Review and Analysis of the book ‘Their Eyes were watching God’ – Presentation of the book’s main thematic plot and its meaning – Review of the book’s writing style and influence on its readers – Exploration of the connections between the book’s main thematic idea and the educational policies – Exploration and research of the book’s connection with the educational field – Exploration and research of the book’s contribution to the teaching methods and the learning outcomes of an educational environment
[The author’s name]
Part 1 Information about the author and the book
The book ‘Their Eyes were watching God’ was published in 1937. The time of its first publication was a weird period in terms of the economic depression flirting dangerously with the American Society of that time. The previous optimistic time period of the so-called Harlem Renaissance had already become an old past. So the reception of the book was held within a pessimistic society that had begun experiencing the cultural drought compared to the previous cultural openness of the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance was a literary movement which aimed at familiarizing people with the open mind as far as the behavior towards social differentiations were concerned. The African and Afro-American cultural rebellion was the motivational power of the Harlem Renaissance which aimed at broadening people’s horizons and making them realize that a social change had started taking place. Old traditional and narrow minded attitudes were rejected in the name of equality, independence and experimenting new things. But when Hurston decided to publish her book, the sociocultural atmosphere had changed dramatically. So, the book was considered to be a failure that lacked in message, theme and thought, according to the reviews it received at the time of its publication. In particular, Richard Wright wrote in his critic review of the novel that it was ‘not serious fiction’ and it ‘carries no theme, no message, no thought’ (Richard Wright, 1937).
The atmosphere of the time of its publication as dominated by the belief that any kind of literary piece of work ought to be politically orientated. The realism was the prerequisite that potential readers asked to see demonstrated in their readings. The existing political tension sought for answers to the severe financial and political problems of the society of United States that time.
In contrast to the social injustice that readers looked for in their readings, the novel ‘Their Eyes were watching God’ had a plot that went around the life and the growing up of the main leading female figure of the novel. Janie Crawford is the female protagonist of the novel. She is addressing her readers at a quite old age when she comes back to her hometown, Eatonville in Florida after a long time of absence. So, the gossip starts within the town in terms of trying to guess what Janie has been doing all this time away from them and what has happened in her life. So, readers meet Janie all alone and they witness their life through her confession to her best friend from her childhood, Pheoby Watson. Phoeby turns to the mirror upon which Janie’s life and growing up to become an adult is reflected.
Throughout the narration of her story readers learn that she has been married, she has separated and she has been remarried, she has experienced love, disappointment, betrayal, a rich and a poor life, and all common feelings and adventures that human life can entail. After her last husband’s death, Janie says that she felt free for the first time in her life. But she fell for another man, a younger man named Tea Cake who reminded her of how nice life can be. Adventures and abnormalities within her relationship with Tea Cake in terms of misunderstandings, terrible fights and cheatings, also took place in this relationship. But after Tea Cake’s, her third husband’s death, Janie has decided to return to her home place where the readers witness her finding peace with Tea Cake after all.
Looking at this plot, one can easily realize that it is a novel that holds numerous dimensions. The narration in first person and the intervention of the others around her in terms of their gossiping her and watching her closely in everything she does, transforms Janie to a common mortal woman who never quits fighting for her personal freedom. So, Hurston can be easily characterized as the writer who knows how to build the personality of her heroes in order to put across her message. At first look, it seems that Hurston wishes to present her readers with the idea and her belief that life entails nothing else but adventures. Nevertheless, no matter the nature and the number of difficulties that one can encounter throughout his life, the passion for life wins the bet of life itself. Hurston emphasizes on the personal will of her heroine. Since Janie wants to live and wants to have a happy, peaceful life, she never stops fighting for it. So, this novel is a novel of survival that teaches people how to fight for their dreams. But Hurston’s novel is much more than that. The way that the social and close family environment of Janie functions throughout the process of Janie growing up to be an adult is of great significance. The way that Janie treats herself and reflects back in her past actions is also of great significance. The role of Janie’s best friend from her childhood reminds readers how important someone’s childhood may be and the place that friends from childhood may have in one’s life. The way that people behave when they see Janie after lots of years of absence remind readers the role that the wider social environment has in one’s life and psychology.
People grow up fighting for their dreams. But at the same time they learn most of the times the hard way that they have to earn the approval of others. And when their dreams come in contrast to the approval of their social group, then the real battle within their inner selves begins. All these issues are issues that are highlighted on behalf of Hurston who uses her writing talent to depict all phases included in one’s bringing up and growing up. So, this novel is a novel that can be read under a different, educational aspect and can be applied to various educational environments.
Review and Analysis of the book ‘Their Eyes were watching God’ – Presentation of the book’s main thematic plot and its meaning – Review of the book’s writing style and influence on its readers – Exploration of the connections between the book’s main thematic idea and the educational policies – Exploration and research of the book’s connection with the educational field – Exploration and research of the book’s contribution to the teaching methods and the learning outcomes of an educational environment
In the first 10 chapters of the book the writer introduces Janie to the readers. Janie appears to have arrived back at her hometown and the reactions of the people living there and sitting in their porch are confusing. There is only one person, Phoeby, Janie’s closest friend form her childhood who stands up for her and reminds everybody that gossiping against Janie is unethical and wrong. Janie starts narrating her life story to Phoeby. She tells her all about the first years of her childhood and how she was raised by her grandmother. Then she tells her why she decided to move to the first marriage to Logan, her first husband, after following her Nanny’s advice. The readers learn that she did not manage to fall in love with her first husband although she tried to feel deep feelings for him. As a result, the readers witness Janie, through her narration to Phoeby, to meet another man and run away with him. Then the readers learnt how she spent her years while she was married to her second husband, Jody. The readers see how she tried to keep her deepest feelings for him and how Jody’s behavior made her feel bad for her choice. Last but not least, Janie narrates the way she felt after the death of Jody. She says to Phoeby that she did not feel bad at all for enjoying her independence.
Review and Analysis of the book ‘Their Eyes were watching God’ – Presentation of the book’s main thematic plot and its meaning – Review of the book’s writing style and influence on its readers – Exploration of the connections between the book’s main thematic idea and the educational policies – Exploration and research of the book’s connection with the educational field – Exploration and research of the book’s contribution to the teaching methods and the learning outcomes of an educational environment
Summary of Chapters 11-20
In the following last chapters of the book the readers listen to Janie narrating her falling in love with her third husband, Tea Cake. The readers witness all the details of her meeting Tea Cake and developing their relationship. Janie describes in great detail all the problems and hesitations she experienced throughout her efforts to develop her relationship with Tea Cake. Then the readers why she decided to follow Tea Cake to Jacksonville where they finally got married. Then the readers witness all the experiences that Janie lived during her marriage to Tea Cake and the way that Tea Cake died. After tea Cake’s funeral, Janie was found non-guilty by the court and she decided to return to her hometown. She describes how and why she feels in peace with herself since she is certain that she has acted properly and accordingly to the way she ought to act.
Review and Analysis of the book ‘Their Eyes were watching God’ – Presentation of the book’s main thematic plot and its meaning – Review of the book’s writing style and influence on its readers – Exploration of the connections between the book’s main thematic idea and the educational policies – Exploration and research of the book’s connection with the educational field – Exploration and research of the book’s contribution to the teaching methods and the learning outcomes of an educational environment
. 3rd Part The author’s main points
Hurston tries to describe the adult growing procedure of people. She takes the case of an unattended lonely young girl who was unlucky to experience the safety and the calmness provided by a well-structured and normal family. She picks the example of a black young girl who was lucky to be given some important advice by her grandmother who unfortunately died at a very young age. Then this young girl tried to grow and be an adult on her own. All this effort is described by the author in such a way that she indicates the significance of trying hard and never letting your dreams die. The author wishes to focus on the significance of people’s personal will and their environment as well. It is clear that the social environment of Janie influences her progress and her personal evolution. So, it is clear that the author wishes to indicate that a personality’s evolution depends on both the environment and the personal will that a person holds.
In addition, the author wishes to show that the procedure of growing up to be an adult is a procedure that cannot be strictly defined and planned. There are random events that in combination with the personal free choices design the future paths of one’s life. Last but not least the author focuses on the importance of reflecting on all experiences acquired throughout one’s life and the advice and principles that one holds thanks to his educational and family background.
. 4th Part The value and meaning of the book
This book can be easily considered to be of high value and meaning. It is a book of growing up to become an adult. It is a testimony on what procedures are taking place in the procedure of growing up to be an adult. So, all readers can benefit from reading such a book of such a content since they can become familiar with the procedure of becoming a mature personality or they can reflect on their own experiences and see how other people may have experienced this procedure.
Generally speaking, this book holds a unique place within the literary field. It can be read as a kind of an autobiography. The author shares her own personal beliefs in what growing up as an adult may be and expresses her thoughts on how the race, the color, the socio-economic background of a person may affect one’s growing. Hurston describes step by step the growing procedure of her heroine in such a way that all educational theories that have been discovered and analyzed by all those involved in the research field of personality and growing can be seen through a literary filter.
So, the book holds a significant place since it describes the procedure of a personality’s evolution and connects it to the existing educational theories.
Review and Analysis of the book ‘Their Eyes were watching God’ – Presentation of the book’s main thematic plot and its meaning – Review of the book’s writing style and influence on its readers – Exploration of the connections between the book’s main thematic idea and the educational policies – Exploration and research of the book’s connection with the educational field – Exploration and research of the book’s contribution to the teaching methods and the learning outcomes of an educational environment
5th Part The connection of this book to the course content –
What is learnt by this book- What can be applied to the adult education practice?
Reading literature has been researched within the educational community and has been found to be of beneficial, various and multidimensional effect. According to Ion Drew and Bjorn Sorheim, students should read because they gain pleasure, they enrich their language background and wealth, they broaden their horizons in terms of finding more information and learning things.
It is true that literary works provide readers with an insight different from theirs. Either the writer’s insight or the heroes’ insights that derive from the writer’s different experiences, readers approach feelings and life circumstances and events under a number of various aspects. As a result, literature makes people richer. They acquire lots of different aspects and looks when it comes to judging or experiencing things and feelings.
Looking at Hurston’s novel ‘Their eyes were watching God’ it can be easily perceived that the novel can contribute to the cognitive development of its readers. And if education is to be seen as the procedure that contributes to the cognitive development of people, then it is easily realized why this novel can have appliances to the educational procedure.
Janie is the young child who turns to the unlucky teenager who finds herself with little or wrong guidance as far as the route that she ought to follow in her life is concerned. She grows up to be the woman who tries to find her identity. She tries to realize what she wants in combination with her struggle to survive and manage to earn her living. She makes sacrifices and compromises. She gets married to the wrong men. She makes the wrong choices. She learns to pay the price for her own mistakes. She witnesses the strict face of the society and she also experiences the injustice that women experience when they are treated as ornaments and not as real people with real needs. So, Janie is the symbol of cognitive behavior and the symbol of the antifeminist theory that has tortured societies for ages.
According to Bernard (2007) Janie experiences all the phases of adult growing. She learns that she cannot treat herself as a unique, solely existence that can function away from the others. Janie’s grandmother tells her when she tries to advise her on her life that “Neither can you stand alone by yo'self” (Hurston (1990), Their eyes were Watching God, 15). This signifies the theory that one’s self is not to be considered independently of the society and the social environment within which he/she grows. So, the novel emphasizes on the fact that people’s personalities is a complexity that derives from the connections and the close relationships that are developed between their inner parts, their origins, their genes and what they have been taught but their influences from their environment as well. It is also important and interesting to look closely at what Janie says when one of her husbands, Jody, dies. Janie remembers the death of her Nanny and says that ‘She had been getting ready for her great journey to the horizons in search of people: it was important to all the world that she should find them and they find her’ (Hurston (1990), Their eyes were Watching God, 85). So, the novel shows that people realize when they grow up that what they are is synthesis of their origins and what they have experienced in their lives. According to what Merriam, S. B., & Bierema, L. L. (2014) define as Self-Directed Learning in the fourth chapter of their book titled ‘Adult learning: Linking theory and practice’, Janie is the symbol of the Self Directed Learning model, since she has managed throughout her growing process to acquire her own self-knowledge and thus achieve her ‘self-directed Learning in various contexts’ (pg 71, Merriam, S. B., & Bierema, L. L. (2014).
Review and Analysis of the book ‘Their Eyes were watching God’ – Presentation of the book’s main thematic plot and its meaning – Review of the book’s writing style and influence on its readers – Exploration of the connections between the book’s main thematic idea and the educational policies – Exploration and research of the book’s connection with the educational field – Exploration and research of the book’s contribution to the teaching methods and the learning outcomes of an educational environment
Conclusion
Hurston has written a novel that has great connection with the cognitive educational theory that treats people like a process of growing old and learning themselves better and deeper. The more experiences people acquire, the better they get to know themselves. The internal voice of one’s self is the key to finding out who they really are, what they seem to be, how others look at them and what they ought to do in order to realize their original existence.
References
Patrick S. Bernard, "The Cognitive Construction of the Self in Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God», CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 9.2, 2007, derived from <http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb/vol9/iss2/5>
Drew Ion, Bjorn Sorheim, English Teaching Strategies Methods for English teachers of 10 to 16-years-olds. Oslo: Det Norkse Samlaget, 2004, Print 58
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes were Watching God. New York: Harper and Row, 1990
Hurston, Zora Neale, ‘Their Eyes Were Watching God’. HarperCollins. Kindle Edition, 2009
Merriam, S. B., & Bierema, L. L. (2014). Adult learning: Linking theory and practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
Wright, Richard. "Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937)." Appiah and Gates 16, 1937
