Posted on 09/13/2017 3:40:09 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is a book that I treasure. I was introduced to it by my younger sister Jina — she had an early interest in African-American literature and introduced me to many of the authors I read as a teenager.
I was 19 and a freshman at UCLA when I first read it. Zora Neale Hurston had a voice that really spoke to me: There was a freedom and independence that was embedded in the narrative. Starting my adult life, it was very formative to read of a heroine like Janie, who’s looking to remain authentic to herself in a society that has certain expectations. She had unusual choices about the way she wanted to live her life, the way she wanted to look, and she was able to find freedom for herself in what was a very contained culture at the time for black women.
It was a liberating experience to read a book about a liberated woman, and to see that the liberation of women in society is not something that comes easily. It’s hard-fought and there are consequences, but there are also triumphs. It’s a very complex, layered, nuanced narrative. I’ve read it again over the years, and it has deeper meaning as I mature. It’s always beautiful to come back to a book you hold dear and discover new secrets.
I was 19 and a freshman
AAMOF, I think calling a degree ‘master’s’ is a slavery trigger and should be replaced, since if comes after a bachelor’s degree (which is patriarchal and oppressive itself), the master’s degree will be known as Bachelor #2.
I don’t know a whole lot about her, but she seemed to definitely have been a free thinker, which is more than I can say for approximately 98% of black “intellectuals” in 2017.
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