For my English 4 honors class we recently began reading Zora Neale Hurston's "Their Eyes Were Watching God". From the perspective of a writer this book is absolutely amazing. The approach she takes in her writing is so creative, admirable, and straight up gutsy. Ill explain.
The book is written about southern living through the eyes of a black woman, named Janie, in the mid 20th century. Now, I'm not too far into this book so some details I'm unaware of, but there is a lot to be said already. Hurston wrote this book to take the reader through the thoughts of Janie, and although there are snippets of a narrator speaking in "normal" English, it's written in Janie's language, which includes a lot of slang, and a thick southern accent. This writing shows a crucial acknowledgement of the culture of the people Hurston is trying to focus on, which is rich with way more than we today might realize.
While reading this story I was assigned to focus on a certain aspect, and I chose to focus on the culture behind the writing of this book. The dialogue is so rich with the culture of African Americans. This culture spreads from language to activities like playing the blues, and shooting the dozens. Playing the dozens I learned was/is a way to blow off steam nonviolently if they had a bone to pick with one another. Playing the blues was so important because it was frowned upon for a black person to openly express themselves during this time. They sort of had to conform to a certain standard to be safe. The blues was so important because it became their form of expression, and the name "The blues" was given because this expression was unfortunately so sad due to the circumstances of the time. The blues are important to us today because it started a wave of musical expression. The blues turned into jazz, which turned into soul, and hip hop, and R & B, and even rock and roll which became the most expressive forms of music we know today.
This sounds very interesting. I think it's cool that it's written the way that Janie speaks. To have a book with so much culture that even the text is written like she's telling a story in her natural voice. To me, this reminds me of all those history class documentaries where they get all those people to interview that had to with the historic events, or the other history class documentaries that have the voice actors posing as the historic figures with their fake accents. I find it very cool that the book has that much culture. I think I might read it myself.
ReplyDeleteThis book sounds amazing, I have been wanting to read it for a while. I love the use of dialect! It tends to really enhance the experience of the reader! The rich culture is also a fantastic way to make the reader feel a part of this possibly very different world. This post did leave me with a few questions though! What is “shooting the dozens”? You explained why it exists, but what exactly IS it?? I would love to talk to you about this in class! I love how you also incorporated a bit of the history of jazz and blues music in your blog, that was great to read. This flowed very smoothly and had exactly the right amount of background info! Is the book about jazz and blues? You focused about half of your blog on it, so I would assume that it is an important aspect of the book. I can see how it was a major player in culture with that group at the time. Overall, very well done! I look forward to reading what you write next!
ReplyDeleteYou're book sounds a bit like it has a lot in common with Frederick Douglass narrative. its extremely interesting that you mention the slang from this time period because i am from southern Texas and people still used the term "shooting the dozens" if it was between friends. I think the best types of books are books that you get a sense of culture and time period while reading them. is that true about the blues? I knew it was born here but i didn't know that's where the name came from. I've heard good things about this book from other people specifically for the music aspect and I've also wanted to read it, admittedly just for the cool title but never got around to it. i was sort of confused about the plot. so is she an old woman looking back on her life or is it current thoughts? either way man, you're an awesome writer and you definitely make this book look good.
ReplyDelete