Their Eyes Were Watching God: Literary Critique by Alex Snyder

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Literary Critique by Alex Snyder

“Through the Trials”

“Their Eyes Were Watching God” is a one of a kind story. It’s a story that was written in 1937 By Zora Neale Hurston. This was Hurston’s first official novel and other critics say it’s the best one by Hurston. The story has an adventurous tone of love; it’s all about Janie (the main character) and her love life. Before I started to read the book I was not expecting what I found, I was expecting something a little more settle. As I reviewed the story I found one question to stick out in my mind. How awful were woman treated? Janie struggles to find a place for herself by taking a spiritual journey toward love and self-awareness, throughout this story Jody (her first love) attempts to achieve fulfillment through power. He tries to gain control over everyone and everything around him; he exercises his authority hoping to overtake his environment to his will. He thinks under the illusion he can control the world around him and that, by doing so, he will achieve some sense of profound fulfillment he likes to control Janie as a first step. Tea Cake (her second love) also controlling, for example, is filled with hubris as the hurricane whips up, certain that he can survive the storm through his mastery of muck. For both Jody and Tea Cake, the natural world reveals the limits of human power. In Jody’s case, as disease sets in, he begins to lose the illusion that he can control his world; the loss of authority over Janie as she talks back to him furthers this disillusionment. In Tea Cake’s case, he is forced to flee the hurricane and struggles to survive the floods. The karma set in for them both. Janie is a strong woman yet she still is forced by both the men that she loves to be more of a waitress and mistress to them. I often wonder why Hurston decided to write about love that goes wrong not only once but twice, why Janie was treated so wrong both times she fell in love. I’ve come to conclusion in two ways, one, Hurston experienced something similar and wrote about her experiences or how woman were treated in those times or two, she just wrote about it to make the story more interesting. As I reviewed some symbols I decided that the Horizon was my favorite one, I thought that it was the most unique. The horizon represents freedom and possibility for Janie, it’s something that Janie doesn’t have but dreams of. The horizon is Janie’s hope and it’s what Janie achieves at the end of the book but she has to go through the trouble of being un respected by men first. I also thought that the hurricane was a symbol of life’s troubles; I thought that the hurricane represented the boys in Janie’s life, Jody and Tea Cake. I thought this because a hurricane is destructive and so is the boys to Janie, they destroy their love for their own deeds and goods and that hurts Janie in return. They are not respectful to Janie at all. Janie’s hair is another symbol, it shows her power and unconventional identity; it represents her strength and individuality. Janie hair represents her independence and defiance of the community standards. The town’s critique at the very beginning of the novel demonstrates that it is considered undignified for a woman of Janie’s age to wear her hair down. Her refusal to bow down to their standards clearly reflects her strong, rebellious spirit. That’s what gets Janie through the whole story and all her struggles is her strength. Janie is a strong woman and one that doesn’t give up on life; she goes through the trials and tribulations and does what she has to do. I respect Janie for that.

After reading this story I decided to give it a six out of ten. I decided that because I thought that the story was very hard to read and I thought that Hurston went on too long about Janie’s love life. I do however admire how strong of a character Janie is and I thought that the story in all had a good theme.

Written by: Alex Snyder

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Historical Context by Abigail Levy

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is a tragic story filled with love. Janie is the main character who starts the story out by telling her friend Phoeby her life story. As she tells the story, Janie explains how her grandmother, otherwise known as Nanny, forces her to marry Logan Killicks. Nanny promises Janie that she will learn to love him. At first, Logan is very nice to her and treats her well. But then, he decides that Janie can chop her own wood and pull her own weight around. All of Janie’s life changes when she meets Joe Starks. After running off with Joe, Janie starts a new life as a mayor’s wife. She becomes dissatisfied with her life because she is constantly being silenced by Joe. Sadly, Joe dies leaving Janie a very wealthy widow when she finally meets Tea Cake. Janie and Tea Cake fall in love and get married. Their time spent together is spent fondly as Tea Cake treats Janie how she wants to be treated. The story ends tragically with Janie having to kill Tea Cake in order to save herself. Their Eyes Were Watching God, written by Zora Neale Hurston, has many historical connections. This book has socio-economic connections to the time that it was written. During the 1930’s, Florida was going through some hard times. In Florida, there had been a economic market collapse in 1926. "Floridians accepted the 1929 Stock Market Crash and the beginnings of the Depressions with a little more understanding than most of the nation” (floridahistory.org/depression). Also, the community in Orlando, where the story is set, was where one of America’s first incorporated black communities. A devastating hurricane called Okeechobee hit Florida in 1928. This hurricane was very similar to the hurricane that takes place in the book. The political context for the story was a time of turmoil for the African-American people. In America, there was a great civil rights movement which included extensive segregation of these African-American people. "As the black population in the North grew in the 1910's and 1920's, segregation became more pronounced, as did school segregation" (Malhoney, Thomas M., University of Utah). There was not only segregation but there was also racism that carried on to the 1960s. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, there were socio-economic and political historical connections.

Written by: Abigail Levy

Author Biography by Alexandra Snyder

Zora Neale Hurston was born on January 7, 1891 in Notasulga, Alabama. She moved to Eatonville, Florida when she was still a toddler though. She was the fifth out of eight children. Hurston’s childhood came to an abrupt end when her mother died in 1904 and Zora was only 13 and Zora’s father remarried quickly afterward and her father seemed to have little money for his children. Zora was sent to a boarding school in Jacksonville, Florida soon afterward but they eventually stopped paying her tuition and the school expelled her. Zora had a hard time finishing school. At the age of 26 Zora still hadn’t finished high school and she had to pretend to be a teenager to qualify for free schooling. She graduated from Morgan Academy in 1918. After that time in her life she always presented herself as ten years younger than what she really was. In 1927 Zora married a jazz musician named Herbert Sheen but the marriage ended in 1931. She married once again after to Albert Price but that marriage ended too. By 1928 Zora had graduated Barnerd College and by 1937 published many short stories and articles as well as a novel called “Jonah’s Gourd Vine” but in the late 30’s early 40’s she hit the point of her career and published “Their Eyes Were Watching God” in 1937. She continued to write and published two books in the next two years. Hurston’s life ended on January 28, 1960 at age 69 after suffering a stroke at her neighbors in Fort Peirce, Florida. Her funeral was held on February 7th. In the summer of 1973 a young writer named Alice Walker traveled to Fort Pierce to place a marker on the grave of Miss Zora because Zora did not have enough money when she died to pay for one and Alice was inspired by the writing of Zora Neale Hurston.

Written by: Alex Snyder

Novel Synopsis by Anna Watkins

Their Eyes Were Watching God is the tragic but powerful story of an African American woman in southern Florida who achieved her dreams of love and life beyond the world's expectations for her. The story starts at the end: Janie is a tattered, tired old woman walking through a town of criticizing people. The whole first chapter is a loose end, a handful of questions waiting to be answered. But the plot quickly takes a turn when Janie’s whereabouts are revealed.The novel flashes back to when Janie was just a hopeful young girl who felt that love was the answer to her loneliness in life. Her mother and father left her at birth, leaving her with her protective but providing grandmother, Nanny, who raised her in a white community. Nanny wanted Janie to live a life of privilege, so she married Janie off to an old, lifeless farmer named Logan Killicks. Unsatisfied and miserable, Janie left Logan shortly after their marriage for a handsome young man named Joe Starks. Together Janie and Joe ran off to help start an all black community in Eatonville Florida, where Joe became the mayor. However, Joe and Janie’s marriage soon fell apart when Joe became a jealous, demanding husband who always suppressed Janie’s freedom. He did not love her, and after years of wearing her hair up and never enjoying life, she finally retaliated and told Joe how she felt. While this did nothing, her freedoms were renewed when, after twenty years of marriage, Joe finally died. Janie let her hair down, symbolizing her independence, and lived her life as normal.Greedy men started taking interest in marrying Janie for the money that Joe left her, but a flirtatious, caring, loving young man named Tea Cake was the one that captured her heart. Janie was awed by the way he respectfully treated her as his equal, so shortly after their meeting they left for Jacksonville to get married. Tea Cake then took Janie to the Everglades on Lake Okeechobee so he could work as a bean farmer. They made many friends down on the muck and their relationship with each other blossomed into the kind of love Janie had always desired: passionate, caring, and sweet. But two years after their marriage, a hurricane came and brought havoc to the muck. In the midst of the storm, Tea Cake heroically tried to save Janie from a mad dog but got bit in the process. In the proceeding month, Tea Cake became ill with rabies from the bite, and in a moment of terror and despair, he attacked Janie. In order to save her life and end Tea Cake’s misery, Janie made the split second decision to shoot her husband. The same day a trial was held to test the validity of Janie’s action, and she was proven innocent of a crime. So Janie then returned to her home in Eatonville, for without Tea Cake she had no happiness in the muck.This captivating novel ends with Janie reflecting on all that she has learned, which answers all the questions that were presented in the beginning of the story. Through Janie, Hurston reveals that even during a time of discrimination towards women and blacks, an African American woman can succeed in reaching her horizon and knowing true love. Not only is the plot extremely moving and exciting, but Hurston does a terrific job of wrapping an immense amount of poetic language such as metaphor, simile, dramatic dialogue, and personification into her work. Their Eyes Were Watching God is a well-crafted work of art that portrays the beauty of life in a memorable, unique way, using Janie as the symbol of independence and hope for women and African Americans everywhere.

Written by: Anna Watkins