Their Eyes Were Watching God continued...

Janie is finally asserting herself and not taking anyone's garbage anymore. There is a great deal of discussion of the "horizons" especially on page 89 in chapter 9. We are told of the hatred Janie has for her grandmother and how her mind has been manipulated and discouraged by her grandmother's words. As she has become a widow she wears black and tells off Ike Green for his advancements when he begins pressing her to get married.

What follows is an affair with Tea Cake which Janie stumbles into and she become jealous of him later on as he seems to have an affair with Nunkie. Janie confronts Tea Cake and is not satisfied until she presses him to speak ill of her.

There Eyes Were Watching God

I have seen the movie on which this book was based. I believe it was an Oprah's Book Club movie and Halle Berry played the leading role of Janie. I love reading the realistic dialect of the south. When writers go that extra mile for authenticity it says a lot about the story as a whole.

The story is based mainly around Janie, the judgment hanging over her head and the relationships with men she has. The family history and what happened with her mother is explained to her in a way that shows the lasting impact of atrocities visited upon a family and how she will still have to live it down.

The character of Joe tells Janie how she should be lucky that he trusts here when most men wouldn't if they knew who her parents were. The feelings of shame and inadequacy will most likely haunt her for many years.

I'm looking forward to seeing where her relations with these men ultimately take her.

Langston Hughes

If there is one book I held onto that I bought in college (and that's probably what it'll come down to) it's this. I've been looking forward to November for two reasons, Thanksgiving of course, but also because I could see in the syllabus that it was this month that we would finally get to Langston Hughes.

His words are what I think of when I think of the Harlem Renaissance. And while I am far from anything resembling an expert, he most certainly is and he makes you feel like you're standing by his side as he takes in these perceptions and transposes them into words.

Whether there are many lines or few it matters not. He conveys feelings and emotions and annoyances and general observations perfectly through his words and effortlessly connects you to them. "Summer Night" "Mother to Son" "Song." These are compelling images that put what he's talking about in your ears and your nostrils and right in front of your face.

He sings through his words. Just as much musical lyric as poetic his poems pull from multiple influences to create something that is fresh even these many years later. The heartbreaking "Drama for Winter Night (Fifth Avenue)" and "Prayer for a Winter Night" exhibit the plight of the poor and the compassion that lives on in hopelessness.

Perfection.

I'm enjoying these if you didn't notice.

Countee Cullen Poems

These first few Cullen poems show a great amount of religious conflict stirring within the writer. These are themes that can transcend any social or economic background. Crisis of faith and the loss of innocence.

The latter of the two coming within the short simple heart breaking "Incident" where a cheerful wide-eyed youth venturing to a new city is dealt the first cold hard stinging blow of an abomination of hate that will plague the youth for a lifetime.

In "Simon" and "Pagan Prayer" there is a longing for faith, but a distance that is yet to be overcome to achieve it. The honesty of "Prayer" in the uncertainty with which Cullen approaches Christianity is very moving. Cullen simultaneously lays bare the feelings of doubt in the faith with the feelings of admiration for those who follow the teachings of it. A truly evident conflict displayed with honesty resulting in some top notch poetic work.