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Their Eyes Were Watching God
Zora Neale Hurston
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Their Eyes Were Watching God
Zora Neale Hurston
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A PBS Great American Read Top 100 Pick
"A deeply soulful novel that comprehends love and cruelty, and separates the big people from the small of heart, without ever losing sympathy for those unfortunates who don't know how to live properly." âZadie Smith
One of the most important and enduring books of the twentieth century, Their Eyes Were Watching God brings to life a Southern love story with the wit and pathos found only in the writing of Zora Neale Hurston. Out of print for almost thirty yearsâdue largely to initial audiences' rejection of its strong black female protagonistâHurston's classic has since its 1978 reissue become perhaps the most widely read and highly acclaimed novel in the canon of African-American literature.
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Historical Fiction1
Ships at a distance have every manâs wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men.
Now, women forget all those things they donât want to remember, and remember everything they donât want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly.
So the beginning of this was a woman and she had come back from burying the dead. Not the dead of sick and ailing with friends at the pillow and the feet. She had come back from the sodden and the bloated; the sudden dead, their eyes flung wide open in judgment.
The people all saw her come because it was sundown. The sun was gone, but he had left his footprints in the sky. It was the time for sitting on porches beside the road. It was the time to hear things and talk. These sitters had been tongueless, earless, eyeless conveniences all day long. Mules and other brutes had occupied their skins. But now, the sun and the bossman were gone, so the skins felt powerful and human. They became lords of sounds and lesser things. They passed nations through their mouths. They sat in judgment.
Seeing the woman as she was made them remember the envy they had stored up from other times. So they chewed up the back parts of their minds and swallowed with relish. They made burning statements with questions, and killing tools out of laughs. It was mass cruelty. A mood come alive. Words walking without masters; walking altogether like harmony in a song.
âWhat she doinâ coming back here in dem overhalls? Canât she find no dress to put on?âWhereâs dat blue satin dress she left here in?âWhere all dat money her husband took and died and left her?âWhat dat ole forty year ole âoman doinâ wid her hair swinginâ down her back lak some young gal?âWhere she left dat young lad of a boy she went off here wid?âThought she was going to marry?âWhere he left her?âWhat he done wid all her money?âBetcha he off wid some gal so young she ainât even got no hairsâwhy she donât stay in her class?ââ
When she got to where they were she turned her face on the bander log and spoke. They scrambled a noisy âgood eveninâ â and left their mouths setting open and their ears full of hope. Her speech was pleasant enough, but she kept walking straight on to her gate. The porch couldnât talk for looking.
The men noticed her firm buttocks like she had grapefruits in her hip pockets; the great rope of black hair swinging to her waist and unraveling in the wind like a plume; then her pugnacious breasts trying to bore holes in her shirt. They, the men, were saving with the mind what they lost with the eye. The women took the faded shirt and muddy overalls and laid them away for remembrance. It was a weapon against her strength and if it turned out of no significance, still it was a hope that she might fall to their level some day.
But nobody moved, nobody spoke, nobody even thought to swallow spit until after her gate slammed behind her.
Pearl Stone opened her mouth and laughed real hard because she didnât know what else to do. She fell all over Mrs. Sumpkins while she laughed. Mrs. Sumpkins snorted violently and sucked her teeth.
âHumph! Yâall let her worry yuh. You ainât like me. Ah ainât got her to study âbout. If she ainât got manners enough to stop and let folks know how she been makinâ out, let her gâwan!â
âShe ainât even worth talkinâ after,â Lulu Moss drawled through her nose. âShe sits high, but she looks low. Datâs what Ah say âbout dese ole women runninâ after young boys.â
Pheoby Watson hitched her rocking chair forward before she spoke. âWell, nobody donât know if itâs anything to tell or not. Me, Ahâm her best friend, and Ah donât know.â
âMaybe us donât know into things lak you do, but we all know how she went âway from here and us sho seen her come back. âTainât no use in your tryinâ to cloak no ole woman lak Janie Starks, Pheoby, friend or no friend.â
âAt dat she ainât so ole as some of yâall datâs talking.â
âSheâs way past forty to my knowledge, Pheoby.â
âNo moreân forty at de outside.â
âSheâs âway too old for a boy like Tea Cake.â
âTea Cake ainât been no boy for some time. Heâs round thirty his ownself.â
âDonât keer what it was, she could stop and say a few words with us. She act like we done done something to her,â Pearl Stone complained. âShe de one been doinâ wrong.â
âYou mean, you mad âcause she didnât stop and tell us all her business. Anyhow, what you ever know her to do so bad as yâall make out? The worst thing Ah ever knowed her to do was taking a few years off a her age and dat ainât never harmed nobody. Yâall makes me tired. De way you talkinâ youâd think de folks in dis town didnât do nothinâ in de bed âcept praise de Lawd. You have to âscuse me, âcause Ahâm bound to go take her some supper.â Pheoby stood up sharply.
âDonât mind us,â Lulu smiled, âjust go right ahead, us can mind yoâ house for you till you git back. Mah supper is done. You bettah go see how she feel. You kin let de rest of us know.â
âLawd,â Pearl agreed, âAh done scorched-up dat lil meat and bread too long to talk about. Ah kin stay âway from home long as Ah please. Mah husband ainât fussy.â
âOh, er, Pheoby, if youse ready to go, Ah could walk over dere wid you,â Mrs. Sumpkins volunteered. âItâs sort of duskinâ down dark. De booger man might ketch yuh.â
âNaw, Ah thank yuh. Nothinâ couldnât ketch me dese few steps Ahâm goinâ. Anyhow mah husband tell me say no first class booger would have me. If she got anything to tell yuh, youâll hear it.â
Pheoby hurried on off with a covered bowl in her hands. She left the porch pelting her back with unasked questions. They hoped the answers were cruel and strange. When she arrived at the place, Pheoby Watson didnât go in by the front gate and down the palm walk to the front door. She walked around the fence corner and went in the intimate gate with her heaping plate of mulatto rice. Janie must be round that side.
She found her sitting on the steps of the back porch with the lamps all filled and the chimneys cleaned.
âHello, Janie, how you cominâ?â
âAw, pretty good, Ahâm tryinâ to soak some uh de tiredness and de dirt outa mah feet.â She laughed a little.
âAh see you is. Gal, you sho looks good. You looks like youse yoâ own daughter.â They both laughed. âEven wid dem overhalls on, you shows yoâ womanhood.â
âGâwan! Gâwan! You must think Ah brought yuh somethinâ. When Ah ainât brought home a thing but mahself.â
âDatâs a gracious plenty. Yoâ friends wouldnât want nothinâ better.â
âAh takes dat flattery offa you, Pheoby, âcause Ah know itâs from de heart.â Janie extended her hand. âGood Lawd, Pheoby! ainât you never goinâ tuh gimme dat lil rations you brought me? Ah ainât had a thing on mah stomach today exceptinâ mah hand.â They both laughed easily. âGive it here and have a seat.â
âAh knowed youâd be hongry. No time to be huntinâ stove wood after dark. Mah mulatto rice ainât so good dis time. Not enough bacon grease, but Ah reckon itâll kill hongry.â
âAhâll tell you in a minute,â Janie said, lifting the cover. âGal, itâs too good! you switches a mean fanny round in a kitchen.â
âAw, dat ainât much to eat, Janie. But Ahâm liable to have something sho nuff good tomorrow, âcause you done come.â
Janie ate heartily and said nothing. The varicolored cloud dust that the sun had stirred up in the sky was settling by slow degrees.
âHere, Pheoby, take yoâ ole plate. Ah ainât got a bit of use for a empty dish. Dat grub sho come in handy.â
Pheoby laughed at her friendâs rough joke. âYouse just as crazy as you ever was.â
âHand me dat wash-rag on dat chair by you, honey. Lemme scrub mah feet.â She took the cloth and rubbed vigorously. Laughter came to her from the big road.
âWell, Ah see Mouth-Almighty is still sittinâ in de same place. And Ah reckon they got me up in they mouth now.â
âYes indeed. You know if you pass some people and donât speak tuh suit âem dey got tuh go way back in yoâ life and see whut you ever done. They know moâ âbout yuh than you do yoâ self. An envious heart makes a treacherous ear. They done âheardâ âbout you just what they hope done happened.â
âIf God donât think no moâ âbout âem then Ah do, theyâs a lost ball in de high grass.â
âAh hears what they say âcause they just will collect round mah porch âcause itâs on de big road. Mah husband git so sick of âem sometime he makes âem all git for home.â
âSam is right too. They just wearinâ out yoâ sittinâ chairs.â
âYeah, Sam say most of âem goes to church so theyâll be sure to rise in Judgment. Datâs de day dat every secret is sâposed to be made known. They wants to be there and hear it all.â
âSam is too crazy! You canât stop laughinâ when youse round him.â
âUuh hunh. He says he aims to be there hisself so he can find out who stole his corn-cob pipe.â
âPheoby, dat Sam of yourân just wonât quit! Crazy thing!â
âMost of dese zigaboos is so het up over yoâ business till they liable to hurry theyself to Judgment to find out about you if they donât soon know. You better make haste and tell âem âbout you and Tea Cake gittinâ married, and if he taken all yoâ money and went off wid some young gal, and where at he is now and where at is all yoâ clothes dat you got to come back here in overhalls.â
âAh donât mean to bother wid tellinâ âem nothinâ, Pheoby. âTainât worth de trouble. You can tell âem what Ah say if you wants to. Datâs just de same as me âcause mah tongue is in mah friendâs mouf.â
âIf you so desire Ahâll tell âem what you tell me to tell âem.â
âTo start off wid, people like dem wastes up too much time puttinâ they mouf on things they donât know nothinâ about. Now they got to look into me loving Tea Cake and see whether it was done right or not! They donât know if life is a mess of corn-meal dumplings, and if love is a bed-quilt!â
âSo long as they get a name to gnaw on they donât care whose it is, and what about, âspecially if they can make it sound like evil.â
âIf they wants to see and know, why they donât come kiss and be kissed? Ah could then sit down and tell âem things. Ah been a delegate to de big âssociation of life. Yessuh! De Grand Lodge, de big convention of livinâ is just where Ah been dis year and a half yâall ainât seen me.â
They sat there in the fresh young darkness close together. Pheoby eager to feel and do through Janie, but hating to show her zest for fear it might be thought mere curiosity. Janie full of that oldest human longingâself-revelation. Pheoby held her tongue for a long time, but she couldnât help moving her feet. So Janie spoke.
âThey donât need to worry about me and my overhalls long as Ah still got nine hundred dollars in de bank. Tea Cake got me into wearing âemâfollowing behind him. Tea Cake ainât wasted up no money of mine, and he ainât left me for no young gal, neither. He give me every consolation in de world. Heâd tell âem so too, if he was here. If he wasnât gone.â
Pheoby dilated all over with eagerness, âTea Cake gone?â
âYeah, Pheoby, Tea Cake is gone. And datâs de only reason you see me back hereâcause Ah ainât got nothing to make me happy no more where Ah was at. Down in the Everglades there, down on the muck.â
âItâs hard for me to understand what you mean, de way you tell it. And then again Ahâm hard of understandinâ at times.â
âNaw, âtainât nothinâ lak you might think. So âtainât no use in me telling you somethinâ unless Ah give you de understandinâ to go âlong wid it. Unless you see de fur, a mink skin ainât no different from a coon hide. Looka heah, Pheoby, is Sam waitinâ on you for his supper?â
âItâs all ready and waitinâ. If he ainât got sense enough to eat it, datâs his hard luck.â
âWell then, we can set right where we is and talk. Ah got the house all opened up to let dis breeze get a little catchinâ.
âPheoby, we been kissinâ-friends for twenty years, so Ah depend on you for a good thought. And Ahâm talking to you from dat standpoint.â
Time makes everything old so the kissing, young darkness became a monstropolous old thing while Janie talked.