.
She saw a dust bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight. So this was a marriage!
There is a basin in the mind where words float around on thought and thought on sound and sight. Then there is a depth of thought untouched by words, and deeper still a gulf of formless feelings untouched by thought.
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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Janie Crawford, a Southern Black woman in the 1930's, journeys from being a free-spirited girl to a woman of independence and substance.

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This is the story a girl who searches for the love she believes is true. Throughout her struggles she gains strength, independence, and wisdom. She overcomes the obstacles in her path to chase her dreams and they take her places she never thought she'd end up.

We read this book for class last year. And I don't like Janie at all. I think she's flighty, annoying, childish, and selfish. I don't like Janie but I do like what she learns throughout her life. I appreciate that she is determined and willing to fight for what she wants and believes.
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