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by: Zora Neale Hurston
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.52
EAN: 9780060931414
ISBN: 0060931418
Label: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 240
Publication Date: December 01, 1998
Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Release Date: November 25, 1998
Sales Rank: 18363
Studio: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Fair and long-legged, independent and articulate, Janie Crawford sets out to be her own person -- no mean feat for a black woman in the '30s. Janie's quest for identity takes her through three marriages and into a journey back to her roots.
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 stories 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, working 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 almost 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 device for the story 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 ignore 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 other 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 explain 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 friend's mouf.'
Hurston's use of dialect enraged other African American writers such as Wright, who accused her of pandering to white readers by giving them the black stereotypes they expected. Decades later, however, 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
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Among the Most Influential African-American Novels of the 20th Century
In Their Eyes Were Watching God, middle-aged narrator Janie Crawford tells the story of her life to date. Janie was raised by her former-slave grandmother, who pushed Janie into a life of quiet conventionality as a farmer's wife. Unsatisfied, however, when a man with big dreams comes along, Janie flees. Despite the promises she was given, Janie is again pushed into a life of quiet, albeit more comfortable, conventionality as the wife of a small town shopowner and mayor. When her second husband ... Read More
Rating:  - Dreamy little novel
I still think fondly of this book, all the way back to high school. This is one of those incredible literary experiences that stays with you whether you loved it or hated it, and frankly I quite liked it.
The writing is deep, descriptive, and powerful, focused so much on the world around, nature.
The story, however, is deeply personal and rather feminist, that of a girl who is simply trying to be herself and find out who she is. This leads to various bad marriages until she ... Read More
Rating:  - Complete garbage...don't waste your time
This book sucked. Richard Wright was correct when he stated that Zora Neale Hurston pandered to white prejudiced readers. The way Hurston's black characters speak in this book portrays African Americans as stupid, easily fooled, and naive. The story was boring, pointless, and poorly written. The book, in short, was unbelievably bad, and if it weren't for I school assignment, I wouldn't have wasted time and money reading this bilge.
Rating: - An Amazing Book
There's a good chance you're buying this book because it's assigned reading for a class. Go into that classroom and THANK YOUR TEACHER. I didn't read this book in school. I stumbled upon when I was done with school. I bought it because I thought the title was interesting. What I found inside this book stunned me. The voice is so strong you can feel it in your heart. The writing is beautiful. The story will shake you. Enjoy!
Rating: - Their Eyes Were Watching God
Please read this book! I'm serious! The writing is pure poetry, with fantastic images that will stay with me forever. Also, the historical value cannot be exaggerated. The author, Nora Neale Hurston, gave us a tremendous gift.
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