Feminista 100 Greatest Works of 20th Century Fiction by Women Writers
Even had she never written a word, Alice Walker would have secured her
place as an important figure in the history of African American fiction
simply by rehabilitating Zora Neale Hurston. In her own day, Hurston
was recognized as a leading figure of the Harlem Renaissance, doing ground
breaking work on black folklore, collaborating with Langston Hughes and
writing an autobiography, several novels and many short stories.
But she had the great misfortune to fall afoul of her fellow black intellectuals,
like Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison, who took offense at her use of vernacular
language in her stories and who thought that her writing was not sufficiently
negative about the black experience in America. Her opponents were
better connected politically and saw to it that she was dismissed by the
Left intelligentsia. She died in obscurity in a Welfare home and
her works went out of print, largely forgotten. Then, in 1975, Alice
Walker wrote a piece for Ms Magazine, about her search for Hurston's
grave and began a reawakening of interest in her work. Walker's attentions
seem to have been amply repaid, as this fine novel seems to have been a
significant influence on her own book The Color Purple (see review).
Their Eyes Were Watching God tells the story of Janie Crawford.
Raised in Florida by a grandmother, she experiences several loveless marriages,
but develops into a strong and independent woman, then finds love with
an itinerant worker named Tea Cake. Their happiness ends rather brutally
when Tea Cake gets infected saving Janie from a rabid dog and Janie is
forced to kill him. Besides the central theme of Janie's growth as
a woman, the story is similar to The
Color Purple for the almost eerie absence of white people.
This was, in fact, one of the complaints lodged against her in the 30's,
that she shied away from the issues of race and racism that other authors
were focussing on and bringing to public attention. The novel does
also render characters' speech in unvarnished dialect. You can see
why fellow authors would have been embarrassed by the language, but that
does not delegitimize its use.
In the end, the very things that her cohort found objectionable about
her work--the colorful dialogue and the relatively upbeat portrayal of
black characters--make Hurston's writing much more enjoyable than the earnest
but polemical, to the point of agitprop, works of folks like Wright and
Ellison. I liked the book quite a bit; which actually, when you get
right down to it, pretty much proves Richard Wright's point.
(Reviewed:10-Jan-00)
Grade: (B)
Websites:
Zora Hurston Links:
-REVIEW: of 'Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston' by Valerie Boyd (Jake Lamar, Washington Post)
Book-related and General Links:
-Zora
Neale Hurston: American Author
-Voices
From the Gaps: Zora Neale Hurston
-Zora
Neale Hurston (1891-1960) : Teacher Resource File
-PAL:
Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960)(Perspectives in American Literature)
-Zora Neale
Hurston (links,
essays,
etc.)
-THEATER;
Renaissance For a Pioneer Of Black Pride (Rosemary L. Bray, NY Times)
-Folktales
of Zora Neale Hurston (Mary Ellen Riccio, Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute)
-
ETEXT:
Spunk Zora Neale Hurston
-ETEXT:
Black Death Zora Neale Hurston
-ESSAY:
Individualism and the Issue of Race in the Works of Zora Neale Hurston
(Pouria Saidi)
-ESSAY:
Mothers and Wives: Women's Roles in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes
Were Watching God and James Baldwin's Go Tell It On the Mountain
(Bryan D. Bourn)a
-REVIEW:
DUST TRACKS ON A ROAD An Autobiography. By Zora Neale Hurston ( Henry
Louis Gates Jr., NY Times Book Review)
-REVIEW:
Darryl Pinckney: In Sorrow's Kitchen, NY Review of Books
Zora Neale Hurston: A Literary
Biography by Robert E. Hemenway
-Conjured
Into Being: Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God
-Kingwood
College Library: Zora Neale Hurston Their Eyes Were Watching God
-Excerpt
from Their Eyes Were Watching God
-ETEXT:
Their Eyes Were Watching God Chapter 1
-READERS
GUIDE: (novelguide.com)
-AUDIO:
Wired for Books: reader Comments on Their Eyes...
or
transcript
Mules and Men by Zora Neale
Hurston and preface by Franz Boas
-REVIEW: of Wrapped in Rainbows The Life of Zora Neale Hurston By Valerie Boyd (Ann Ducille, NY Times Book Review)
-REVIEW: of Wrapped in Rainbows The Life of Zora Neale Hurston By Valerie Boyd (Nia-Malika Henderson, SF Chronicle)
-REVIEW:
Darryl Pinckney: Aristocrats, NY Review of Books
Daughters: On Family and
Fatherhood by Gerald Early
Fatheralong: A Meditation
on Fathers and Sons, Race and Society by John Edgar Wideman
Colored People: A Memoir
by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED IN
THIS ESSAY
The Philadelphia Negro:
A Social Study by W. E. B. Du Bois
No Day of Triumph by J.
Saunders Redding
The Big Sea by Langston
Hughes
Dust Tracks on a Road in
Folklore, Memoirs, and Other Writing by Zora Neale Hurston
The Negro Family: A Study
of Family Origins Before the Civil War by E. Franklin Frazier
Black Bourgeoisie: The Rise
of a New Middle Class in the United States by E. Franklin Frazier
Coming Up Down Home: A Memoir
of a Southern Childhood by Cecil Brown
Pushed Back to Strength:
A Black Woman's Journey Home by Gloria Wade-Gayles
-REVIEW:
Darryl Pinckney: The Party's Over, NY Review of Books
This Was Harlem: A Cultural
Portrait, 1900-1950 by Jervis Anderson
-REVIEW:
Darryl Pinckney: Black Victims, Black Villains, NY Review of Books
The Color Purple by Alice
Walker
The Color Purple a film
by Steven Spielberg
Reckless Eyeballing by Ishmael
Reed
-REVIEW:
of THE COLOR PURPLE By Alice Walker SOME LETTERS WENT TO GOD
(Mel Watkins, NY Times Book Review)
-REVIEW:
Darryl Pinckney: Suitcase in Harlem, NY Review of Books
The Life of Langston Hughes,
Vol. I, 1902-1941: I, Too, Sing America by Arnold Rampersad
The Life of Langston Hughes,
Vol. II, 1941-1967: I Dream a World by Arnold Rampersad
-REVIEW:
of THE SIGNIFYING MONKEY A Theory of Afro-American Literary Criticism.
By Henry Louis Gates Jr PLAYING, NOT JOKING,
WITH LANGUAGE (John Wideman, NY Times Book Review)
-REVIEW:
CHANGING OUR OWN WORDS Essays on Criticism, Theory, and Writing by
Black Women. Edited by Cheryl A. Wall (Eric J. Sundquist, NY Times Book
Review)
-ESSAY:
NOVELIST ALICE WALKER TELLING THE BLACK WOMAN'S STORY (David
Bradley, NY Times Book Review)
Comments:
Orrin welcomes reader comments on his reviews.
Add yours here.
It was interesting. i only fell asleep once while reading, a new record for me. That girl, Janie had some big issues. She would do anything for love. It is unfortunate that Tea Cake had to die. I hate endings like that. I like the many Bible references in the book. Janie must of had the prettiest hair around
- katie m
- Mar-14-2004, 21:40
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I think your both lacking in the substance area and i think Their Eyes Were Watching God was a great book and represents the stuggle people have with life.
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- Feb-11-2004, 13:56
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