Published in 1937, Their Eyes Were Watching God tells the story of Janie Crawford, a black woman who has finally found the love of her life in her third marriage. Janie returns to the town she lived in, 18 months after leaving with a much younger man. He does not return with her and the townsfolk gossip about her, with only her best friend Pheoby defending her. She tells Pheoby her story, including the background of her youth and her two earlier marriages.
Her grandmother, who had raised Janie, forced her to marry an older man when she was 16. Logan Killicks owned 60 acres and would provide for Janie. But Janie was not happy with Logan. So when she meets Joe Stark, who talks nicely to her and has plenty of money, they go off together and get married on the way to a new town comprised only of African-Americans that Joe wants to help establish. Life in Eatonville with Joe promises to be better but in the end she remains under Joe's thumb at all times. She is not allowed to express her own feelings without being put down by Joe. However she settles down and accepts the status quo, although not happily. When Janie is in her late thirties and Joe in his late forties, he dies of an unnamed ailment.
After Joe's death, Vegible Woods, also known as Tea Cake, comes into her life. He is 15 years younger than Janie and a free spirit. The citizens of Eatonville are shocked that she is going out with Tea Cake, and predict that it won't work out. Nevertheless, Janie and Tea Cake go off together to Jacksonville, Florida, where they get married. Then they move to the Everglades and for the first time she has a real companion in life. Unfortunately their happiness together is cut short.
My thoughts:
This was an amazing depiction of the life of one black woman in the South in the early 1900s. The story is told partially in the vernacular of the area. I thought this might bother me, but it felt natural and easy to read. It also has many lyrical passages. These are the first two paragraphs of the book:
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 until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men.
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. Then they act and do things accordingly.
This book is sad in part, but the ending is upbeat. You know that Janie is not beaten by life, she is in her forties with plenty of years left, and she will forge on and do what she wants to with her life.
The setting is Florida, and I especially enjoyed the depiction of life in the Everglades. Having grown up in Alabama, I visited Florida several times before I moved to California, but mostly limited to Pensacola and Panama City. There is a lot of Florida I am not familiar with.
The town that Janie and her second husband move to is based on a real town. Eatonville, Florida, is the oldest black-incorporated municipality in the United States, established in 1887. Zora Neale Hurston grew up in Eatonville, which allowed her to have a childhood free of the prejudices and restrictions of other towns in the state. In the book, Eatonville is not an idyllic town at all. It doesn't turn out to be a haven for Janie.
Some people have called this a romance, and there is that element, but I see it as more about the journey of one woman's life in a hard world, and a quest for love and true companionship. There is much more to this story than I can include here, and I think it is a worthwhile read. However, for some readers it just won't be their cup of tea.
The edition I read has a Foreward by Edwidge Danticat, and Afterword by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., a Selected Bibliography, and a Chronology of Hurston's life.
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Publisher: Amistad, 2006 (orig. publ. 1937)
Length: 193 pages
Format: Trade paperback
Setting: Florida, USA
Genre: Fiction, Classic
Source: I purchased my copy
