by Zora Neale Hurston
It woke up old Okechobee and the monster began to roll in his bed. Began to roll and complain like a peevish world on a grumble. The folks in the quarters and the people in the big houses further around the shore heard the big lake and wondered. The people felt uncomfortable but safe because there were the seawalls to chain the senseless monster in his bed.
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God (p. 176). Distributed Proofreaders Canada. Kindle Edition.
I appreciate Hurston’s writing. She is an author who is ahead of her time, especially when it comes to depicting women as capable of being independent thinkers. It takes the main character, Janie Crawford, a Black woman in the 1920s, three marriages to get in touch with herself and realize that she can have an identity separate from her male spouse. Her growth throughout the story is remarkable. Her grandmother, a former slave, arranges Janie’s first marriage. The marriage was destined to fail, and Janie then marries Joe Starks, a successful Black man. Joe provided well for Janie, but mistreated her and stifled her voice. Her third husband, Tea Cake Woods, is someone she truly loves and enjoys.
Black communities in Florida provide the setting for the story, during a time where there was little integration of Black and White people in mainstream society. Hurston doesn’t focus on how Caucasians interact with Blacks, but rather how Blacks interface with each other, and she emphasizes the African American culture in the South. Many subtleties and assumptions are played out through dialog. Hurston tells us a great deal about the labor market, life choices, and the expectations in Black Floridian communities—mostly in West Florida, Eatonville, and the Everglades. The Lake Okeechobee Hurricane of 1928 plays a prominent role in the plot of this story.
Some of the symbols in the story truly enhance the book and provide beautiful imagery. The mule, road, porch, muck (The Everglades), and the hurricane are all used literally and symbolically. The messages of the book are multilayered and make the story timeless. I particularly liked the metaphor of the pear used a few times in the novel.
