I just finished reading Zora Neale Hurston’s amazing novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. I’m rather appalled that I was not required to read this in either high school or college, but in this case, late is definitely better than never. I was moved on so many different levels, not least of which is by the lyricism of its words. A few of my favorite lines from the book are below…
“For the first time she could see a man’s head naked of its skull. Saw the cunning thoughts race in and out through the caves and promonotories of his mind long before they darted out of the tunnel of his mouth. She saw he was hurting inside so she let it pass without talking.”
“Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branches.”
“So Ah’m back home agin and Ah’m satisfied tuh be heah. Ah done been tuh de horizon and back and now Ah kin set heah in mah house and live by comparisons.'”
“Here was peace. She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder. So much of life in its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see.”
If I missed any of your favorite lines, feel free to comment and share them with the rest of us!
This is one of my very favorite books of all time. And it was the best thing we read in my AP English class.
The last time I read it (November of 1998), I wrote down some quotes that spoke to me at the time.
p. 182 “…love ain’t somethin’ lak uh grindstone dat’s de same thing everywhere and do de same thing tuh everything it touch. Love is lak de sea. It’s uh movin’ thing, but still and all it takes its shape from de shore it meets, and it’s different with every shore.â€
p. 183 “…you got tuh go there tuh know there. Yo’ papa and yo’ mama and nobody else can’t tell yuh and show yuh.â€
p. 180 [going to Tea Cake’s funeral] “No expensive veils and robes for Janie this time. She went in her overalls. She was too busy feeling grief to dress like grief.â€