Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is one of those books that holds an important place in literary history. In America. I say that plainly because I imagine it’s a book that is listed for American school reading (in the same way that Rabbit Proof Fence pops up on the Australian curriculum), because of what it says about emancipation, racism, gender roles, and life in the South during the 1930s.

The novel focuses on Janie Crawford, an African-American woman in her forties, who is recounting the story of her past loves, and three marriages. Her first love is a local boy, Johnny Taylor. When her grandmother spies her kissing Johnny, all hell breaks loose and Janie is forced to marry a much older man, Logan Killicks, who treats her as free labour.

Tired of Logan, Janie runs off with Joe ‘Jody’ Starks, an ambitious and charismatic man who takes her to the first all-black community in Florida, Eatonville, where he sets about establishing himself as the town mayor. Although Jody provides Janie with comforts she had not previously known, he is controlling and abusive.

She got nothing from Jody except what money could buy, and she was giving away what she didn’t value.

After being married for twenty years, Jody dies, leaving Janie independently wealthy. She soon meets a young drifter and gambler, Vergible ‘Tea Cake’ Woods. Her friends are suspicious about his intentions, but Janie is charmed and they eventually marry. Their life together is passionate, and although there are moments of jealous behaviour, Janie found the love that she craved. The ending to this story is dramatic – no spoilers but I will say don’t expect sunshine.

There were elements of this book that I enjoyed and some, not so much. The dialogue is written in a strong Southern African-American vernacular and it took me a while to pick up the rhythm.

‘Yeah, Janie, youse got yo’ womanhood on yuh. So Ah mout ez well tell yuh whut Ah been savin’ up for uh spell. Ah wants to see you married right away.’

That said, some of Hurston’s descriptions were arrestingly beautiful in their simplicity.

Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branches.

And this, which is exquisite –

She sent her face to Joe’s funeral, and herself went rollicking with the springtime across the world.

The main question we ask about the books we read for Literary Wives is: What does this book say about wives or about the experience of being a wife?

The thing that I noticed most about Janie, particularly in the context of her being a wife, was the significance of expectations. I’m not sure that anyone enters a relationship without having expectations. In Janie’s case, married life was initially disappointing (the more significant the expectations, the more significant the disappointment?!).

She knew now that marriage did not make love. Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman.

Janie does a lot of imagining – and this is where Hurston’s writing shines, notably using the analogy of a tree in blossom throughout the book – but rarely did what she imagine match the reality.

So Janie waited a bloom time, and a green time and an orange time. But when the pollen again gilded the sun and sifted down on the world she began to stand around the gate and expect things. What things? She didn’t know exactly.

What the reader knows is that Janie’s expectations were set around things that were totally out of her control, particularly what other people thought or felt. Ultimately, disappointment is exhausting and it takes a toll on relationships. For Janie, this went both ways – Logan and Jody did not meet her expectations, and nor did she meet theirs (which in turn creates self-doubt and shame, and on and on it goes!).

So I did wonder why the relationship with Tea Cake was ‘better’, and I concluded that Janie and Tea Cake communicated more openly – they discussed their hopes and dreams (ie. expectations), which I think created their strong connection.

Love is lak de sea. It’s uh movin’ thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore it meets, an it’s different with every shore.

See Rebecca’s, Kay’s and Naomi’s reviews, too!

3/5

‘De name mah mama gimme is Vergible Woods. Dey calls me Tea Cake for short.’
‘Tea Cake! So you sweet as all dat?’ She laughed and he gave her a little cut-eye look to get her meaning.