Our Eyes Watching Their Eyes Were Watching God: May 2011

I am excited to read Hurston's book with you. I was never assigned this book in any of my classes, and when I read it last summer I was embarrassed to realize that I had somehow overlooked one of the most amazing masterpieces in our literature. This is one of my favorite books. I am curious to see what you all think. The novel is tight, but perhaps not quite as tight as Gatsby, and I'm afraid you might feel it's a let-down, but I think it is very nearly as intensely written, and Hurston performs much more amazing feats of ventriloquism than Fitzgerald attempts. I hope you end up seeing that this book is as virtuosic as Gatsby, and maybe even more mature, because less ironic.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Junior paper next draft

is due on Wednesday, May 11.

chapter 18 - chapter 20

How does this fit with what you thought about how Hurston would head toward an ending?

And once you've finished the book--what did you feel and think?

Monday, May 2, 2011

Chapters 14-17 (jealousy and color consciousness)

Hurston is covering a lot of ground here, efficiently showing us the external pressures on Janie and Tea Cake's relationship. How do you react? I for one was happy that Hurston surfaced and dealt with the issue of Janie's lighter skin and straighter hair. The whole book I've been flinching a bit every time someone fetishizes her hair; finally Hurston addresses the issue head on and has Janie say, "We'se uh mingled people"--and the reader is like: Yes! We may still feel uncomfortable about Hurston's choosing a straight-haired woman (or, for that matter, a woman with "pugnacious" breasts) to be her protagonist, making us kind of wonder whether liberation is possible for women who look different from Janie--but at least Hurston shows that she is aware of the issue. How liberated she is (and how Tea Cake deals with the external pressures) is a whole other issue...