Subject: THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD
Unfortunately, the ABC version of Hurston's THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD was a disappointment. Perhaps the poetic and dialect dynamics simply don't lend themselves to screen adaptation. It failed to include critical dialogue that gave shape to the proper flow of the work, and only hinted at some of the most potent symbols that defined Janie Crawford's organic sensibilities. For those still interested in the work, who found the TV version unsatisfactory or desire more amplification, here is my lecture as presented in the MISFIT series as part of the local library program. Although the content and interpretations are drawn from a number of sources, the synthesis and arrangement is exclusively mine. Special mention should be included and acknowledgment of Doctor Arnold Weinstein of Brown University. His explications and insights into a vast range of literature rank among the finest I have read and heard. I am fortunate to exchange correspondence with him, and he has continued to encourage our commitment to running the local literature programs.
Now with that out of the way, here is the lecture with some minor revisions to keep it manageable for text production.
Zora Neale Hurston was a truncated version of her original name - Zora Neal Lee Hurston. No one knows the original source of the name, but for an expansive and well written biography of Hurston, I recommend - WRAPPED IN RAINBOWS by Valerie Boyd. Hurston was born in Alabama in 1891, and moved to Eatonville, Florida at a young age. She always regarded it as " her home." Eatonville was, and still is, the only incorporated "All Black" town in the US. Her parents both knew slavery, and her mother married John, in an ill-advised marriage with a man " From Over The Creek." Despite his impoverished beginnings, John would rise and achieve: poor boy, carpenter, pastor, mayor. He is the archetype for Joe Starks of the book and movie. Zora grew up in a misogynous household and culture. A common male expression was: " If it's big enough to sit on, it's big enough to hit on." Male cheating was an accepted practice and Father John was a pastor with an appetite for the flesh. In Sanford, Fla., 20 miles away, " He ministered to the needs of the state's women."
While growing up in Eatonville, Hurston listened to " Porch stories." Such dialect and lore was to become the primary language of her writing: " The vital force of her life as a story teller." Her mother died in her early teens and with no guidance, Zora developed a fierce emotional autonomy. During her early adolescence she became especially friendly with one tall tree, which she called " The loving pine"; or as portrayed in the book - " The pear tree." At age 20, Zora's step-mother called her: " A sassy, impudent heifer." Zora proceeded to beat the hell out of her, and when a friend tried to interverne, Zora threw a hatchet at her; thus earning her a reputation as a " misfit." She later moved in with her brother Bob, who, like Logan Killicks and Joe Starks in the novel, treated her like a beast of burden.
Discontented with that lifestyle, she began her remarkable educational ascent, first returning to high school at the age of 26, while claiming she was only 16. She then enrolled at Howard University, and was later sponsored as a student at Barnard, where she studied under famous anthropologist Franz Boas. Her specialization was the collection of Black Folk stories, many including animal tales with "Mules that can talk." With benefit of a Guggenheim Fellowship, she traveled to Haiti and Jamaica, where she collected more folklore. She also witnessed a "Great Storm" in Florida of incredible flooding and lethal consequences. She was to incorporate all of these experiences into her poetic prose with its "Authentic Black Vernacular Voice."
Hurston wrote EYES in 7 weeks and it received a frosty reception from Black male intellectuals who condemned it for its lack of "social realism" and portrayal of blacks as "pseudo-primitives" ; worse, "It made white folks laugh." Out of print by 1960, it enjoyed a remarkable revival thanks to the efforts of Alice Walker, and is now part of the American Literary Canon, serving as a standard in Black Studies and Womens' Studies' courses. Black female authors such as Walker, Maya Angelou, and Toni Morrison regard Hurston as their " literary foremother." Hurston was to suffer a tragic and obscure fate, ending up a maid, and then a substitute teacher before succumbing to a stroke in 1960, and was buried in an unmarked grave near Eatonville. The obscurity was only temporary, and her literary successors have recognized Hurston as a voice of liberation.
THE TEXT: Identity, Race, Nature, and Gender
The protagonist, Janie Crawford, didn't know she was black. She saw a photograph and discovered she was black. She was called "Alphabet." She becomes an alphabet, a Freudian Id, hopping all over the place with a different manipulation of letters, words and identities.
NATURE
Hurston's novel is drenched with metaphor and similies via her artful poetry and folklore prose: " My life is a tree... dawn and doom in the branches." Janie's vision of life and sexuality is immersed in total organic surroundings. Doctor Weinstein describes her interaction with the Pear tree, as " One of the most erotically charged passages in 20th century literature." As Janie reaches puberty, her consciousness and notions of sexuality are altered: " The panting breath of the breeze...Arching, ecstatic, creaming, frothing...She had pain...limp, languid; the bees." The book CLIMAXES AT THE BEGINNING! But Janie had to disconnect for a long time before she can return to nature: unhappy marriages, misogynous men; her first husband, Logan - "desecrates the pear tree."
THE BIG VOICE AND GENDER WARS
Joe Starks is a "Big Voice." He is the mayor, a misogynous bully: " I God"; we are watching God. The" Mouths" will go at it. His mouth: " Janie, you're getting too mouthy." This is a book about using language for power. Janie will win the battle of the mouths in the "Eatonville Showdown." As Joe gets older, he berates and humiliates Janie even more: " Your rump hangin' to your knees; you ain't no courtin' gal. You're an old woman, nearly 40." Janie's response: " I AM A WOMAN, every inch of me. That's more than you can say. You only have a big voice. When you pull down your pants, you look like the change of life." Janie has destroyed him in front of everyone. This is a transition point in 20th century American literature and feminism. Anzia Yezierska in " THE BREADWINNERS" defied her father and his traditions, but she never totally rejected him. Hurston via Janie ANNIHILATES her male tormentor. The Black male critics railed against Hurston and tried to bury her - but Hurston WON! - She won with language and sent shock waves reverberating throughout the decades.
ROMANCE TO MYTH: Janie and Teacake
Teacake is " The son of the evening s
u
n." He is a "glance from God." He is what Janie has been looking for. He instructs her in self-pleasure, to drive, to play checkers, how to shoot a gun. She can PLAY and play equals freedom. In order to connect, one has to break conventions and disconnect.
THE MYTHIC
Teacake's spirit prevails even when he isn't there - their romance is mythic, unified, and transcendental: " He could leap forth, bucking and mounting the wind." It is procreation, Genesis; and Their eyes were watching God. Hurston wires into the cosmos and her images explode off the page: " The world was a stallion rolling in the blue thunder of ether." This is mythic force brought to the novel. The Lake Okeechobee flood is Biblical, an Exodus; God is a mad artist who reconfigures the world. There is widespread destruction, but Janie is satisfied if she dies with Teacake: "She has seen the face of God." Teacake contracts rabies and Janie has to shoot him. She is acquitted, disconnected from Teackake, but free again.
A BOOK OF LIBERATION
The Mule is a holy creature. Joe Starks had freed the Mule. Joe was like George Washington, Abe Lincoln. A free mule in town is something to talk about: mule doings, mule activities - the mule retired from labor and brought LIBERATION to the discourse. He is a symbol of freedom and receives a holy, ritual burial. Hurston manipulated language and symbols to create freedom and liberation. Freedom is NOT
about
location;
freedom is NOT
about
gender;
freedom is
NOT
about
race - freedom is about REACHING THE HORIZON and
FINDING the
SELF! Janie Crawford had returned, she had peace, she had reached the horizon,
she had found herself,
and HER EYES WERE WATCHING GOD.
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