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First Take of Their Eyes Were Watching God

I'm gonna keep it 100 with you chief, at first I didn't know what was going on. I've seen people write in different dialectics before and still have never understood them. Now this author throws us straight into a story written in southern hieroglyphs. I also want to relate to the protagonist, Janie, but I have almost nothing in common with her, which isn't essentially a bad thing. She seems like a well rounded and three dimensional individual, while I on the other hand am most defiantly not. I'll likely never go through the problems she is and vice versa, but something about her makes her seem like an actual person.

Additionally, one of the problems she is currently struggling with (or was I suppose) is loving a man she has been forced to marry. This is a problem I'm happy I as an African American will never have to deal with, because I'm going to die alone. Her problems make her seem like she isn't just some two dimensional Disney princess, she is an actual person, with actual struggles. And while I may never relate to any of them, I feel as though I understand them. Its kind of like math to me, at first I don't know what I'm looking at, I go over it again, and then I break down, lay on the floor and wonder what I'm doing with my life, and then tackle the problem again*. After the viscous cycle of trying to understand what they're saying, I finally can comprehend what I'm looking at.

This is one puzzling book, that I wasn't warned about before hand cough Mr.Mitchell didn't tell us to be prepared to decode southern speak in English characters cough, but after a while it all just makes sense. My brain just absorbs and I'm more invested in the story. However, I've only started the book and mostly writing this blog post due to deadlines, but I feel like I'm going to enjoy what the author has in store for me. The way the characters speak written out is kind of foreign to my eyes and it peaks my interest. Anyways, thanks for reading this blog post and if you have any tips for reading the novel, be sure to let me know in the comments below!

*The only difference between math and this novel is that I have to revise one of them before the end of the quarter.

Comments

  1. SJOctober 12, 2018 at 9:44 PM

    I mean if we r keepin it real then ima keep it real with u too chief, the characters seem kinda unreal to me too, even though they are obviously good believable characters. I feel like it would be hard to find someone so easy-going as Janie in the world today, especially after what she has to deal with that makes it so unbelievable or something else entirely, I can't exactly point it out. Also yeah, the dialogue writing was interesting to see at first too ngl.

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  2. Lili BanihashemOctober 12, 2018 at 10:18 PM

    The dialogue is definitely a huge part of the book that readers have to overcome. Like we talked about in class, it really requires you to slow down and focus on how the words sound and what they mean. It's impossible to skim so you're forced to pay attention. In terms of Janie, I'm honestly not too sure how I feel about her yet or if I find her relatable or not but I definitely agree that the struggles she's been through immediately set her apart as a fascinating, three-dimensional character.

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  3. Harmen AlleyneOctober 13, 2018 at 10:04 AM

    I mean I really like when people use dialects as a main character trait (shameless plug for my own blog post). But the characters feel like something outta a 19th century novel in the fact that there are romanticized aspects of their lives that aren't usually all compiled into a single person.

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