Their Eyes Were Watching Reflection

In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching, written by Zora Neale Hurston, was a great inspirational book. Hurston wrote this fictional novel based on the society around early 1900s. She was born in the town Eatonville, Florida, where the characters were from in this book. This novel is one of my favorite books that I have read in the class because even though it was fiction, the book was realistic and historical. I enjoyed it because Hurston wrote this novel as the main character Janie Crawford telling her whole life story to her best friend Pheoby Watson. In the beginning of the novel, I was confused by the way the characters talked, talking in a southern accents but through the middle I started to pick up on the way they spoke. I also liked how Hurston toward the end of the novel when the hurricane was occurring, she mentioned the title of the book, “They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God” (151). I

thought that was neat, that incorporated the title in their.
Their Eyes Were Watching had many characters but there were only a few major characters. My favorite character was the protagonist Janie Crawford because overall she was very nice and was always loyal. In the novel, Janie always wanted to make everyone happy; she made her grandmother happy by marrying Logan Killicks before she died. Even though, Janie did not love him, she did it for her grandmother. Also, I liked Janie because she was always loyal. When she married her husband, she was with him for years but he mistreated her vey bad that she could not take it. Her second marriage was very awful too; Joe did not love her like she thought he did. Her third marriage was when found her true love and remained loyal to him till the very end. Despite, Janie being very beautiful, she never thought she was better than everyone. In the first chapter, Hurston states, “Seeing the woman as she was made them remember the envy they had stored up form other times. So they chewed up the back parts of their minds and swallowed with relish. They made burning statements with question, and killing tools out of laughs. It was mass cruelty” (2). Basically, Hurston is saying that when Janie went back to her hometown, the women in the neighborhood were badly gossiping about her. Many women envied Janie because of her beauty, but she did not let it get to her because she did not care. Janie was the type of woman to not brag, she wanted peace within everyone.
One character that I strongly disliked was Mrs. Turner. She was very ignorant and racist. In the novel, Hurston states, “ Mrs. Turner said, ‘Who wants to be mixed up wid uh rusty black man, and uh black woman goin’ down de street in all dem loud colors and whoopin’ and hollerin’ and laughin’ over nothin’? Ah don’t know’” (135). In other words, Hurston is saying that Mrs. Tuner hated black people, which is kind of weird because she is half black herself. I did not like because I felt like she was always exaggerating by saying that black people had no education or class. She was just extremely rude; she was the only character that was really annoying. One minor character I also liked was Motor Boat. His character was really laid-back, had no care in the world and funny. The day of the hurricane, he just wanted to sleep; he did not care that he could have died. Also, I liked him because he was remained Janie’s friend after the death of Tea Cake.
One major event that occurred in the novel was the hurricane.

The day of the hurricane Janie and Tea Cake did not believe the Native Americans about the hurricane, so they stayed at home. Unfortunately, for them the hurricane was very bad and they had to leave their house. Hurston states, “Everybody was walking the fill. Hurrying, dragging falling, crying, calling out names hopefully and hopelessly. Wind and the rain beating on old folks and on babies. Tea Cake stumbles once or twice in his weariness and Janie held him up” (155). This event was important because if Janie and Tea Cake went to the east and they were save from the hurricane then the ending would have been very different. During the hurricane, Janie fell in the water and this dog was trying to bite her but Tea Cakes defended her by killing the dog, but before he killed it the dog managed to bit him on his cheekbone. The bite of the cheekbone resulted in Tea Cake getting very sick because the dog had rabies. This one major event was a huge aspect of the ending of the

novel.
I really did like the ending of this book because it did not turn the way I expected it to be. I expected Tea Cake and Janie living happily ever after, having kids and enjoying their life together. I did not expect Janie to kill her husband trying to defend herself. I liked how when Janie when back to her hometown, she found peace and was happy that she had a love life with Tea Cake. Janie was not sad, she was happy that she experienced a love so beautiful. Their Eyes Were Watching God, was an inspirational book because Janie had experience a lot of struggles throughout the novel but at the end she was happy by herself. Also, in the end of the novel she described Tea Cake as the son of the evening sun. In my opinion, Hurston used the sun as a metaphor to describe Tea Cake; he was the warmth that Janie needed her life. Tea Cake was the only guy she ever loved, he lighten up her life, which no guy could have even down.