Rating: 
Summary: Their Eyes Were Watching God
Review: When a drama is centered around a young Black woman, learning to stand up for her rights, during the early 1900's, it is certain that it will intrigue the reader. Their Eyes Were Watching God, brings out the feelings of Black women at this time,that have been hidden from today's society. Written in 1937, by Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God takes place in the early 1900's. Hurston sets a "picture frame" story up with realistic details. During the depression, people do not generally know or understand how hard Blacks had it; they were considered second class citizens, and they also had a lack of money. The main charachter, Janie Crawford, retells her compelling life story, as a young Black woman, during the Great Depression. As she rids the town of many rumors, she teaches them that rights are something no one can take from them. It took Janie a misinformed childhood, losses of loved ones, and three different marriages to figure out her rights. After growing up with a white family, Janie Crawford discovers her true race, while looking at a picture. During her teen years, Janie discovers her sexuality, while kissing Jonny Taylor under a pear tree. When her grandmother accidentally observes this occurrence, she sends Janie off to marry a young man--not for love, but for possessions. Janie leaves her marriage, realizing it was not love, and runs away with another man, after "falling in love with his dreams." This turned out to not be true love either though. Her third marriage, is against "society's rules", and ends up being true love. Unfortunately, her marriage ends tragically. Through Zora Neale Hurston's novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, readers are able to relate Janie's experiences to their own. Although the dialect takes time getting used to, it is a great book. Along with the book, Janie's charachter is also brought to a closure. The reader will also be brought to an unbelievable awakening to exactly what love is.
Rating: 
Summary: Watching Her Life
Review: Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God can hold the attention of many. This novel captures the drama, love interest and the abuse of a southern black woman named Janie in the early 1900s. What's great about this novel is how it shows the difficulties of a realistic woman trying to live a normal life. It shows the influence that family members have on the outcome of a person's life and how it doesn't matter what other people think.This book shows the struggle of a black woman getting the respect and love from a husband that she deserves.It shows Janie listening to her Grandma's advice and marrying men who have power and wealth. Janie leaves Logan Killicks, first husband, and marries a wealthy man, Joe Starks. Later Janie realizes that she should marry out of love and not wealth. When she meets a man nicknamed TeaCake, she realizes and experiences true love. Unfortunately, it does not last long. While she is sitting on her porch she looks back and knows she had a hard life, but it was all worth it. Not only does this novel have many strong points, it covers many important topics. It shows sexism, how Joe Starks and Logan Killicks show no respect to Janie. It shows racism, how Mrs. Turner ,a half-white half-black, does not trust black people. Probably most important, it shows the powerful relationship between Janie and TeaCake. The story is somewhat short and simple, but it has a point. It happens in a way that everyone can understand. Hurston expresses her thoughts clearly in such a way it is hard not to enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Their Eyes Were Indeed Watching
Review: Their Eyes Were Watching God written by Zora Neale Hurston was an amazing novel. At night it would be hard to put the book down. That is a sign of a good book. Written in a Southern tongue that takes a fair amount of time to get used to. It adds something fresh to the book. This novel is a classic example of well crafted American Literature. The novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, takes place in the early 1900's. The entire book is a flashback of the main characters life, leading to the present. The story is told to Janies best-friend, Phoeby. Janie tells her dear friend about her marriage and how happy life can really be for women of the time. Janies character stuck out as being adventurous and hard working. The reader grew fond of Janie because of her willingness to try new things, such as checkers and picking beans in The Muck. Every new experiance she had contributed more and more to the depth of her vast character. This novel encompassed everything that a good book needs to succede. It provides captivating romance and thrilling action. From the massive Hurricane to Janies many love interests, this book holds the attention of its readers all the way through. Throughout the whole novel Janie is trying to get across one thing to her friend, Phoeby. There are "two things everybody's got tuh do fuh theyselves. They got tuh go to God and they got tuh find out about livin' fuh theyselves." Over the course of this book Janie learns about life, love, and God. Many characters grabbed my attention in the novel, such as, Nanna, Llogan Killicks, Tea Cake, and many other characters Janie met throuhout her life. Nanna was an important character in Janies life because she taught her about life and love. Llogan was an influrential character because he drove Janie to have a want for a more complete and better life. The best scene in the book is when Janie and Tea Cake first meet. During the time period the 1900's, it was unheard of for a woman(expecially the mayors wife) to so anything fun or riskey. In this unique scene, it is the first time Janie is told she is good enough to learn something. Tea Cake is the first man to have trust in her, he teaches her how to play checkers. And she eventually falls in love.
Rating: 
Summary: Their Eyes were Watching Janie
Review: The novel The Eyes were Watching God was a book that grabbed my attention. I liked the contrast of Janie being a child when she was married to Joe and the being more of a mother figure when she was married to Tea Cake. Janie throughout the novel struggled to find the "pear tree" or true happiness. She started her life listening to always what her grandmother wanted and that led her nowhere. She then listened to herself and found Tea Cake and fell in love. This reviewer liked the parts of her courage like when she stood up to Joe and didn't take his abuse anymore. The action scenes were very well written and realistic. When Janie and Tea Cake were running from the storm it almost seemed like it was happening right in front of this reviewer. In conclusion the book's characters and plot was well thought out. This reviewer's only problem is the title I did not see God talked about much. Besides that the book was excellent.
Rating:
Summary: Their Eyes Are Watching God
Review: "Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered, things enjoyed, things done, and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branches." Author Zora Neal Hurston did an excellent job with Their Eyes Are Watching God. Hurston set a character, Janie, in a world where life was compared to a pear tree. The story took place in various cities in Florida in the 1900's. Opening the book Janie returns from past life experiences and tells a listening friend, Phoeby, all about it. The stories are of Janie's growing up, both mentally and pshyically, and her search for love or rather the "pear tree feeling." While searching Janie encounters various memorable events, including death and marraige. Janie Crawford is a realistic character full of the desire to be heard. Because the men desire her, the women are filled with envy. "The men noticed her firm buttocks like she had grape fruits in her pockets; the great rope of black hair swaying to her waist and unraveling in the wind like a plume." The reader will enjoy each story of Janie's life. The reader may even find themselves crying, laughing, or getting upset with various characters. The great pleasure about this book is the reader begins to build a certain relationship, of love or hate, with a favorite character. The reader may hope a particular character does not die, or perhaps does not live. Closing the book each chracter is brought to an end leaving no one in the dark. When Janie's flashbacks are brought to an end, "there was a finish silence after that so that for the first time they could hear the wind picking at the pine tree... Phoeby hugged Janie real hard and cut the darkness in flight."
Rating:
Summary: If At First You Don't Succeed
Review: When people think of drama they usually think of only love stories and not everything around the love story. Their Eyes Were Watching God is not only a love story but is also one woman's stuggle to find freedom. Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God can encourage many people to think differently abou themselves. It will teach people not top think highly of themselves, but instead realize who they are on the inside without impressing others. This novel is about a southern black woman, Janie Crawford. She retells the story of her life and how she went through many hardships of love and hate especially through her 3 marriages. In the end Janie has figured out who she really is and what her purpose is in life. One of the first thing that set off her hardships was kissing Johnny Taylor. This opened her sexuality to the world and and first made her realize that she is someone in the world who needs somebody to love her. This caused her to go through her first marriage and experience what it is like not to be loved but be put to work. She left her first marriage and went to her 2nd marriage to find love. Not only did she not find love but she found a man who controlled so much that she lost her freedom to live which caused her to look down on herself and make her have no self esteem. When her 2nd husband died she felt that she had become a real woman and was let free into the world. When she met her 3rd husband she felt that she had finally found love, someone who was as free as she was, someone that loved to live life like each day was their last. In the end Janie, through all her struggles had finally found what she was looking for and that is true love.
Rating:
Summary: There Eyes Were Watching Dirk
Review: The book Their Eyes Were Watching God, was an okay book. It was written in Southern Dialect and it was hard to get used to that. The book was about a woman named Janie and it tells about all the guys she married and how they didn't give her love. She didn't end up finding love until the end of the book. The book wasn't too realistic in the part were the talking mule was a character. The mule was the laghing stock of the book and it was very interesting. This book had a good way of tying it all together. The part with pear tree and how as Janie became older and more mature so did the pear tree. This book doesn't really keep the attention of the reader because it was hard to understand with the southern dialect. Even though the southern dialect gave it more affect of the setting. This book doesn't really get exciting till the end were Janie shoots her husband Teacake. She shot him because he was bitten by a rabid dog. This is when the book gets exciting. The author took to long to put some suspense in this book. This book was okay, but it is not a book to go out and buy, its more of a book to be only read as a requirement.
Rating:
Summary: True Definition of Love is found
Review: The definition of love varies from one person to the next, however has the same median with everyone; trust and faith. In "Their Eyes Were Watching God" the definition of love is hidden until the lead character, Janie, finds out the meaning on her own. Throughout the book, Janie meets many men who she feels she is in love with. Her Nanny tells her that love really means the amount of possessions they owned, such as land, home and money, etc... and that is what Janie thinks love is too. However, as the book continues and Janie is not being treated approprietly by her leading men, she realizes that Nanny's meaning of "love" is not correct. By the end of the book Janie finds true love with a man by the name of TeaCake. This book was difficult to understand for the first few chapters due to the complicated southern dialect, but as the book picked up, it became easier to read and comprehend. It is a good book for all ages to read. Love is the universal language. It connects people in many ways around the world. In the book the true definition of love shines through and helps a young woman stand up for herself and realize who she really loves.
Rating: 
Summary: i wish i could erase all copies of this book from existence
Review: WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH NOT LETTING US RATE IT AS A ZERO. WISH I COULD HAVE. this book was a burden on my soul, then entire time i was forced to read it. it drivels on in such a manner as to make the novel a complete horror to read. i don't care if it's a classic about a woman's fight to survive or find her soul. A BOOK IS ONLY GOOD BASED ON HOW MUCH YOU ENJOY READING IT, ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU'RE FINISHED IT. i just wanted it to be over, so i could take the test and pass it, because it was such a blandly written piece of trash that a four year old could understand it and hate it as well. i'm sure there are people out there that love this novel, not everyone shares the same view. hey, that's why Titanic was such a popular movie. my whole point is to not think it's good just because a critic says so, myself and about 30 of my classmates would rather be punched in the gut than forced to think about this for another second. why write a review if i hate it so much you ask? i'll tell you why...it's really late and i'm bored. i'm writing a letter to my teacher and i needed to know how to spell the author's name, so i came here. so to anyone out there that doesn't just think things are good because someone says they are...don't touch this silly novel for the life of you. i'm done now, you can all tell me taht this didn't help you now, to get it off the list of reviews, and how pathetic is that? are you that insecure about the quality of your novel? you should be. in conclusion, i hated this novel even more than i hated that stupid book Kindred.
Rating:
Summary: A black woman finds her voice
Review: This novel is one that got some attention when it was first published, went out of print and off most scholars' radar screens for years, and then, thanks to renewed attention from people like Alice Walker, became known once again. Many of Hurston's sentences are breathtakingly beautiful, and her prose is powerful without being caustic. The main character, Janie, undergoes a great transformation over the course of the novel, although Hurston's stifling of Janie's voice does raise questions as to what extent this is a feminist novel. In many ways this book defies categorization, although it is unquestionably a great book about the experience of the African-American woman in the early 1900's. It is a worthy book to teach in a high school American history class, and the book is worthwhile reading for those of us who missed it while Hurston's writing was mired in obscurity. Highly recommended.
|
