Book: Their Eyes Were Watching God
Basic Information :
Synopsis :
Characters :
Expectations :
Thoughts :
Evaluation :
Book Group :
New Words :
Book References :
Good Quotes :
References
Basic Information:
Author:
Zora
Neale Hurston
Edition:
epub on Libby from the Fresno County Public Library
Publisher:
Amistad
ISBN:
0061120065 (ISBN13: 9780061120060)
Start
Date: November 22, 2020
Read
Date: December 6, 2020
219
pages
Genre:
Fiction, Interracial Understanding
Language
Warning: None
Rated
Overall: 4 out of 5
Fiction-Tells
a good story: ? out of 5
Fiction-Character
development: 4 out of 5
The
story of a black woman as she goes from a young adult of sixteen
through three husbands, finding herself along the way. The story
takes places in Florida between 1910 and 1930.
Her
first marriage is one arranged by her grandmother so that she could
be secure. Once the Grandmother dies, she takes off with a man who is
very forceful. Forceful enough that he settles into Eatonville where
he stirs up the town to organize and become something.
Overtime,
he becomes a dominate force in the community and a force in Janie’s
life. But Janie is not satisfied with her place as a hood-ornament.
When her husband dies, he leaves her a woman with no future financial
worries.
She
takes up with Tea Cakes, a man 15 years her junior because he makes
her feel full. They get married and take work in the Everglades. A
hurricane comes destroying things. Tea Cakes is bitten by a rabies
dog and dies. Janie returns to Eatonville and the story ends.
Cast of Characters:
-
Janie
Crawford-Protaganist
-
Logan
Killicks-first husband. Janie leaves him
-
Joe
“Jody” Starks-second husband. A leader and mover and shaker.
Becomes mayor when he comes into town and creates a store.
-
Vergible
Tea Cakes Woods-Third Husband. From georgia. He had worked for a
white man and had saved $300 before coming to Florida. Originally
from Orlando. On Church St-the street sounds like it is a party area.
Has purple lips. Tall and slender. Age around 25 when they met. Later
on he says that he is one of the best gamblers ever. (In 1935,
Hurston was involved with Percy Punter, a graduate student at
Columbia University. He inspired the character of Tea Cake in
Their
Eyes Were Watching God.[21][11]-From
Wikipedia)
-
Pheoby
Watson-Best friend in Eatonville, Florida
-
Hezekiah-Janie’s
assistant in the store
-
Mrs.
Turner-A higher class person who lived close to the muck. She took a
liking to Janie, but not to Tea Cakes.
Expectations:
-
Recommendation:
Karon from Book Group
-
When:
September 2020
-
Date
Became Aware of Book: September 2020
-
How
come do I want to read this book: It is a book group book and Karon
recommended it. Not sure other than that.
I
will admit my doubts about this book. I had never heard of it nor the
author. Later, as I am reading Between
the World and Me,
I see that Ta-Neshi Coates references her twice, once in the same
breath as Toni Morrison. Maybe this book has promise.
Going
over the book a second time allows me to see the individual parts of
the story in context of the whole story. It helps me to appreciate
what others saw in this story.
I
realize there are several things which caused me not to appreciate
this book the first time around. First there is the black, Southern
dialogue from a hundred years ago. It took me awhile before feeling
comfortable reading it without trying to pick individual words out.
Next, I had a hard time fitting the story into the context Hurston
wanted me to place it in. The first chapter sets the tone and the
place. This is a storytelling exercise. Read it as the opening
chapter is setting this up for the story. The story is linear.
Lastly, Hurston is a lyrical writer. Normally I do not like it. But
once I got the hang of it, I understood how the use of the language
fit into her story telling. I then was on the lookout for those
interludes where she provides commentary about the story or society.
If you do not get it the first time, try a second read.
E-Book
Extra
Brief
biography of Zore Neale Hurston. Then ten reader questions. In the
biography, the person comments that: Many
works of fiction were informed by purely political motives; political
pronouncements frequently appeared in polished literary prose
Forward
The
book is essentially summed up by this: And
since women “remember everything they don’t want to forget
Book
was written in seven weeks in Haiti. There is a sense of
storytelling, as it would be told by a black. Females and the young
might ask this question: Was
Janie Crawford a good female role model or was she solely defined by
the men in her life?
From
the beginning of her career, Hurston was severely criticized for not
writing fiction in the protest tradition.
This part of the forward goes on and talks about the reception the
novel got. A white reviewer did not believe a black town as described
could exist. Blacks felt it did not bring out racism enough.
One
question raised is whether
or not Janie is able to achieve her voice in Their Eyes?
The question arises from how Janie was in the courtroom scene and
what and how she was telling Pheoby. The question critics are
wondering is did Hurston want Janie to stand as a female model or be
assertive how a male might be in this situation.
Sherley
Anne Williams-an American poet, novelist, professor, vocalist, Jazz
poet, playwright and social critic. Many of her works tell stories
about her life in the African-American community. From Wikipedia.
Also taught at Fresno State-Williams
taught Their Eyes for the first time at Cal State Fresno, in a
migrant farming area where the students, like the characters in Their
Eyes, were used to making their living from the land.
Forward
is by Mary
Helen Washington
Chapter
1
Set
in early 20th century in central and south Florida. This chapter is
around 1928, 1929 in Eatonville,
Florida
The
first two paragraphs set the tone for the book. The second paragraph
is what she wants us to know about Janie. 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
Janie
comes walking back to town she left-but we do not know this. How come
she comes back and in the style sets tongues wagging. Most of the
townspeople seem a bit jealous of her, or at least want to bring her
down a peg. Pheoby is content to let Janie settle back in and tell
her story.
An
envious heart makes a treacherous ear.
Pheoby describes the town.
Janie
gets set to tell Pheoby the story of her life, including what
happened to Tea Cakes.
Chapter
2
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.
The more I listened to this opening, the bigger it became. It is not
a nice poetic throw away line, but lays down the outline of the book.
Later
Hurston puts into Nanny’s mouth us
colored folks is branches without roots and that makes things come
round in queer way.
In a lot of ways, this explains the effects of slavery. Now the
question in my mind is how do their branches gain roots?
Janie
was raised on a plantation by her Grandmother, Nanny. Her father had
run away and was trying to reach her mother to marry her. But the
Washburns chased him down The owners, the Washburns, had her almost
like family. She played with their grandchildren as if she was one of
them. One day she looked in a mirror and say Ah’m
colored!’ This
lack of self-awareness of color was a credit I think to the
Washburns.
Nanny
was pretty protective of Janie. When she saw a boy kissing her, Nanny
thought it was time to get her something better than some no good
boy. Hurston denotes this as the end of Janie’s childhood. Nanny’s
answer to Janie becoming a woman is to get her married. What makes
Janie a woman? Is the loss of childhood innocence? The desire of
something sexual? Nanny’s concern is that Janie
don’t even know where harm is.
Nanny has high expectations for Janie, not somebody who is shiftless.
Even though Janie does not realize it, so does she. That is why she
leaves Logan for Joe.
There
is the image of the pear tree which Janie would sit under and dream
of her life. 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! This
kind of imagery is what sets Hurston apart from other writers.
She
felt an answer seeking her, but where, When? How?
I like this. The idea of the answer trying to find her. I think we
need to be there for answers to find us.
You
can’t beat nobody down so low till you can rob ’em of they will
Nanny
describes the rape she had to endure during the Civil War by the
plantation owner, the resulting childbirth. Then the mistress of the
plantation ordered her to be whipped. She ran away then until the
Union came through. Then Janie’s Mom had gone to school. The
teacher also raped her.
Chapter
3
In
a different way, Hurston asks, does marriage make love? Does being
apart create loneliness? There
are years that ask questions and years that answer
Here
is the pear tree again.
Janie
is married to Logan Killpick. This is two months further down the
road. While he treats her like royalty-cuts wood, never hits her. But
she is not feeling a connection with him. Nanny notes that if he is
kissing your mouth, then there is equality. But if they are kissing
your feet then eventually a man will no longer want to do that and
will straighten up and take over. Janie does not feel cared for or
that he is interested in her.
After
this talk with Janie, the Grandmother goes home prays. Within a
month, Nanny is dead.
Janie’s
first dream was dead, so she became a woman.
References that romance was dead to her. So she had to put that
behind her.
Chapter
4
Logan’s
attitude changes, just like Nanny said it would. After six months, he
is no longer enamored at her beauty. He expects her to put in her
fair share of work.
Logan
goes off to acquire a second mule. While Janie is cutting potatoes,
Joe Starks comes by. He is going on further south. But stays around a
week, flirting with Janie. To Janie, he still was not the vision of
romance she has, but a lot better than Logan Killick. After another
not caring session, Janie leaves Killick and takes off with Joe
Starks. They get married after arriving in Green Cove Springs, FL.
Note:
I use Starks in my review. Hurston most of the time uses the more
informal Joe or Jody for him.
He
[Joe
Starks] had
always wanted to be a big voice, but de white folks had all de say so
where he come from and everywhere else, exceptin’ dis place dat
colored folks was buildin’ theirselves.
Chapter
5
Took
train to Maitland, which is just outside of Eatonville. Janie liked
the status of being with Starks. Eatonville is the colored part of
the area. Currently just outside of Orlando. Eatonville was just a
couple of wood shacks in the woods. No organization. It is about 50
acres which was given by Captain Eaton. Sounds like it is mostly
inhabited by dispirited people.
A
man was trying to make a pass at Janie. He struck out.
Starks
went to see the white man who owned most of the area. Starks bought a
good part of the area. He was going to put up a store and post
office. Historical note: Post Office opened in 1889 and closed in
1918. Unknown when the town was incorporated. Judging by the timeline
of the story, this is around 1906-1910. I do not think Hurston was
trying to put the story into a rigid historical context. She was
using the location and the general time as a backdrop to her story,
not as a guide to its history.
A
black man putting up a store was foreign to the townspeople. Not
only that. With the lots he bought, he went around and sold them to
families in the area and they moved in quickly. Starks dressed her up
to be the finest black woman in the area. He said his plan was to
incorporate just like any other town. They moved that he became
mayor.
It
was moved that Janie give a speech, but Starks said that her place
was in the home, not giving speeches. This is the place which Janie
was to be put for the rest of their marriage. Did Janie know this
when she went to Starks. Is this better than with Killick? He
strode along invested with his new dignity, thought and planned out
loud, unconscious of her thoughts.
This is how their marriage was. He just bowled over her, and everyone
else for that matter.
Getting
a street light was novel and new. Starks was raising the spirit of
the town, building a community where they would be proud of being
there.
But
Janie feels left out. Starks gets recognition, honors and he gets to
do things. Janie has to tag a long without feeling like she is doing
anything. Her words is that she is just marking time.
In
a lot of ways, Starks was like another big boss. It was just he was a
black in a black town. Janie was with Starks, but also being bossed
like others. It
was bad enough for white people, but when one of your own color could
be so different it put you on a wonder.
any
man who walks in the way of power and property is bound to meet hate.
Chapter
6
The
store itself was a pleasant place if only she didn’t have to sell
things. When the people sat around on the porch and passed around the
pictures of their thoughts for the others to look at and see, it was
nice. The fact that the thought pictures were always crayon
enlargements of life made it even nicer to listen. Sort
of sets the tone for the chapter. Several stories told.
One
about a yellow mule which was being abused and starved. Janie cannot
indulge in story telling and is barely allowed to listen in. Starks
dealt for the mule. Reason: To let it rest. Janie spoke up for a
change: You
got uh town so you freed uh mule. You have tuh have power tuh free
things and dat makes you lak uh king uh something.
The mule died shortly afterwards. Starks now was celebrated as
somebody who cared.
There
was endless debates and back and forth on the porch of the store.
Starks
made sure she was busy if the speech got too common in front of the
store. She starts to hate the store. Also he made sure her hair was
hidden.
Janie’s
feelings:
A little war of defense for helpless things was going on inside her.
As
much as Janie was withdrawing from Starks, he felt there was a lack
of appreciation from her. Also it did not help that he was jealous of
any time a man made eyes towards her. But what he really wanted was
her
submission and he’d keep on fighting until he felt he had.
That is what he really wanted from people, and most importantly his
wife.
Hurston
says that the spirit
of the marriage left the bedroom and took to living in the parlor.
No longer was their fun, but it was all show. Hurston goes back to
the field metaphor: The
bed was no longer a daisy-field for her and Joe to play in. It was a
place where she went and laid down when she was sleepy and tired.
Life became more mechanical. He became abusive to her.
Starks
made a show of charity, but it was carefully measured. Story of a
wife whose husband was very stingy with the funds so the kds and her
were starving. Joe had Janie give her something, but then Starks cut
it back. Then added the amount to the husband's account.
She
was saving up feelings for some man she had never seen.
Interesting line.
Chapter
7
Janie
became an empty shell, with little emotional future. She
got nothing from Jody except what money could buy, and she was giving
away what she didn’t value.
This
also affected Stark as well. He no longer had the look of a world
conqueror. His pot bellies sagged, his eyes were absent and when he
sat, he plopped into the chair. His temper was cutting, particularly
to Janie. When Janie retorted, Starks felt that
Janie had robbed him of his illusion of irresistible maleness that
all men cherish, which was terrible.
So true. Even to the none proud, there is a sense where you want to
be a peacock. This is a pungent comment about Stark’s friends:
They’d
look with envy at the things and pity the man that owned them.
Result: Starks hit Janie.
Chapter
8
By
this time Starks was approaching 50 and Janie 40. So about 20 years
had passed.
Starks
decided to move out of the bedroom. Not from hate, but from the pride
of trying to make Janie suffer for her comment. From Janie’s
viewpoint, she wondered, Why
must Joe be so mad with her for making him look small when he did it
to her all the time?
This
is such a good image:
the stillness was the sleep of swords.
There are swords, verbal swords, ready to be drawn at a moments
notice, but not in use currently.
Starks
thinks things can be cured by going to a “root-doctor”. This is a
person who cures through plants and sometimes spells. Janie thinks he
is a quack. That what he should be doing is seeing a real doctor.
Starks thinks Janie may try to poison him or something so he starts
getting his meals from another woman, hurting Janie even more. For
the first time Pheoby Watson enters the story as Janie's best friend.
Interesting
phrase: you
know how joe worships de works of his own hands…
Starks
condition got worse until he could not get out of bed. Starks would
not let her see him or care for him. Other people were given access
to him. Also he sent spies to check on her in the store. But she also
had her own spies who reported back to her. A doctor came from
Orlando and told her that Starks had kidney failure and there was
nothing which could be done for him.
Hurston
gives a description of death.
Janie
goes in and sees Starks, much to his disgust. They talk out some of
their things which has caused the divide. Janie confronts Starks that
he is dying and there is no hope, no matter what the root-doctors
say. She
was full of pity for the first time in years.
Years
ago, she had told her girl self to wait for her in the looking glass.
It had been a long time since she had remembered.
Janie realizes that Starks dying, she will need to look after
herself. Will she be able to marry? Find her love?
Chapter
9
Starks
funeral was the finest in the county for a black. As a sign that she
was no longer under Starks authority, she burnt her head rags. She
kept things how they were-she figured she had her whole life to
change things. Wise. At night, she would think Then
she’d lie awake in bed asking lonesomeness some questions. She
asked if she wanted to leave and go back where she had come from and
try to find her mother.
She sorted out things in her head-she did not care to see her mother.
She hated her Nanny. She
had been getting ready for her great journey to the horizons in
search of people.
She felt she needed to get out and meet people.
She
felt that Nanny had taken away her horizon. There is a dialogue on
love as well.
Janie
was being set upon by men throughout the area. She pretty much
rebuffed them. She found that she
liked being lonesome for a change.
Chapter
10
Tea
Cakes entered the picture several months after Starks death. Some
things Hurston noted:
From
Orlando on Church St. Sounds like it has been and is a party area.
Is it like Bourbon St in New Orleans?
He
smokes
He
has purple lips. From Healthline,
this is Cyanosis which is
the name for poor oxygen circulation. .. It could also indicate an
abnormal form of hemoglobin (a protein in red blood cells), such as
in sickle
cell anemia.
Tall
and slender. Starks was shorter and fatter
Tea
Cakes will jump a train.
Tea
Cakes says that he got mixed up in the location of a baseball game.
Sounds like he was seeking her out.
He
teaches her how to play checkers. First time she was invited to play.
Janie
is taken by Tea Cakes, his fun and him treating her as a person
rather than as a possession.
Chapter
11
Tea
Cakes about 25, Janie 40. Tea Cakes comes back a week later. Spends
time with her, including fishing at night. She is realizing that she
is feeling the love thoughts she has dreamed of in a man. A couple of
days later, they slept together. He says he will be taking her to the
picnic.
Chapter
12
Tea
Cakes and Janie are now doing everything together and it is getting
the townspeople tongues a-wagging. The pastor says that he is
dragging her away from church. But did she really believe or merely
went to church?
Pheoby
wants to talk with Janie. So she talks with everyone else on the way
to Janie. Hurston has the phrase which I like: going
straight while walking crooked. Janie
makes her case. Tea Cakes is not dragging her anywhere she did not
want to go. Starks wanted her all to himself and restricted her from
doing the things she wanted to do. The argument is that Tea Cakes
only wants her money. Janie points out that there are lots of men
after her, saying that a widow needs protecting. Why do they all go
after her and not the other three widows in the town? Everybody loves
money.
Janie
reveals that they intend to get married. When they do, she will sell
the store and they will move out. Why? Because others will make
comparisons to Starks and they want to start fresh. Janie says that
she is done
living Grandma’s way, now Ah means tuh live mine.
The statement of independence.
Chapter
13
Going
to Jackson to get married. Interesting-remember the Johnny Cash song?
Jackson has about 90,000 people at this time.
Very
few people saw Janie leave. Those who did showed their true colors:
she
sho looked good, but she had no business to do it.
They got married first thing. Excitement. Stayed in Jacksonville for
awhile-Tea Cakes had been there for two weeks before they got
married. One morning he left before she awoke. He had gone out for
fish. She had brought $200 with her, hidden in case things did not
work out. That was gone.
Janie
was relieving the life of Annie Taylor who went after a younger man,
was taken advantage of before coming back to Eatonville. Jannie’s
thought was She
had waited all her life for something, and it had killed her when it
found her.
Janie is wondering if this is her.
Janie
waited all day and all night for Tea Cakes to return. He did with a
guitar and singing. He says he was not chasing other women and it was
not the money. The money had tempted him to show off that he was a
big man. He got into a fight-won it, settled another fight. Bought a
guitar. Janie says that if Tea Cakes ever goes off and has a good
time without her, she will kill him.
Interesting
comment Tea Cakes made: He does not want Janie to see any commoness
in him.
This
would have struck fear in my heart if I was Janie: You
done married one uh de best gamblers God ever made.
Tea
Cake had more good nature under his toe-nails than they had in their
so-called Christian hearts-at
least that is what Janie felt.
He
was in a fight and got cut up twice while he was gambling. He won
$122 and brought back Janie’s $200. He would no longer use any of
Janie’s money to keep them going. But they will be moving down to
the Everglades, Clewiston and Belle Glade. They will go down where
they do nothing but raise cane, string-beans, and tomatoes, as well
as make money, have fun and have foolishness.
She
says that as he slept, she felt a
self-crushing love. So her soul crawled out from its hiding place.
Chapter
14
They
move down to Big Lake Okechobee. They are there to pick beans. Tea
Cakes is to gamble.They are ahead of the season so they will get the
best rooms before everybody else comes in. Dirt is rich. Tea Cake’s
boss wants him by the lake soon, so they go down. There they plant
beans, fish. Occasionally Indians go by. He teaches her to hunt.
Very
descriptive of poverty. Migrants coming in limping. Everything
hanging from ancient cars. Tired
looking men with their families,
…. Hopeful
humanity, herded and hovered on the inside, …. People ugly from
ignorance and broken from being poor.
She
also talked about how the owner charged for everything, but the
workers did not care since they made good money. This seems like a
discussion for an in-depth look at migrant worker conditions of the
1920’s.
Janie
compares her time in the Everglades with that of Eatonville. Same
discussions, but now she can join in. The
men held big arguments here like they used to do on the store porch.
Only here, she could listen and laugh and even talk some herself if
she wanted to.
Chapter
15
Another
girl is flirting with Tea Cakes. Janie is jealous. This turned into
fear of losing him. They fought over this and made up
Chapter
16
They
stayed beyond the season and got to know several of the more
permanent residents. This included the local Native Americans and Mrs
Turner. As Hurston said, Turner’s
disfavorite subject was Negroes.
Not sure if she was one or not, but she held herself above the darker
skin ones. Janie was light; Tea Cakes was dark.
Turner
had a brother which she wanted Janie to know (and hopefully marry).
Apparently intellectually gifted, she said that he had shown how
Booker
T Washington
did not do much. During one of these talks where Turner disparaged
blacks, and tried to get her brother in good with Janie, Tea Cakes
heard her and listened to the whole conversation. Janie tried to get
rid of her, but Turner quickly
forgave and forgot snubs in order to keep it. Anyone who looked more
white folkish than herself was better than she was in her criteria.
Talking
about the [white people] gods which Turner setup Once
having set up her idols and built altars to them it was inevitable
that she would worship there… All gods who receive homage are cruel
… Mrs. Turner, like all other believers had built an altar to the
unattainable—Caucasian characteristics for all.
Chapter
17
Another
season. So they had been there one year. Mrs Turner’s brother came.
Tea Cakes got jealous and beat Janie. Janie knew that being
able to whip her reassured him in possession.
Tea
Cakes also had a way to get back at Mrs Turner. He had people go over
there to eat. When the place got full, a fight broke out. Everybody
got fighting and smashing up things.
Chapter
18
Some
of the people closer to the earth were starting to move to higher
ground, including the Seminole Indians. Because they had become
friends with many of them, they told Janie they were moving to higher
ground-a hurricane was coming. Everything seemed calm. But animals
were moving as well. But the blacks wanted to take their lead from
the whites.
Things
seemed normal. Games were played. Then the storm came. The one she
describes is probably the 1928
Okeechobee hurricane.
About 2,500 people died, mostly in Florida around Lake Okechobee. Now
that the hurricane was approaching, Hurston reports that Six
eyes were questioning God.
There was a sense that God had opened a door. Then they returned and
their
eyes were watching God.
Interesting context. Not they were watching God’s work or wrath,
but watching God.
At
this point, Tea Cakes decides it was time to get out. To gather
important papers and money. The lake was rising with the wind. One of
their friends was asleep. All three ran away from the lake. They let
other people know and ran until they could run no more. They came to
an unoccupied house on higher ground and went inside.. This was safe
only for a short time and then Janie and Tea Cakes fled-Mo-Boat just
wanted to sleep.
They
came to a high bridge-about 9 miles from the Lake, but it was already
crowded so they went on. Flooding was going on. Tin roofs were
flying, rattlesnakes were out wild. Janie tried to grab hold of a
piece of tin to cover them so they could rest, but the wind took her
siling out into the water. Janie was able to grab hold of a log, but
a vicious dog was on it and was going to attack Janie. Tea Cakes put
himself between her and the dog. The dog bit him on the face, he
killed the dog.
They
escaped to Palm Beach the next day.That is 32 miles away-so they must
have gotten a ride.
Tea
Cakes asks Janie about if there was regrets in going with him. Janie
says: spected
nothin’, Tea Cake, but bein’ dead from the standin’ still and
tryin’ tuh laugh. But you come ’long and made somethin’ outa
me. So Ah’m thankful fuh anything we come through together.
She was glad to have done all this with him.
Chapter
19
After
spending two days in Palm Beach recovering, they are ready to move
on. Tea Cakes wanted to look around, but he was grabbed to help bury
the dead. Hurston’s comment on the devastation was that The
mother of malice had trifled with men.
As
they were going through the bodies, black people were put into a mass
grave pit; whites were put into coffins for proper burial. They
makin’ coffins fuh all de white folks. ’Tain’t nothin’ but
cheap pine, but dat’s better’n nothin’. Don’t dump no white
folks in de hole jus’ so.” “Whut tuh do ’bout de colored
folks? Got boxes fuh dem too?” “Nope. They cain’t find enough
of ’em tuh go ’round
When Tea Cakes escapes, he wants to get out fast, to go back to the
Everglades. Why? It is dangerous here where people do not know them.
At least the whites knew them where they lived.
They
made it back to the Everglades. Most of their friends survived, even
Mo-Boat whose house just floated. They recovered for three weeks.
Then
Tea Cakes started not feeling well. Janie brings the doctor around.
He says Tea Cakes has rabies. Be careful. Do not sleep with him. Her
thoughts turn towards tea Cakes: Tea
Cake, the son of Evening Sun, had to die for loving her.
Janie
goes out and looks at the sky and wonders where God is in all of
this? Why is he not answering. Her hope is that he is pushing them to
limits. She thinks God
would do less than He had in His heart.
The
rabies starts to take over Tea Cakes and he is not able to eat or
drink. His mind grows jealous. She says to him In
de first place Ah couldn’t love nobody but yuh. And in de second
place, Ah jus’ uh ole woman dat nobody don’t want but you.”
After
a night of soothing him, he wakes up in delirium. He takes a pistol
and is going to shoot her. Her thoughts include: Tea
Cake wouldn’t hurt her.
But as she noted earlier, Tea Cake had left and now something had
invaded him. After that episode, she empties the pistol except for a
couple of bullets so he would not know. This saves her life as he
tries to kill her, giving her enough time to take the rifle and shoot
him. Even in death, he bit her. As she hugged him.
Moving
words after Tea Cakes death: thanked
him wordlessly for giving her the chance for loving service.
A
trial, not of her peers as there are twelve white men, no blacks or
women on the trial. Held on the same day as the death-the physician
told the sheriff and judge the circumstances. White women in
attendance were sympathetic; blacks liked Tea Cakes and were more
against Janie. Janie was called to testify in her defense. It
was not death she feared. It was misunderstanding.
She was acquitted.
She
arranged for him to be buried in West Palm Beach because it was
higher and the flood waters would not reach him.
She went on in her overalls. She was too busy feeling grief to dress
like grief
Chapter
20
Because
they really loved Janie just a little less than they had loved Tea
Cake, and because they wanted to think well of themselves, they
wanted their hostile attitude forgotten.
Interesting take on quickly forgetting an action they were angry
about earlier. We all want to think well of ourselves. Hence the
reason why we self-justify actions, even if we know they are wrong.
...
their anger against Janie had lasted two whole days and that was too
long to keep remembering anything. Too much of a strain.
She stayed around a couple of weeks to help calm their feelings of
guilt, then moved back to Eatonville.
This
ends the storytelling of Janie to Pheoby which started in the first
chapter. She goes to bed and thinks Of
course he wasn’t dead. He could never be dead until she herself had
finished feeling and thinking
Afterward
Written
by Henry Louis Gates. Talks about finding out about Hurston and how
she was eccentric. Obscure writer until Alice Walker’s essay. Many
female black authors read her because she used
black vernacular speech and rituals.
To gain understanding. Gates talks about how she went from the cover
of Saturday
Review
to obscurity. Unknown how a two-time recipient of the Guggenheim
Foundation award disappeared. He quotes her Freedom
was something internal … The man must make his own emancipation.
(The full quote is below and even more powerful.)
Black
women authors have reclaimed Zora Neale Hurston. Gates notes that her
work more celebrates
than moralizes.
Maybe that is the reason why others superseded her. He talks about
double-consciousness.: a black in a non-black world, a women in a
non--female world. He quotes her: There
is something about poverty that smells like death
Towards
the end, Gates references an article published in Negro
World
called What
White Publishers Won't Print.
She traces her thinking that in slavery times, the master would
believe that a slave knew Latin and Algebra, but felt there was not
an understanding of it. In the same way, white publishers in more
modern times (1950’s), felt that blacks do not have anything which
a white would want to hear.
Gates
talked about a book she could not finish before she died. I wonder
what it was. I wonder if this was Barracoon
Evaluation:
I
had a hard time understanding, much less enjoying this story. That is
until I read it a second time. Then several pieces fit in. The first
black, Southern dialect was very slow going until I sounded things
out phonetically. Then the type of story telling stumped me until I
fit the pieces together. Last, Hurston’s lyrical writing throw me,
that is until I understood how she used imagery and poetry to paint
what she wanted the story to say.
Hurston
takes us through Janie’s life from a controlling, but loving
Grandmother through three marriages. We see Janie searching for a way
to fulfill her romantic and love needs. The third husband, Tea Cakes,
is the fulfillment of this and literally gives his life to save
Janie. All of the story takes place in Florida during the 1900-1930
time range and deals with almost exclusively the black community
Janie is in.
If
you are in a rush to get through this book, put it aside until you
can spend some time. It is well worth it.
Notes from my book group:
Note
one of the people, Sherley Anne Williams, talked about in the Forward
of my edition was from Fresno State-she has passed away.
The
first two paragraphs of the book sets the tone for the rest of the
book. There is the talk of people’s dreams being mocked. Hurston
talks about a woman does not forget what she wants to remember. How
is Hurston setting up the reader for the story she wants to tell?
Why
is the book called Their
Eyes Were Watching God?
Where in the book does it come from? How is God or religion talked
about in the book? In Chapter 12, the pastor says that Tea Cakes is
dragging Janie away from church. Is she really committed to being a
Christian?
Evaluate
Janie. Would you have trusted her as friend? With running of a
business? What is Janie searching for in her life? In her
relationships? Describe each of her relationships and what she finds
in them-her Grandmother, Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, Tea Cakes,
Pheoby.
What
is important to Janie about her hair? The men in her life?
What
is the scene in chapter one? Do you know what it is until you have
read the rest of the book?
The
start of chapter two says 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.
What feelings and impressions does these opening lines give you? How
does this shape the rest of the book? How does the pear tree fit into
this imagery? Where else does Hurston use this image?
How
does this line strike you: She
felt an answer seeking her, but where, When? How?
What
makes Janie a woman? Is the loss of childhood innocence? The desire
of something sexual? After Nanny dies, Hurston says Janie’s
first dream was dead, so she became a woman.
Why?
In
chapter two, Nanny says us
colored folks is branches without roots and that makes things come
round in queer way.
How did the “colored” folks get this way? Does this condition
persist until today? Is there a way for people who are all branches
but no roots to gain roots?
Once
Joe Starks becomes mayor of Eatonville, he started to act like a big
boss. How does Hurston portray Starks? Is he benevolent? Is he
selfish?
any
man who walks in the way of power and property is bound to meet hate.
Is
this inevitable? Or are there was to yield power without arousing
envy? How does this apply to our political system?
Hurston
portrays a marriage which seems acceptable to Joe Starks and Janie.
Someplace it degraded into something mechanical. Was there ever love
in the marriage? What did each person get out of it? How did this
segregation start? Once started, was there a way out of the
nose-dive?
In
chapter 9, after the funeral, Janie burnt her head rags. Why?
Also
in chapter 9, there is an internal dialogue she is having. What is
she talking about that her Nanny had taken away the horizon? Why is
this important? Also there is a sense that people do not love, they
only talk of love. Why does Janie come to that conclusion? What is
she missing? What jewel does Janie find inside of her?
After
Starks death, men come to help her out. How does Janie deal with
them?
When
Hurston introduces us to Tea Cakes, there is a couple of things noted
1) He is from Orlanda on Church St, 2) He smokes, 3) He has purple
lips. 4) Tall and slender. 5) He jumps trains. 6) Age difference. 7)
He is a gambler. 8) According to Janie-good nature. What is
significant about any of these?
How
come Janie is so taken by Tea Cakes? What is driving her love
thoughts
she dreamed of way back under the pear tree?
The
town thinks that Tea Cakes is after her money and will dump her once
he gets it. She points out that everybody loves money and/or
property. Is Tea Cakes after her money? Why did he take up with her?
Is Janie right that even if Tea Cakes is after her money, why is that
different from any of the other men? What motivates people in our
area? Is there anything not affected by the love of money?
Talk
about the Pheoby Watson character. Do you think Hurston was
portraying her as a friend? Confident? Gossip? A way to tell the
story?
Janie
says that she is done
living Grandma’s way, now Ah means tuh live mine.
How satisfying is living her Grandmother’s life was it? Do you
think living her own life was satisfying? Do you feel restrictions
on how you live your life? By what relationships? Society? Church? …
What would a life lived without restrictions look like?
After
Tea Cakes gambling episode and him saying they are going to the
Everglades, she felt
her soul crawled out from its hiding place.
Why?
In
chapter 14, Burton describes the migrants who flocked to this place
to pick beans. Her description: Tired
looking men with their families,
…. Hopeful
humanity, herded and hovered on the inside, …. People ugly from
ignorance and broken from being poor.
Reflect on this. She also talked about the owner charged for
everything, but the workers did not care since they made good money.
This sees like a discussion for an in-depth look at migrant worker
conditions of the 1920’s.
After
the hurricane, Tea Cakes asks Janie about if there was regrets in
going with him. Janie says: spected
nothin’, Tea Cake, but bein’ dead from the standin’ still and
tryin’ tuh laugh. But you come ’long and made somethin’ outa
me. So Ah’m thankful fuh anything we come through together.
What do you think of Janie’s response? Wasn’t her life more
valuable than the thrill? What is more important to you than living?
After
the hurricane in Palm Beach, Tea Cakes is forced to bury the dead.
Whites get coffins, blacks in a mass pit. What does this tell you how
various races are valued? Also Tea Cakes wants to get out of there
because he feels it is dangerous as a black to be there. Why?
Was
Janie Crawford a good female role model or was she solely defined by
the men in her life?
(From the Forward). When Jody and Janie go to Eatonville, he says
that her place is at home, not out in the town square leading
people. How has Janie improved her lot from Killick to Starks? How
are they the same? Then Tea Cakes came along. How does \Tea Cake fit
into the mode which Hurston wanted to portray for a husband and wife?
Why
does Hurston portray Janie with no children?
Why
did Janie allow Tea Cakes to beat her? Why didn’t she allow him to
shot her? How does it fit into the narrative of a woman who is
finding/who has found herself?
Was
this a good book? If so, what made it a good book to read?
Many
of these questions are either from or adapted from LitLovers.
Why
the title of Their
Eyes Were Watching God?
Does
this story work as a black story? Woman’s story?
Did
the ending seem fitting? Satisfying? Predictable?
Which
character was the most convincing? Least?
Every
story has a world view. Were you able to identify this story’s
world view? What was it? How did it affect the story?
In
what context was religion talked about in this book?
Was
there anybody you would consider religious?
Why
do you think the author wrote this book?
What
would you ask the author if you had a chance?
What
“takeaways” did you have from this book?
Describe
the culture talked about in the book.
How
is the culture described in this book different than where we live?
What
economic or political situations are described?
Does
the author examine economics and politics, family traditions, the
arts, religious beliefs, language or food?
How
did this book affect your view of the world?
Talk
about specific passages that struck you as significant—or
interesting, profound, amusing, illuminating, disturbing, sad...?
There
are several study guides/book group questions:
New Words:
- Zigaboos (1): lternative form of jigaboo, a black man that is triflin';was used as an insult, a contemptuous term used to refer to a Black person.
- coquetry(6): flirtatious behavior or a flirtatious manner.
- Root-doctor (8): Root doctors are the traditional healers and conjurers of the rural, black South. They use herbs, roots, potions, and spells to help and sometimes to hurt recipients of their ministrations.
- Flommuck (12): slang for fummox- perplex, baffle. languished. weakened, wasted away. Kerflommuck
- Kerflummox (12): slang for to confuse, bamboozle.
- Boogerboo (13): insincere, pretend, phonney
- Jook (14): pierce, poke, or stab.
- ‘Saws (16): I think this is slang for a type of Native American. Maybe Chickasaw. They were in the Southeast United States, but a bit more north.
- Coon-dick (17): Bootleg moonshine or other illegal alcohol.
- Florida flip (18): may be something like craps
- Coon-can (18): Conquian, a rummy-style card game
Book References:
