One of the things that struck me about Their Eyes were Watching God was its very story like quality. Unlike Native Son and Invisible Man, Hurston isn't trying to prove a point about society; she is trying to tell a story. There is no great moral dilemma or despicable depiction of white society, rather it is a story of a woman, her lovers, and her stories. There are scant references to white people and the novel seems more focused on the life of African-Americans only, rather than interactions between the two races.
Part of the lack of protest probably comes from the fact that there were few white people in the novel. During Jaine's and Joey's time in Eatonsville, there isn't a single white person mentioned in the narrative. This lack of difference means that there is very little possibility for Hurston to talk about oppression. When Jaine and Tea Cake are working in the Muck, there are also very few references to white people. The owner of the bean farm was probably white, but he/she only comes up once in the story. The only parts of the novel that could be racially charged are in the very beginning, where the Jaine talks about her upbringing and grandmother, and towards the end, when the whole ordeal with the cleanup and the court scene goes down.
I enjoyed reading this book. It felt like it could be part of any English course offerec at Uni (maybe not creative writing, though). Hurston's narrative voice made the book feel more like a book that you want to read than Native Son. Her multidimensional characters also made the book more realistic than Invisible Man (which I also liked, but not as much).
Yes I agree that there is very little interracial contact in this novel that does not allow for the issues that drove the other two books that we have read. However, I believe there is still plenty of social significance in this book. We have discussed in class the contrasting social dynamics in the different societies. there is also plenty of discussion of gender roles in the book that can have similar characteristics to racial strife. There definitely is a story to be told as well, though.
ReplyDeleteYou're right in that there are very few instances in this book with white characters, although most of the white characters are not painted in a very good light. One of the scenes that you mentioned, the courtroom one, has the most white people in it and it sort of stuck out of the book. Like Mr. Mitchell said, Hurston could have had Janie telling her story during the trial rather than to Phoeby, but then it would be a very different novel. The courtroom scene didn't fit in with the rest of the book and reminded me a bit of "To Kill a Mockingbird" (although there are huge difference obviously). "Their Eyes Were Watching God" is certainly a different kind of book than the other two that we've read so far, but I also enjoyed it quite a bit.
ReplyDeleteI'd say the main racial conflict/references to race is in the discussions between Mrs. Turner and Janie. Although both are neither completely black nor completely white, Janie is in many ways more a part of black culture than Mrs. Turner, and this functions in some ways very similar to a discussion of race between people of different races, because the two are so culturally different.
ReplyDeleteYou are definitely right in saying there is very little interaction with white people in the novel, but I don't think that necessarily means that there is no social commentary on race relations in the novel. The absence of the white people, in Eatonville for example, show what the culture of black people really is like. We get the sense that they are really isolated from the reality of the south that we would think of, and that they operate entirely on their own. From this separation, African-Americans in Eatonville live with an air of ease and don't really have direction in what they have to do, they are not oppressed. So while Hurston does not directly show any racial oppression, the freedom that the people of Eatonville have shows a contrast that comments on racial relations.
ReplyDeleteI've taught every novel on our syllabus in the context of other, more "general" English courses (with the exception of Beatty, which I only discovered a few years ago--but I could totally include it in the Coming-of-Age Novel course). I've taught _Native Son_ at U of I in a course on Crime and Punishment in the 20th Century, and _Invisible Man_ and _Their Eyes Were Watching God_ in courses on the 20th Century Novel and Introduction to Fiction. I certainly would not want any of you to get the impression that these works are "only" interesting in the context of African American Literature. But they are indeed representative of issues and themes that have shaped this particular tradition within the larger context of American literature.
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