Tuesday, March 16, 2010

"Their Eyes Were Watching God"

Last month I made it to book club even though I hadn't quite finished the book. This month I finished the book, but didn't quite make it to book club. Maybe next month I'll manage to finish the book on time and make it to book club, wouldn't that be something.
The book was "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston" first published in 1937.
To oversimplify it is the story of Janie Crawford a Black woman in the south descended from slaves. The dialogue is written in a very thick, strong accent and was a little difficult to get into, but well worth it.
Janies Grandmother raised her and married her off young to a rich man to protect her and take care of her.
The first quote is about 3 months after the marriage, all of chapter 3 (about 3 pages) is really good, however I'm just quoting the end of page 25

The familiar people and things had failed her so she hung over the gate and
looked up the road towards way off. She knew now that marriage did not
make love. Janie's first dream was dead, so she became a woman.


To get the full effect of this next one you really need to read all of page 71 and 72, I am just quoting the middle of 72.

She found that she had a host of thoughts she had never expressed to him,
and numerous emotions she had never let Jody know about. Things packed up
and put away in parts of her heart where he could never find them. She was
saving up feelings for some man she had never seen. She had an inside and
an outside now and suddenly she knew how not to mix them.

On with the trend you really should read pages 89 and 90, I am quoting just part of page 90.

When God had made The Man, he made him out of stuff that sung all the time and
glittered all over. Then after that some angels got jealous and chopped
him into millions of pieces, but still he glittered and hummed. So they
beat him down to nothing but sparks but each little spark had a shine and a
song. So they covered each one over with mud. And the lonesomeness
in the sparks make them hunt for one another, but the mud is deaf and
dumb. Like all the other tumbling mud-balls, Janie had tried to show her
shine.


Page 113

"No mo' than Ah took befo' and no mo' than anybody else takes when dey gits
married. It always changs folks, and sometimes it brings out dirt and
meanness dat even de person didn't know they had in'em theyselves. You
know dat. Maybe Tea Cake might turn out lak dat. Maybe not.
Anyhow Ah'm ready and willin' tuh try 'im."


Again for the full efffect you need page 144 and 145, I'm quoting the beginning of 145.

All gods who receive homage are cruel. All gods dispense suffering
without reason. Otherwise they would not be worshippped. Through
indiscriminate suffering men know fear and fear is the most divine
emotion. It is the stones for altars and the beginning of wisdom.
Half gods are worshipped in wine and flowers. Real gods require
blood.


This quote is on page 191, but to really get it you need to read the book.

"Dey gointuh make 'miration 'cause mah love didn't work lak they love, if
dey ever had any. Then you must tell 'em dat love ain't somethin' lak uh
grindstone dat's de same thing everywhere and do de same thing tuh everything it
touch. Love is lak de sea. It's uh movin' thing, but still and all,
it takes its shape from de shore it meets, and it's different with every
shore."

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