Their Eyes Were Watching God in Overdue Podcast

Nov 15, 2015 Ayana rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: school, favorites, mystical

GENERAL INFORMATION
Raised and married off by her slavery-era grandmother, Janie reckons with the sweet-smelling pear blossoms of her daydreams and the cold reality of two suppressive marriages.

EXPANDED PLOT/CONTENT SUMMARY
Frolicking about with Tea Cake, "she felt like a child breaking rules. That’s what made Janie like it” (102). She has been restrained by rules, the ones of her grandmother and first two husbands. Janie has always wanted something, and it by far has not aligned with what they wa GENERAL INFORMATION
Raised and married off by her slavery-era grandmother, Janie reckons with the sweet-smelling pear blossoms of her daydreams and the cold reality of two suppressive marriages.

EXPANDED PLOT/CONTENT SUMMARY
Frolicking about with Tea Cake, "she felt like a child breaking rules. That’s what made Janie like it” (102). She has been restrained by rules, the ones of her grandmother and first two husbands. Janie has always wanted something, and it by far has not aligned with what they wanted for her. In God’s creation, “like all the other tumbling mud-balls, Janie had tried to show her shine” (90).
Even hearing Janie's story, as Janie turns to Eatonville, Pheoby admits “sittin’ on porches lak de white madam looked lak uh mighty fine thing tuh her” (114). Pheoby would choose it in a heartbeat! But Janie's experienced it, and it ain't it. Her first husband, Logan Killicks, was her grandmother’s choice for her because of his ownership of property. When Janie floats the idea of leaving him, he feels pained, but “thought it best to put on scorn” (30). Her husband prefers to show contempt over sadness. Janie, narrating this story, can see that. And after all that she’s been through, she definitely knows this is part of the reason why they couldn’t be together. She was all about love.
Before getting married, teenage Janie is quite the daydreamer. Staring up at the tree’s blossoms, “it was like a flute song forgotten in another existence and remembered again” (10). Her poetic rendering of springtime makes even the same tree that’s been in her grandmother’s yard her whole life feel new again. No matter what happens, the music is hers.
Challenges do arise. After a while with Logan, Janie meets a mighty fine traveler on the road—Joe Starks—hence it occurs to her to possibly leave Logan. Janie hesitates because Starks does not exactly “represent sun-up and pollen and blooming trees” (29). Janie’s older self narrating this story sees that that essence is what has driven her.

PLOT ANALYSIS
Their Eyes is a novel driven by the subject of self-determination. Female protagonist accepts her circumstances in marriage—“ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board” (1)--and also takes loving chances to alter her own life, according to her inner shine.

RECOMMENDATION
Definitely recommend!
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