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.
smileydkj Said:
on March 2, 2007 at 12:34 am
Devyn
Your book sounds very interesting. I would have loved to read it. I agree with what you said about the first two books. They weren’t fun. I’m glad I read a book in my group that I happen to like. It’s refreshing.
Tammy LaBello Said:
on March 2, 2007 at 2:07 am
I also liked the book. I believe that this book should be in the canon collection because it has canonical themes and non canonical themes. Also it well written and a good book.
Alex T. Said:
on March 2, 2007 at 4:20 am
I look foward to reading the wiki about the book, and maybe I’ll reading the book if I ever find the time.
I think it’s interesting to note that you were able to connect with this book than say “The Sound of the Fury.” It maybe because the view of literature is changing from something that must be praised to something more tangible and can actually make things happen. It maybe also that the canon is opening to books that relate to a wider range of people.
tonygeras Said:
on March 2, 2007 at 8:05 pm
Yea, everybody seems to be enjoying these books more than the previous works. I wonder what the catch is? Are all of these books on the
‘Dead White Man’s’ List? Even though i’m enjoying ‘At the Mountains of Madness’, something about it just doesn’t seem canonical.
Lauren Marchese Said:
on March 15, 2007 at 7:48 pm
I can agree with you that working with a smaller group does help to see different aspects of the book in more details then reading it alone would have done. I would have liked to read the book that you had read because it looked very interesting. I noticed in looking at your wiki page that this book had a lot of the same themes as the canonical boosk we have read which gave me that question of what gives a book the qualities to be considered in the canon?
alyssa708 Said:
on April 30, 2007 at 1:27 pm
Devyn,
Your book seemed very interesting and like mine had to deal with African Americans. I can say that yours does seem a lot different than the ideas I am reading about. I think it was good that you could connect our canonical theme of materialistic to your book. It is good to have some type of connection between all these books or we would not understand why we are reading them.
Love Me =)