Re: Zora Neale Hurston

Listen in RealAudio as Edgar Whan, Marilyn Atlas, and Annette Oxindine discuss Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. Or read the transcripts the old-fashioned way.  Join the discussion here.  Note that the comments are automatically added to the guestbook page and later copied and pasted to this page.  And please listen to the Hurston question and answer session in Real Audio.

You can download a free RealPlayer here.   You'll need the RealPlayer, plus a sound card and speakers to listen to the audio files.


Read Chapter One of Their Eyes Were Watching God. 

An interesting theme, this, of community reconsidered. To me, a successful community depends on two somewhat competing elements: One, the recognition of our common humanity; and two, the recognition that it is strikingly hard to walk in anyone else's shoes other than our own, and thus we must listen to and respect the viewpoint and experiences of others. Speaking as someone who is (as of yet) not terribly familiar with the works being discussed, I'm already outlining in my head. It looks like three authors deal with stratified communities (Morrison, Hurston, Tolstoy) and one less so (Carver); on the other hand, it seems that one work is about breaking through stratification (Tolstoy's) and the others concern more people dealing with the realities of their own community as being stratified -- of living with the reality of a subcommunity. I'm particularly looking forward to hearing about Carver's work, since I really enjoy seeing what is familiar to me in a new way. And of course, I'm looking forward to finding out how far off-base my initial impressions are! ;)

Rachel Jaffe <allegria@his.com>
USA - Monday, April 28, 1997 at 23:46:44 (EDT)

I read Neale Hurston's novel a bit ago because I thought it was a shame that she was never assigned reading in my anthropology courses. I'm looking forward to discussing the book with other folk.

Seline Szkupinski Quiroga <seline@itsa.ucsf.edu>
SF, CA USA - Tuesday, May 20, 1997 at 22:42:36 (EDT)

I lead a book group of international women who read and discuss in English as their common language. I am very interested in introducing this group to Zora Neale Hurston, and am happy to have found your project!

Kitty Callan Skinner <Skinners@Compuserve.com>
APO, AE USA - Monday, May 26, 1997 at 10:09:11 (EDT)

I'm a librarian very interested in encouraging book discussion at our library. We have a book discussion series focusing on short stories this summer. I led a discussion of Their Eyes Were Watching God last fall. I'd like to hear from anyone with ideas to promote attendance.

Christine Gramm <christine.gramm@medina.lib.oh.us>
medina, OH USA - Thursday, May 29, 1997 at 15:19:03 (EDT)

I have a copy of "Their Eyes Were Watching God", so you don't need to enter me in the contest. Haven't read Carver, but have read all the others, I believe. Will be looking forward to the Hurston discussion most.

Cheryl Boone-Delgado
San Antonio, TX USA - Monday, June 02, 1997 at 12:04:15 (EDT)

I do assign Their Eyes Were Watching God to high school sophomores in a unit called "Search For Self." It is one of the favorite novels even though the dialect can be daunting. Hurston's imagery and use of language is exquisite ("the sun left its foot prints in the sky."). I look forward to the comments and discussion.

Janet Freeman <freezy@earthlink.net>
Columbia, MD USA - Tuesday, June 03, 1997 at 15:21:51 (EDT)

I'm looking forward to the Hurston discussion.

Marsha Valance <mvalan@mpl.org>
Milwaukee, WI USA - Wednesday, June 18, 1997 at 13:54:22 (EDT)

Just discovered your site by way of an on-line book group list. Zora Neale Hurston is an author that I read nearly ten years ago. I read every book I could get my hands on and then tried desperately to get others to read her works as well so that I could have someone to discuss them with. Finally, ten years later, I will reread them and have others to share comments with! I can't wait!

B Bricker <magdep16@aol.com>
Columbus, OH USA - Friday, June 20, 1997 at 01:40:27 (EDT)

I just finished the first nine chapters of "Their Eyes Were Watching God." Hurston gives a powerful description of a young girl's awakening sexuality. I am intrigued by the politics and power of "the porch." I think of the porch as a congress of sorts, which acted to balance Jody's Mayorship. I can't determine if it was Jody's money, his personality, or a combination of the two that gave him so much power. I'd like to hear what others think. It's interesting that a mule that was the focus of the community's scorn when Matt owned him became an object of affection when Jody bought him.

Jackie Carroll <jacarroll@netmcr.com>
USA - Monday, June 23, 1997 at 10:39:10 (EDT)

I continue to be amazed at the depth of interests in Zora's work. Zora was my aunt and I am fortunate to know of her on several different levels. I still find her work fascinating and intriguing and each time I re-read her work I find another tidbit to explore and understand.

Lucy Ann Hurston <LHurston@aol.com>
Bloomfield, CT USA - Tuesday, July 08, 1997 at 17:14:20 (EDT)

I have just come to this technology. Am learning as I go. Just found your site and got the sound downloaded. Will be here a lot, if that's alright. I love Zora Neale Hurston. Found her several years ago. I write reviews for a local newspaper and TEWWG is always on my annual "Top Ten" list. Have introduced several friends to her work. Thanks for having this site. I'm listening to the radio program...lovely. Will be back, for certain.

Terry Mathews <tmathews@stargate.1starnet.com>
Winnsboro, Tx USA - Monday, July 14, 1997 at 22:52:21 (EDT)

Okay, nobody laugh at me, but . . . I've just started listening to "Their Eyes Were Watching God" on audiotape! I swear, I looked for it in print, and it wasn't there. (Well, where I looked, anyway.) Oh, well -- it's beautiful to listen to, also. However, I'm only about a quarter of the way through, so if I say something stupid here in light of the final chapter, forgive me. I think this book is an excellent choice for the theme of community! Practically the very beginning sets us up to wonder about community and the requirements for belonging; we see Janie in opposition to the community. As it goes on, we see how she got married so that she would be acceptable for the community. Then we see her and her new husband head off to another community, where they are actively involved in building and shaping the community. Interesting questions arise about what is the role of the individual in the community. To what extent is conformance a requirement for membership in a community? To what extent will a community tolerate those who stray from its norms? (And that comes out not just in rebellion, but, for example, the resentment of the mayor, as well). Just thinking, again, on the beginning -- the portray is of a woman who has turned her back on the community and its mores. And yet . . . she comes back there. Because there's nothing to keep her away -- but what is it that draws her there IF there is nothing to keep her away? Community again?

Rachel <allegria@his.com>
Washington, DC USA - Wednesday, August 13, 1997 at 00:18:51 (EDT)

Me again -- listening to the next section of "Their Eyes" while I'm doing the dishes . There's really some
marvelously descriptive language, isn't there? I'm having fun picking out the nature references (after having read about that theme on the transcripts of the discussion here) -- even as small as Janie saying she was no longer "petal-open" to her husband. And just now I heard the description of how, after her husband hit her, Janie just stood still in the room. [approximate quoting here, since it's audio and thus not in print before me]: "She stood there until she heard something fall down within her, and then she went to see what it was." It was her image of her husband and their marriage. I just thought that was marvelous how sometimes we realize that something is happening, but can't bear to face it until we go to follow exactly what the conclusion is.

Rachel <allegria@his.com>
USA - Friday, August 15, 1997 at 16:59:12 (EDT)

I just finished reading over the transcripts of the radio discussion. The guests brought up some interesting points - nature as Rachel commented, and language...But I want to bring this back to the theme of community. I see Janie as being a member of multiple communities, each with its own social mores which are reflected in her marriages. Different aspects of Janie's character are visible during her sojourn in each community as she continues to grow as an individual and in self-knowledge. She moves from defining herself in relation to what's expected of her to what she wants, feels, desires (closer to nature?) Marilyn Atlas makes the point that to form a community, first you have to be an individual. I don't think that's necessarily true (I mean, we're all individuals, no?) but the individual influences the type of community formed, the strength of the bonds, etc. Rachel (a few posts down) brings up some good questions about the individual and community. Why does Janie come back? Maybe it has something to do with what I said earlier about how she's changed her frame of reference.

Seline <Seline@itsa.ucsf.edu>
San Francisco, CA USA - Friday, August 15, 1997 at 19:01:52 (EDT)

I have not completed the Hurston book yet although I did read it before. So far I'm feeling that Janie and the other female characters are just letting life happen to them. It is a sad commentary on women, but true. The female role, traditionally in our culture, has been a passive one, letting men make decisions for us and telling us what we should do and what we like. The men in the book are so slimy, they could slither through a the eye of a needle. I'd like to shake Janie and wake her up. She has totally disappeared. Again, this happens to women even today. Hurston's book could have been written about any woman regardless of color or time and still be true. Happily, I see the tide changing. Some women are living the life they choose.

Phyllis <JROVNER1@OHIOU.EDU>
Athens, OH USA - Sunday, August 24, 1997 at 10:15:54 (EDT)

Just read the transcript of the Hurston book and would like to comment a several topics. Edgar asks the question if we would read it if it were all in dialect. Personally, I don't think I could bear it. When I read a book, it is a Zen experience for me, I become one with the book. Since the dialect is foreign to me, I feel like an outsider. I can't get into the book. It may be beautiful, but it doesn't include me. I'm merely an onlooker. I agree that the names in the story are colorful. (Interesting that the main character is "Janie".) However, I think they should not be analyzed and studied. They just exist. They just add to the beauty of the book. When you were talking about names, I'm surprised no one brought up Dickens. Surely a list of Dickens' characters would make interesting reading. The biggest problem I had with the discussion was about freedom. Perhaps it was too brief. Edgar seems to be talking about a freedom that most of us don't have. In some respects none of us is totally free. The only way to achieve that is to buy an island in the Pacific. I have seriously contemplated doing that. I think the reason we can never be free is because we live in groups, be it a marriage, community, etc. Yes, freedom is dangerous. But think of the power!!!! What a joy to be free, really free, even for an hour. By the way, Edgar, the goal of the university is not to produce "free" people, but to produce people that fit in. A free person is like a square peg in a round hole.

Phyllis <JROVNER1@OHIOU.EDU>
Athens, OH USA - Sunday, August 24, 1997 at 14:20:28 (EDT)

Wow, lots of comments! I'm going to try inserting some HTML in here to divide things up -- hope it works and doesn't look awful!

I finished listening to the story -- such a tragic ending! I was struck by the resemblance between Tea Cake and Janie's first husband at the end -- sick in bed, jealous and accusatory. For me, it had the effect of making me feel more sympathetic towards the first husband, in retrospect. Since I knew that Tea Cake's words and deeds were not his own, but the sickness talking, I was more inclined to extend the same benefit of the doubt to the first one. Did anyone else feel that way?

Some other comments -- Phyllis, I think that this IS the only way to participate in the Hurston discussion -- but perhaps David has already written to you about this? Anyway, I'm glad you're here -- I've enjoyed seeing your comments. I don't enjoy reading books entirely in dialect much either -- the two-step process of reading and translating in my mind is more distraction than I want. Freedom is a difficult topic. I think you're right that it's impossible to be truly free, if freedom is seen as having no obligations. But I think that there's a freedom that comes when you make your own choices. When I consider freedom that way, I'm not as pessimistic about the chance to become free.

Seline, I'd love to hear more about why you felt Janie came back. I understand leaving Florida, tied as it was to Tea Cake. But for the other?

Elizabeth, I was really interested in your comments about Tess Gallagher and Raymond Carver. Could you tell us what it was that he believed (that you alluded to) before she met him, and how that changed?

Rachel <allegria@his.com>
USA - Sunday, August 31, 1997 at 02:38:27 (EDT)

Hurston's TEWWG is one of the most important books in my personal library. I write reviews for a local newspaper and it always makes my annual "Top Ten" list. I'm not a scholar, but I do believe that Hurston hit on an universal nerve...that all people have the right to happiness....and that no one has the right judge another and that we are all equal. I suffered with Janie and I shared in her triumphs and I loved Tea Cake, too.

It's been a long time since I read TEWWG, and I have no new light to shed on Hurston's imagery, style or subject matter. What I can tell you is that she moved me like few other authors have. I have read all of her books and have watched with interest as her works enjoy a revival.

Terry Mathews <tmathews@stargate.1starnet.com>
Winnsboro, TX USA - Wednesday, September 03, 1997 at 07:57:58 (EDT)

So glad to see some new comments. I'd like to get back to "freedom". Perhaps I'm defining it improperly or have never really known true freedom. I just finished "The Bluest Eye" and again there is a reference to freedom and love. At the end of the book, Morrison says, "love is never any better than the lover. Wicked people love wickedly, violent people love violently, weak people love weakly, stupid people love stupidly. but the love of a free man is never safe." Does that mean none of us is free? What is safe love? What does it mean to be free? I'd like to go back to the Hurston book. At the end, Janie is bitten by Tea Cake before she shoots him. There are references to the teeth marks on her. Are we to assume that she is also doomed?
Phyllis <JROVNER1@OHIOU.EDU>
Athens, OH USA - Wednesday, September 03, 1997 at 21:13:49 (EDT)

In terms of community in these two text, the Bluest Eye and Their Eyes... I think it is interesting to look at the resurgence of interest in these novels and what that says about our community. Hurston published Their Eyes in the 30's it got mass appeal in the 70's and is having a resurgence in the late 90's Morrison published the late 70's and is also (even though she has written several other books since then) a resurgence in the late 90's. Usually a resurgence is because of white academic and quasi-theoretical mainstream interest. I read The Bluest Eye and Their Eyes as a child of the age of 10. It was given to me by a Black teacher I had who was an avid collector of Black fiction of several genre. I think the resurgence of these books as interesting enough to discuss is that our community is once again so divergent on issues of race, especially where race intersects with gender.
Vida Williams <vcwilliams@oao.com>
USA - Friday, November 14, 1997 at 10:59:19 (EST)

Unlike the other comments I have read about "Their Eyes Were Watching God," I thought this was a terrible book. I had the hardest time reading the story and the over-abundance of African-American dialect and the nonstop overdone descriptive paragraphs. The themes of the story are indeed interesting, but I however lost interest after reading so many words I could not understand! Cut down on the descriptive imagery and I might not have lost interest by the end of the page!
Lyndsay <Lyndsay_69@hotmail.com>
Nashville, TN USA - Sunday, December 07, 1997 at 19:56:32 (EST)

What were Zora's views on the roles of black women, and how did she display this in "Their Eyes Were Watching God?"
Diana <Cheerdi@juno.com>
Rosemont, pa USA - Thursday, December 11, 1997 at 10:44:43 (EST)

I just discovered Zora in one of my classes. She is a beautiful writer and I enjoyed your discussion.
Diana Prevot <dprevot@worldnet.att.net>
Balboa Is, Ca USA - Sunday, February 08, 1998 at 01:02:29 (EST)

Hurston is like a role model to me she has inspired me in different ways. Her insight on life has given a path to take in life. Despite her hardships she did what she had to do.
Krystyn Pew
Clermont, Florida USA - Friday, March 06, 1998 at 09:17:47 (EST)

I am a junior in HS doing a multi genre paper on Zora Neale Hurston and would appreciate help or ideas of genres to use in my paper...Thanks!
Jen Meyers <JRenee5799@aol.com>
Geneva, NY USA - Friday, March 13, 1998 at 09:45:54 (EST)

Hey ya'll! I just finished ready Their Eyes Were Watching God for school. I was just wondering if anyone had any ideas about what to write about in my literary criticism paper. If you can help please do!
Sandy <moss98@Juno.com>
USA - Saturday, March 14, 1998 at 13:02:11 (EST)

I am doing my research paper on the influence of the Harlem Renaissance on Zora Neale Hurston's THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD. Any information anyone can give me would be a great help and greatly appreciated. thank you. thank you for your site it has helped me a lot
amie <beloved@palatka.com>
satsuma, fl USA - Tuesday, March 31, 1998 at 05:47:00 (EST)

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