Their Eyes Were Watching God
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Review
Andy West
Novel is (another) frame story… like Gatsby and Catcher… why? Advantages / disadvantages?
The “listener” is Pheoby [get that spelling right!]
Chapter 1:
Janie returns to unnamed town, townsfolk look, Pheoby comes over w/ food, story begins
Chapter 2:
flashback to Janie’s life as a young girl (childhood until age 16), when she became a woman
Chapter 3:
marriage to Logan Killicks
Chapter 4:
meets Joe Starks, has negative interactions with Logan, leaves him to go with “Jody”
Chapter 5:
Jody Starks builds Eatonville
Chapter 6:
story-telling chapter… lots of stories, especially about gender and gender roles, in town
Chapter 7:
Janie and Jodie’s marriage beginning to falter; he’s is unwell; he hits her violently
Chapter 8:
Jody dies after a brutally frank conversation with Janie
Chapter 9:
after the death, a new Janie: slow, patient, enjoying freedom and lonesomeness
Chapter 10:
meets a younger man one evening: Teacake
Chapter 11:
Teacake returns, courtship, he spends the night, then gone for a couple days, then returns
Chapter 12:
townspeople concerned about Janie and Teacake, Pheoby asks Janie: Janie is content
Chapter 13:
J & T go to Jacksonville; money gone, he throws a party, he gambles, comes back knifed
Chapter 14:
life on the muck , T and J the lives of the party, get guns, gamble, Janie starts working
Chapter 15:
Teacake flirts with another woman, T & J fight, then love
Chapter 16:
Mrs. Turner, a mulatto, evaluates people by the %-tage of white blood
Chapter 17:
Teacake slaps Janie 3 times; a big (orchestrated) fight at Turner’s restaurant
Chapter 18:
Hurricane! …the climactic chapter; title of novel included
Chapter 19:
Climax of novel, part 2: after the hurricane, Tea Cake’s sickness, Janie’s trial
Chapter 20:
back to the frame story: with Pheoby: in Eatonville
Characters:
Janie Crawford / Starks / Woods / Alphabet
Nanny
Leafy
Logan Killicks
Joe (Jodie) Starks
Pheoby Watson
Tea Cake (Vergible) Woods
Motor Boat, Sop-de-Bottom, Stew Beef, and all the fella’s
Key Concepts: Voice
Story telling
Love ..reread that pear tree passage on page 10
Judgment
God / Faith
Anthropological cultural portrayal