SparkNotes: Their Eyes Were Watching God
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Product Description
Their Eyes Were Watching God, an American classic, is a luminous and haunting novel about Janie Crawford, a Southern black woman in the 1930s whose journey from a free-spirited girl to a woman of independence and substance has inspired writers and readers for close to seventy years.
This poetic, graceful like tale, rooted in black folk traditions and steeped in mythic realism, celebrates, boldly and brilliantly, African-American culture and heritage. And in a powerful, mesmerizing narrative, it pays silent tribute to a black woman, who, though forceful by the times, still demanded to be heard.
Originally published in 1937, Their Eyes Were Watching God met significant commercial but divided critical acclaim. To some extent forgotten after her death, Zora Neale Hurston was rediscovered by a number of black authors in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and reintroduced to a greater readership by Alice Walker in her 1972 essay “In Search of Zora Neale Hurston,” written for Ms. magazine. Long out of print, the book was reissued after a petition was circulated at the Modern Language Association Convention in 1975, and nearly three decades later Their Eyes Were Watching God is considered a seminal novel of American fiction.
With a new foreword by the celebrated novelist Edwidge Danticat — leader of Eyes, Breath, Memory; The Farming of Bones; and Krik?Krak! — this edition of Their Eyes Were Watching God commemorates the singular, unique voice in America’s literary canon and highlights its unusual publication history.Amazon.com Review
At the height of the Harlem Renaissance during the 1930s, Zora Neale Hurston was the preeminent black woman writer in the United States. She was a sometime-collaborator with Langston Hughes and a fierce rival of Richard Wright. Her tales appeared in major magazines, she consulted on Hollywood screenplays, and she penned four novels, an autobiography, countless essays, and two books on black mythology. Yet by the late 1950s, Hurston was living in obscurity, effective as a maid in a Florida hotel. She died in 1960 in a Welfare home, was buried in an unmarked grave, and quickly faded from literary consciousness until 1975 when Alice Walker nearly single-handedly revived interest in her work.
Of Hurston’s fiction, Their Eyes Were Watching God is arguably the best-known and perhaps the most controversial. The novel follows the fortunes of Janie Crawford, a woman living in the black town of Eaton, Florida. Hurston sets up her characters and her locale in the first chapter, which, along with the last, acts as a framing contrivance for the tale of Janie’s life. Unlike Wright and Ralph Ellison, Hurston does not write explicitly about black people in the context of a white world–a fact that earned her scathing criticism from the social realists–but she doesn’t snub the impact of black-white relations either:
It was the time for sitting on porches beside the road. It was the time to hear things and talk. These sitters had been tongueless, earless, eyeless conveniences all day long. Mules and additional brutes had occupied their skins. But now, the sun and the bossman were gone, so the skins felt powerful and human. They became lords of sounds and lesser things. They passed nations through their mouths. They sat in judgment.
One person the citizens of Eaton are inclined to judge is Janie Crawford, who has married three men and been tried for the murder of one of them. Janie feels no compulsion to justify herself to the town, but she does clarify herself to her friend, Phoeby, with the implicit understanding that Phoeby can “tell ‘em what Ah say if you wants to. Dat’s just de same as me ’cause mah tongue is in mah acquaintances mouf.”
Hurston’s use of dialect enraged additional African American writers such as Wright, who accused her of pandering to white readers by giving them the black stereotypes they expected. Decades later, but, outrage has been replaced by admiration for her depictions of black life, and especially the lives of black women. In Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston breathes humanity into both her men and women, and allows them to speak in their own voices. –Alix Wilber
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Unless you are an immature tramp I cannot fathom how you could delight in, tell or even read this nonsense. The style and to a lesser extent the tale hold merit on a past basis, but the plot is dated and obscured to the wanna-feel-empowered nobodies of the world. That people reflect this is a fantastic book betrays how foolish the reading public are; seriously, just stick to what Oprah tells you to read, or better, simply plop down in front of the television and watch ‘reality.’
I am not adage this is not an vital book; it is. But if you reflect it possesses literary Quality, read ‘Confessions of Nat Turner,’ ‘Go Tell It On the Mountain,’ ‘The Invisible Man,’ ‘Native Son,’ and tell me that this book belongs in the same class of fiction as these novels.
Am I biased? Yes, completely, I reflect that the work of women does not compare favorably to what men have achieved in letters. I mean, “Atlas Shrugged” is one of the most horrid things mankind has produced! But there is the converse….I mean, how many fantastic wives, how many excellent stay-at-home moms have been men?
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
If I could give this book zero stars, I would do so. There’s barely a plot: the protagonist, Janie, marries three men and kills the last one because he gets rabies. The end. Janie is the essential antiheroin. She comes off as this oppressed small wife who takes forever to speak out against her husbands. It would have been better if Alice Walker had not “establish” Zora Hurston and brought this dreadful book back into the public.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
I had to read this for Book club and HATED IT!
The leader writes in a dialect that is barely legible and makes the tale less vital than the dialogue. Yes, we get the point – now… can you write in English so I can know each sentence the first time I read it?
Thank you!
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
TEWWG is by no means a terrible or dull book. In fact, it’s a excellent read- it’s dialogue may be hard for some at first, but is really an enjoyable aspect of the book.
The only qualm I have with it is that its aimed at pleasing white folks. I’m not trying to be racist– the main character is only 1/4 black, and her caucasian features are repeatedly exhalted for their beauty (thin lips, straight hair, etc.) The few white people in the book are the ones that give her support, while the AA community turns their back on her during her time of need. If you want a book that instills African American pride or about injustices, try Black Like Me because you ain’t gonna find it here.
Reader’s Rating: 2 / 5
I have no thought who chose this book was so fantastic, but it is one of the most overrated books ever. Excellent Lord, it is simply dreadful. Stay away from it at all costs – if you have to read it for high school english class as I did, save yourself the distress and buy the cliff’s notes.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5