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Their eyes were watching God

Title	Their eyes were watching God a novel
Author	Zora Neale Hurston
Publication	Harper Collins
Size	XVIII, 219p, 16p
Language	ENG
ISBN	0060838671
Topics	American fiction--African Americans American fiction--Women American fiction--Social Marriage--United States
Notes	The novel narrates main character Janie Crawford's "ripening from a vibrant, but voiceless, teenage girl into a woman with her finger on the trigger of her own destiny." Set in central and southern Florida in the early 20th century, the novel was initially poorly received for its rejection of racial uplift literary prescriptions. Today, it has come to be regarded as a seminal work in both African-American literature and women's literature. The main character Janie Crawford, an African-American woman in her early forties, tells the story of her life via an extended flashback to her best friend, Pheoby. Pheoby tells Janie's story to the nosy community on her behalf. Her life has three major periods corresponding to her marriages to three very different men. Nanny, Janie's grandmother, was a slave who became pregnant by her owner and gave birth to a mixed-race daughter Leafy. Nanny escaped from her jealous mistress and finds a good home after the end of the American Civil War. Nanny tries to create a good life for her daughter, Leafy is raped by her school teacher and becomes pregnant with Janie. Shortly after Janie's birth, Leafy begins to drink and stay out at night. Eventually, she runs away, leaving her daughter Janie with Nanny. Nanny transfers all the hopes she had for Leafy to Janie. When Janie is sixteen, Nanny sees her kissing a neighborhood boy, Johnny Taylor, and fears that Janie will become a "mule" to some man wanting her only for her body and labour. Nanny arranges for Janie to marry Logan Killicks, an older man and farmer looking for a wife. Although Janie is not interested in either Logan or marriage, her grandmother wants her to have the stability she never had: legal marriage to Killicks, Nanny thinks, with give Janie opportunities. Nanny feels that Janie will be unable to take care of herself so she must marry a man who will take care of her. Janie has the idea that marriage must involve love, forged in a pivotal early scene where she sees bees pollinating a pear tree, and believes that marriage is the human equivalent to this natural process. Killicks wants a domestic helper rather than a lover or partner; he thinks Janie does not do enough around the farm, and that she is ungrateful. Janie speaks to Nanny about how she feels, but Nanny accuses her of being spoiled, too. Soon afterward, Nanny dies. Unhappy and lonely, Janie runs off with the glib Jody Starks, who takes her to Eatonville. [wikipedia]

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