Book Review - Their Eyes Were Watching God

              When I began reading Zora Neale Hurston's novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, I was a little confused by all the imagery and symbolism used right away. But after a while, it became easier to understand them and they much enriched the quality of the book. However, immediately after I became fluent with the literary imagery and symbolism, the dialogue popped up. It was even more confusing to read and took me very long to understand just what the people were saying. I never really adjusted to the language and it did not help that the book randomly juggled the racial dialogue and the smoother literary inserts. But I have to admit that the parts of the book that were not dialogue were very well written. It flowed easily and had great ways of communicating ideas to the reader. This part of the book was able to put stress on certain areas and draw little parallels between the plot and outside objects. Overall, it has been said that this book was/is the best of any black literary work. I would make the case that although it is a decent book, I honestly hope that it is not the best black literature has to offer. But then again I am white myself, and as such maybe I don't entirely grasp everything a colored person might. If I had to rate the book on a scale from 1 to 10, based entirerly on my personal opinion, I would have to give it a 7. It was an ok read but things seemed a little hard to comprehend at times.
            My reaction towards Hurston herself is slightly different. When I heard we were reading one of her books, I at first was a little apprehensive. Her writing style is not to my personal liking, but this book was probably one of her better ones. She managed to surprise me with beautiful connections and illustrations, which I had not expected. To Zora Neale Hurston, I give a round of well deserved applause. It was still not one of my best reads, but it was better than I thought it would be.
            Lastly, I will reat towards the character of Janie. Throughout the book, Janie is portrayed as an independant woman who thinks for herself and successfully weathers pain and loss. She is an excellent thinker, yet not as good as an activist. Yes, she did run away from Logan, but after that she allowed Joe Starks to constantly run her down. It seems Janie set herself up to be hurt and was always a little removed for the entire book up until she met Tea Cake. After that, she lived the way she felt, no bones about it. I don't see how Janie could muster so much faith and love after everything she had been through, but it is good to see. She was a great character and realistic too. On a scale of 1 to 10 based off of the idea of good story characters, I am forced to give her a 9.