Their Eyes Were Watching God
Zora Neale Hurston
207 pages

First sentence: Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board.

Reflections: This is the story of Janie, an African-American woman in the deep southern United States.  As a work of early feminist literature, Their Eyes is about Janie finding her voice or, as described in the Afterword, her "journey from object to subject."  Hurston uses several techniques to explore the development of Janie's voice.  Some of the novel is written in third person narrative; others in a black English dialect.  In some parts, she clearly articulates Janie's thoughts and feelings and in others, she is silent.  

Janie is married off at a young age to a landowner named Logan, but this turns out to be a loveless marriage.  She is then swept off her feet by Jody Sparks, a sweet-talking man with big ideas and an even bigger ego.  As he fulfils his own potential, he suppresses Janie's.  After Jody's death, Janie finds true love and personal growth with Tea Cake.  He is a poor man, and a bit of a rabble rouser, but he loves her deeply.  For the first two-thirds of this book I wondered why Janie loved Tea Cake.  He had character traits that didn't suit me much, and it seemed like she could "do better."  But then I realized the other men in her life, supposedly "better" men, were the very ones who held her back. 

In the second half of this book, Janie and Tea Cake choose to remain in their shanty during a hurricane.  It is this scene that gives the book its title:  "The wind came back with triple fury, and put out the light for the last time. They sat in company with the others in other shanties, their eyes straining against crude walls and their souls asking if He meant to measure their puny might against His. They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God." (p. 151).  What amazing imagery!  From this point on, the book was a real page-turner, with scenes reminiscent of Hurricane Katrina, and a very poignant aftermath.  In the end, Janie stands alone, but strong and independent.

Hurston's work was largely ignored during her time, but Their Eyes has become an essential element of the canon of American literature.  It is best read with some accompanying sources that provide an understanding of the social and cultural context in which it was written.  ( )

48 / 50 (96.0%)