I want to make a blog post just laying out my initial thoughts and reactions to Their Eyes Were Watching God, so this might be convoluted or confusing, but try to bear with me. I added a question mark to the end of my title because I thought that it looked kinda fun, but after reading the title again it strikes me as a less straight-forward statement than I had previously thought. This is to say, does the past tense refer to the fact that this is a story about the past, or is it because the characters had been watching god and then looked away? I have never given any thought to the Hurston's title before now, apart from being confused by it but assuming the meaning would become clear. Now, however, I am rather intrigued. What does this oh so intriguing phrase really mean?
So far, the first idea that pops into my head is that the God is Jody, and the townsfolk look to him for guidance. This seems totally wrong to me, but it is just the first thought I had. It seems unlikely to be Hurston's meaning. It could be that the citizens of Eatonville are looking ahead at something greater while they are living in less than ideal situations. It could refer to the fact that Janie seems much more preoccupied with nature than with the god that her grandmother and presumably the citizens of Eatonville worship. That interpretation plays of the use of "Their" in the title, which separates the narrator or perhaps protagonist from other people. It could be referring to Janie's apparent move away from the pursuit of an idealized love towards a more down to earth acceptance of her life, in that she used to be watching god (her bright vision for her future) but now has I guess looked town more to earth and is trying to deal more with reality.
So basically I am just staring at the title until some theory pops into my head, and so far I have talked about the words "were" and "their", so it seems fitting for me to move onto "eyes". What I think of when I specifically focus on the use of this word in the title is the fact that it isn't "hearts" or "souls". Eyes are a much more physical feature. While they may be the windows to the soul, they are more earthly than the soul. So when I see "eyes" I think that perhaps the people referred to are watching god only with their eyes and not with their souls or minds. The implications of this in my view are that they do not really believe in or trust god, but are watching him to protect themselves or something. As if they are watching god but intentionally trying to remain separate from him and follow a non-religious path. This interpretation seems flimsy to me, but the fact that eyes are specifically mentioned sort of sets the people away from god more than if it just said "they were watching god". This second version is also way less poetic, but it could be saying that the citizens of Eatonville or just people in general were watching but not following god. This is my theory about "watching" as well. It separates the people from god, and specifically does not imply a desire to act religiously. They are watching, not following. I guess I have already addressed the word "god", in that it may refer to Jody (unlikely) and it may refer to nature (perhaps a bit more likely).
I do not think that any of the theories I lay out in this post are accurate, but perhaps one or two are on the right path. I will be interested to re-read this post once we have finished reading and discussing Their Eyes Were Watching God and see what I think about the title then. Also I went on a tangent and did not really discuss my initial reactions to this novel. whoops. I think this was more interesting, but sorry about lying to you about the subject matter. I would be very interested to hear any other ideas about the title that anyone else has.
I'm glad you brought this up, because I was starting to wonder why it's called that myself. Unlike our first two books, this title is pretty tedious, and some people have taken to shortening it to TEWWG altogether. I was also contemplating what God they are looking at, as so far this doesn't seem like a very religiously oriented book. I understand where you get the idea that Jody is god, as not only is he the one who shapes Eatonville, but he also keeps on saying the phrase "I god." This really confused me because I was confused as to what it meant, or if it was just some sort of dialect innuendo I wasn't getting, though I was skeptical that the whole book was going to be about him. He's already died by the point we've read to, and I don't think Janie will continue to contemplate his influence any longer. I guess if I were to interpret the title I would say that "God" refers to the greater force controlling them (whoever "Their" is), bringing up the idea that they can't change their destinies. I'm not sure how this relates to the book yet, but I'm hoping we'll find out soon.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting explication of the title (and also Pauline's in response), which is indeed more cryptic in its relation to the story than the more straightforward _Native Son_ and _Invisible Man_. But the phrase does occur in the novel, near the end, with a specific immediate context. It's a compelling and ambiguous phrase, but the point where it arrives in the novel doesn't seem to offer any definite clue as to what it "means" as a name/summation for the novel as a whole. So we can look at these more general explications as readings of it as the title for the whole novel, not necessarily dependent on the moment it happens to occur in the text.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that you thought it might refer to to nature because it appears in the context of their fear of the hurricane. I still don't know how it relates to the book as a whole though. It just seems to be related to hope and fear. I don't really see how that generalizes. Perhaps it just captures the mood of the climax of the story. TEWWG seems to be less idea-based than the other books we've been reading, so it would make some sense. I don't know, though.
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