Nanny’s head looked like the standing roots of some old tree that had been torn away by storm, “Janie, youse got yo’ womanhood on yuh. So Ah mout ez well tell yuh what Ah been savin’ up for uh spell. Ah wants to see you get married right away.”
“Me, married?”
While reading “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston, the book effectively carried me away and into the era of the 1900’s. A time in which our country was still dealing with slavery,
This book takes a path through slavery, woman’s rights, and not to mention love. Love plays a vast role in this book. It starts with a foreshadowing of Janie, an African American girl, as the main character. During the foreshadowing, Janie tells her life story. It all begins with her living with her grandmother whom she calls Nanny. Even though her Nanny is African American, Janie only first takes notice, at the age of 6, that she’s colored. Nanny wants Janie to get married at a very young age for protection. Still a young girl and obeying her Nanny’s wish, Janie gets married. She gets married to a man named Logan Killicks who’s had his eyes set on her for awhile. Logan had promised Janie a fulfilled relationship and in the end he did not treat her as he once had. To Janie’s luck another guy showed much interest in her causing her to run off with new guy. His name was Joe Starks who had promised much more of a relationship than she had now. Convinced, Janie married him and he acquired lots of money and then became governor of a town. Yet, with everything she could ever want in front of her, Janie had nothing she really needed. In the midst of all her feelings, her husband, Joe Starks has passed away. All the guys in town had their eyes on her but Vergible Woods “Tea Cake” had ultimately won her over. They ran off together and got married very soon after meeting. Even though Tea Cake was twenty and Janie was forty, it was the best love she’d ever had, she was in love. Yet, very tragically after being bit by a mad dog, Joe goes insane and it comes down to Janie having to shoot him. Through this great tragedy of hers she goes back to an old town where an old friend lives and she stays there for the rest of her life.
Overall, I believe this book was written very well, I really love the foreshadowing in the beginning of the book. This book surprisingly reminded me most of Harry Potter. Just the way the blacks and whites in this book were separated reminded me of the separation between mud-bloods and full-bloods in Harry Potter. When it comes down to it, no matter what color we are, in the end we are all one in the same. When it comes to mud-bloods and full-bloods, they all have the ability to do magic. What really took me back in time with this book was the slang used. The book took a while to get used to because it was mostly written in exactly the same slang of that time. I really love how this book affected me; I laughed a few times and even wanted to cry at the end. This book really got me and I got it too. I would recommend it to everyone