Their Eyes Were Watching God

Hurston                                

"Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others, they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing... Now, women forget all the things they don't want to remember, and remember all the things they don't want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly" (1)

Direct quote

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Danticat

Feminist/womanist approach:

"Was Jaine Crawford a good female role model or was she solely defined by the men in her life (xiv)?"

"Certainly manifested a will of her own in spite of the efforts of her grandmother and her two first husbands to dominate her, leaving her first husband when life with him grew unbearable, and taking off with Tea Cake against public opinion after the second husband died (xiv)"

"Why did Janie allow TC to beat her (xiv)?"

Direct quote/summary (commentary)

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Hurston

Phoebe: Good friend (see page 3)-" 'she's her own woman. She oughta know by now whut she wants tuh do (111)' "

Stands up for herself like JC; Strong

" 'It's all ready and waitin'. If he ain't got sense enough to eat it, dat's his hard luck (7)' "

Can see strength/fight in Nanny too: " 'Humph! don't 'spect all dat tuh keep up. He ain't kissin' yo' mouf when he carry on over yuh lak dat. He's kissin' o' foot and 'tain't in uh man tuh kiss foot long. Mouf kissin' is on uh equal and daat's natural but when dey got to bow down tuh love, dey soon straightens up (23)' "---> Inhereted by JC?

Summary/direct quote

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Hurston

" 'Even wid dem overhalls on, you shows yo' womanhood (4)' "

Janie=tomboy

Janie loved the conversation and sometimes she thought up good stories on the mule, but Joe had forbidden her to indulge

JC=Manly in own right

Direct quote/summary

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Hurston

" 'Ah ain't never seen mah papa. And Ah didn't know 'im if Ah did. Mah mama neither (8)' "

JC=Independent since infancy

Always different from those around her, physically and mentally (see photograph story, p.9)

" '...chillun at school got to teasin' me 'bout livin' in de white folks' back-yard (9)' "

Dreamer: see pear tree i.e. p. 10-11 ("Waiting for the world to be made (11)")

" 'you ain't no everyday chile like most of 'em. You ain't got no papa, you might jus' as well say no mama, for de good she do yuh (15)' "

Direct quote/summary

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Danticat

"...We are also given plenty of insight into the mindsets of those who would wish to condemn her. Janie, however, is never overly critical of her neighbors' faultfinding reactions to her. She either ignores them entirely or pities them for having left the safety of their town and never having lived and loved as deeply as she has (xv)"

COMMUNITY

"Along with the classic conflict between an individual's wishes and a community's censure, there are many contemporary motifs in this novel... forbidden love; a public and passionate affair between a younger man and an older woman from different stations in life (xvi)"

Direct quote/ summary

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Danticat/Hurston

Nanny: "the conflicting paths laid out for Janie Crawford as she attempts to survive her grandmother's restricted vision of a black woman's life and realize her own self-conceived libeartion (xv)"

"Part of the reason Janie's grandmother Nanny pushes her into a loveless marriage to Logan Killicks, her first husband, is that Nanny was born into slavery and had little choice over her own destiny... What Nanny may not have considered is that Janie would ahve her own ideas of freedom (xvii)"

Direct quote

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Danticat

"She has told her story and has satisfied 'that oldest human longing--self-revelation.' And now she must go on...even as she has lost her beloved, she has also discovered many deeper layers of herself (xvii)"

Unapplicable?

Direct quote/summary

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Hurston

Symbol #3=Horizon

Symbol #4=Pear tree 

Symbol #5=Spit cup (20, 47)

Symbol #6=Hair (Mrs. Turner, 144)

Symbol #7=Hurricane (154)

Direct quote/summary

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Hurston

" '...de white man is de ruler of everyting as fur as Ah been able tuh find out. Maybe it's some place way off in de ocean where de balck man is in power, but we don't know nothin' but what we see. So de white man throw down de load and tell de nigger man tuh pick it up. He pick it up because he have to, but he don't tote it. He hand it to his womenfolks. De nigger woman is de mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see (14) ' "

Mule=symbol?

Direct quote/summary

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Hurston

Marriage: JC is independent individual; why does she need a relationship?

"Did marriage end the cosmic loneliness of the unmated? Did marriage compel love like the sun the day... Janie asked inside of herself and out. She was back and forth to the pear tree... Husbands and wives always loved each other, and that was what marriage meant... She wouldn't be lonely anymore (21)"

" 'Mah name is Janie Mae Killicks since Ah got married. Uster be name Janie Mae Crawford (29)' "

Direct quote/summary

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Hurston

"Janie had spent most of the day under a blossoming pear tree in the back-yard. She had been spending every minute that she could steal from her chores under that tree for the last three days. That was to say, ever since the first tiny bloom had opened. It had called her to come and gaze on a mystery. From barren brown stems to glistening leaf-buds; from the leaf-buds to snowy virginity of bloom... The rose of the world was breathing out smell... Now they emerged and quested about her consciousness (10)"

Significance of NATURE theme?? 

Direct quote/summary

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Hurston

"...she began to stand around the gate and expect things. What things? She didn't know exactly. Her breath was gusty and short. She knew things that nobody had ever told her. For instance, the woods of the trees and the wind. She often spoke to falling seeds and said, 'Ah hope you fal on soft ground,' because she had heard seeds saying that to each other as the passed. She knew the world was a stallion rolling in the blue pasture of ether. She knew that God tore down the old world every evening and built a new one by sun-up... She knew now that marriage did not make love. Janie's first dream was dead, so now she became a woman (25)"

Direct quote (nature theme continued)

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Hurston

"Janie pulled back a long time because he did not represent sun-up and pollen and blooming trees, but he spoke for far horizon. He spoke for change and chance (29)"

Nature reference

"You ain't never knowed what it was to be treated lak a lady and Ah wants to be de one tuhg show yuh. Call me Jody (29)"

False promise

Direct quote

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Hurston

" 'Youse powerful independent around here sometime considerin' (30)' "

" 'You don't need mah help out dere, Logan. Youse in yo' place and Ah'm in mine (31)' "

" 'Thank yuh fuh yo' compliments, but mah wife don't know nothin' 'bout no speech-makin'. Ah never married her for nothin' lak dat. She's uh woman and her place is in de home (43)' "

Gender tension/division!

Janie doesn't comply with tradition

"The women got together the sweets and the men looked after the meats (45)" 

DQ/summary

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Hurston

"She wasn't even angry. Logan was accusing her of her mamma, her grandmama and her feelings, and she couldn't do a thing about any of it. The sow-belly needed turning (32)"

"The morning road air was like a new dress... From now on until death she was going to have flower dust and srpintime sprinkled over everything... Her old thought were going to come in handy now, but her new words would ahve to be made an d said to fit them (32)"

Reaction to scolding=laughter ;Janie=strong;Feeds off her hard times

"She was saving up feelings for some man she had never seen. She had an inside and an outside now and suddenly she knew how not to mix them up (72)"

Learns to settle for only the best in life; fights for freedom/happiness

What doesn't kill her only makes her stronger

DQ/sum

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Danticat

"TC gives his life for Janie, and this, if nothing else, serves as some atonement for many of his sins (xiv)"

"Experiences more freedom than most women (certainly most poor women) of her time (xv)"

"Like all individual thinkers, JC pays the price of exclusion for nonconformity, much like Hurston herself, who was accused of stereotyping the people she loved when she perhaps simply listened to them much more closely than others, and sought to reclaim and reclassify their voices (xv)"

Direct quote

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Hurston

Each husband contributes to Janie's build of individual character

See page 39

Summary

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Hurston

"She must look on herself as the bell-cow, the other women were the gang (41)"

Eatonville thrives off COMMUNITY life

JC has trouble fitting in

" 'Ah feels lak Ah'm jus' markin' time. Hope it soon gits over (46)' "

Jan perfers seclusion from close-knit community

DQ/summary

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Hurston 

"She slept with authority and so she was part of it in the town (46)"

"It was bad enough for white people, but when one of your own color could be so different it put you on a wonder (48)"

DQ

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Hurston

Why does Janie allow Joe/TC to beat/control her at times?

JC=UNIQUE from other women

Summary

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Hurston

Hair/mule (metaphor for slave?)/buzzard (white man?) symbols=55-56, 61

JC has soft spot for nature/animals' exception; brings out femine side; passive in many respects? 

"People ought to have some regard for helpless things (57)"

DQ/sum

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Hurston

Joe holds her back (71)

" 'You sho loves to tell me whut to do, but Ah can't tell you nothin' Ah see!' "

" 'Ah naw they don't. They Just think they's thinkin'. When Ah see one thing Ah understands ten. you see ten things and don't understand one' "

"He had her submission and he'd keep on fighting until he felt he had it"

JC wouldn't comply

"She found that out one day when he slapped her face in the kitchen"

DQ/sum

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Hurston

" '...It's so easy to make yo' self out God Almighty when you ain't got nothin' tuh strain against but women and chickens.' "

" 'You gettin' too moufy... (75)' "

Steps out of her box; courageous

" 'Ah reckon Ah looks mah age too. But Ah'm uh woman every inch of me, and Ah know it. Dat's uh whole lot more'n you kin say (79)' "

"Why must Joe be so mad with her for making him look small when he did it to her all the time (81)?"

Compare reactions

DQ/sum

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Hurston

"The more ppl in there the more ridicule he poured over her body to point attention away from his own... There was some more good-natured laugher at the expense of the women (78)"

DQ

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Hurston

Symbol: Death

" 'You changes everything but nothin' don't change you--not even death (86)' "

Strong even in face of death; fearless

Stands up; "The young girl was gone, but a handsome woman had taken her palce. She tore off the kerchief from her head and let down her plentiful hair. The weight, the length, the glory was there (87)"

Self-confident; FREE

Funeral wasn't an end; only a beginning

DQ/sum

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Hurston

"She did not reach outside for anything, nor did the things of death reach inside to disturb her calm. She sent her face to Joe's funeral, and herself went rollicking with the springtime across the world... burnt up every one of her head rags and went about the house with hair in braid... that was the only change ppl saw in her... she would have rest of her life to do as she pleased (88-89)"

Nature

DQ/sum

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Hurston

"She had been getting ready for her great journey to the horizons in search of ppl...It was all according to the way you see things. Some ppl could look at a mudpuddle and see an ocean. Nanny belonged to kind in scraps... Here Nanny had taken the biggest thing God mad, horizon...choke her...She hated the old woman who had twisted her so in the name of love (89)"

JC=Ind. but not shut off to lonesomeness

Dreamer

DQ/sum

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Hurston

" 'Uh woman by herself is uh pitiful thing. Dey needs aid and assistance. God never meant 'em tuh try tuh stand by theirselves

Alhtough JC always in relationship, highly capable of standing on own

" 'Let 'em say whut dey wants tuh, Pheoby. To my thinkin' mourning oughn't tuh last no longer'n grief (93)' "

Doesn't care what others think about her (not even men)

DQ/sum

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Hurston

TEA CAKE: "He set it up and began to show her and she found herself glowing inside. Somebody wanted her to play. Somebody though it natural for her to play (96)"

TC=Different from rest doesn't hold her back just b/c she's a woman; brings out inner youth

First relationship that permits her independence AS WOMAN

Makes her feel good about herself

DQ/sum

TREATS HER AS AN EQUAL (better shot (131)); roles swap?

" 'Who ever heard uh teacake bein' called Mister! (98)' "

" 'you betta come git uh job uh work out dere lak de rest uh de women (133)' "

DQ/sum

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Hurston

JC=Nonaligned; why?--->self-governed/unconstrained

" 'Dis ain't no business proposition, and no race after property and titles. Dis is uh love game (114)' "

" 'But he done showed me where it's de thought dat makes de difference in ages (115)' "

Doesn't trust others' instincts; only her own

Summary

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Hurston

"They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God (160)"

DQ

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Hurston

" 'Ah know all dem sitters-and-talkers gointuh worry they guts into fiddle strings till dey find out whut we been talkin' 'bout. Dat's all right, tell 'em... mah love didn't work lak they love, if dey ever had any... love ain't sometin' lak uh grindstone dat's de same ting everywhere and do de same ting tuh everything... (191)' "

Explains love's diversity; theme

JC don't care what other's think

" '...Two things everybody's got tuh do fuh theyselves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin' fuh theyselves (192)' "

DQ/sum

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Wolf

"Explores rich imagery and symbolism of opening passage and importance to work as whole"

DQ

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Bealer

Analysis on sexism

Summary

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Caldwell

Symbolism focus; specifically eyes (significance?)

Instead of focusing on a historically specific moment of high racial tension, Hurston chose instead to relate an a-historical tale about the more universal problems of love and identity.
The relationships between men and women and women and women are explored in depth in the text.

Summary/DQ

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Bernard

Construction of self

Summary

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Miller

"Janie is seen as the unchanging feminist hero"

DQ

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Unknown

"A woman realizes she is being defined by everyone but herself
IDENTITY AWAKENED We all have our own identities, but unfortunately, sometimes it is easier to let other people tell us who we are and what we want"

DQ

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Baker

"Highlights the sexual subjectivity and political issues"
"Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were WatchingGod is a text at once (ac)claimed for its ability to speak to contemporary gender and sexual politics and blamed for its inability to speak to the local, particularized politics of its time. Their Eyes has been used to situate STRONG, culture-based women"

DQ

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Haurykiewicz

IMAGERY (i.e mule)

Speech vs silence; strength in speech

Summary

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Kubitschek

"Eludes to a favoring of personal relationships over political concerns"

Applicable?

DQ/sum

 Their Eyes Were Watching God

Johnson

"a modern masterpiece," tells the story of Janie Crawford, whose independent spirit and desire for her own fulfillment run contrary to society's expectations of a 1920s black woman.

OPRAH’S INTERPRETATION

DQ/sum