Their Eyes Were Watching God 2nd half

It is interesting that this book if following the story line of so many others that we have already read. Janie has feeling of not belonging or fitting in, being avoided, and just being different. It is an interesting twist for Janie though, she is in a town that is only black people and she has the same feelings that we saw from the narrator in Autobiography, from Claire in Passing, and even from poems from Hughes and McKay. But with everyone else they were living in a world amongst others that made them feel different and excluded. Janie has the opportunity to explore and make history with other people of her race, but she still has that feeling of not belonging.
Joe is interesting too; he is creating a town from the ground up but feels that the people in the town, his own people, are trashy and unworthy! Maybe he is simply saying that because he stepped in and convinced Janie to leaver her husband, quite easily, and possibly he feels that she will leave him with the same ease?
It seems that Janie has been on the hunt for a fairy tale romance since the beginning of the book and is in one unhappy relationship after another until she meets Tea Cake, and finds happiness. Huston continually refers to nature to express love and sexual desires. This is similar to Toomer’s references to lustful thoughts in nature.The porch sitters pass a lot of judgment in this book. At the beginning they are openly passing judgment on Janie and now passing judgment about her relationship with Tea Cake. I think this may be Hurston’s way of sending messages of African American being judged by others as well as writers of the Harlem Renaissance passing judgment about the works of writers of the same era and how they seem to pass judgment on what should be written about the African American race and how it should be represented.

Their Eyes Were Watching God

So far I am pretty intrigued by the story. I find it difficult to stay focused and follow at times due to the vernacular. I do find it interesting that Hurston is depicting African Americans in this manner. I was certainly expecting that since we have been progressing in a forward motion through the Harlem Renaissance that Zora Neale Huston's book would have shown a more educated upper class citizen rather than the stereo types that most of the writers have been trying to pull away from. I understand that many of the writers are writing African Americans back into the history, but I feel that the use of stereo types is not the best way to gain respect and put yourself back into the history.
I am interested to see how the story unfolds.

"Laughers" and thoughts on Hughes

Of all the poetry we have read, I am enjoying the works of Langston Hughes by far. His poetry is clearly lighter, easier to read, and just plain more up beat. Some of the things we have been reading are so heavy and depressing. I understand that it was a time of turmoil, struggles, and hardships for African American’s during the Harlem Renaissance, but these poems definitely lighten the mood a bit.
The other pieces of poetry we have read from McKay, Toomer, and Cullen use coded messages that require deep intellectual thought and without a doubt a dictionary! But, Hughes seems to be still sending a meaningful message, just without all of the smoke and mirrors.The poem that I particularly liked was “Laughers”. First I liked it simply for the name and then after reading it I liked how Hughes put the message out there that “my people” are just every day people. “My people” are essential in making the world go round. “My people” can laugh, dream, and sing like the rest of the world. The line “Loud laughers in the hands of Fate – My people” made me smile. I love people that can laugh at the good and the bad, and that seems to be what Hughes is saying. People can laugh and will laugh no matter their fate. Hughes gives a list of jobs that any person can hold regardless of their color, I feel like he is saying life is here for the taking, grab it, and laugh with it.

Cullen's poems make me scratch my head...

Cullen’s poems written in traditional formal style make it very difficult to understand them and figure out what he is saying. I find that I have to read, re-read, and read again the same lines and still I am not really sure what his point is.

It seems that he is very torn by religion. Some poems he seems to admire and look for guidance from Christianity but in other poems it seems that he is blatantly questioning Christianity and its beliefs.

We discussed in class that the Cullen writes with a universal theme of dealing with the issues of balancing race and appealing to the wider audience but it seems to me that there is a major theme of religion and balancing his beliefs between what he has been taught about a great God that had created a beautiful world and the reality of a real life filled with prejudice and inequality.

In our Cane reading Toomer was on a constant search for his spiritual roots and McKay also referred to God and spiritual awakenings. People seem to want the answer of life from God or a spiritual being, or maybe want to lay blame for life’s unfairness on someone besides mankind.
Maybe everyone is just asking the fundamental question of life, Why?