After reading the books that were assigned to our groups, I was definitely happy to find it more pleasurable to read than the two previous books that we have read as a class. The book that was assigned to my group was “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston. This book was about an African American woman named Janie who tells her life story. The book opens with a couple jealous neighbors gossiping false information to each other. One of them being Janie’s true friend tells Janie what they are saying about her and Janie sits her friend down and tells her the real truth to the story of her life from start to finish. While Janie was growing up her grandmother filled her head with all of these materialistic values, and about how she should marry rich, and it doesn’t matter if you really love the man or not, as long as you have everything you need. Throughout the course of the novel Janie’s goes through two marriages where she was the most unhappy women ever all because she married for money over happiness. She leaves her first husband for the second one, and after the second one dies, she swears to herself that she will never marry again according to her grandmothers materialistic values. Upon meeting the next man in her life, he isn’t wealthy what-so-ever and Janie finds comfort in that. She likes being her spouse’s equal..not feeling as though she is below him in any way shape or form. She eventually marries her third husband and is happier then ever..until he gets rabies and she ends up killing him before he kills her. It is some what of an unhappy ending. But Janie realizes the importance of marrying for your happiness over materialistic things. After her third husband dies, she likes her new found independence and doesn’t seek to find another man to put into her life.
In my opinion I liked this book so much more than “The Sound and The Fury.” This book wasn’t too difficult to read yet wasn’t the easiest either. It actually kept me wanting to read more and more whenever I picked it up. Unlike the previous novel that I dreaded reading every time a new section was due. To me, there should be more books like this involved in the canon not books like “The Sound and The Fury.” Yeah “The Sound and The Fury” may have some hidden meaning that I haven’t discovered yet but in my opinion, “Their Eyes were Watching God” is a more reader friendly book that I believe more people would enjoy reading.
