What do you think happens to Janie after the book? Does she settle back in Eatonville, living among her old friends and neighbors? Or could Janie soon suffer from rabies and die? She had been bitten by Tea Cake during the fight in which she shot him (p. 184); the doctor had previously expressed concern that towards the end of his illness, Tea Cake was a threat to Janie, that he might bite her.
Robert Haas wrote an article, “Might Zora Neale Hurston’s Janie Woods Be Dying of Rabies? Considerations from Historical Medicine” (Literature and Medicine 19, no. 2 (Fall 2000) 205-228) in which he argues that everything else the doctor said to Janie came true as far as Tea Cake’s illness, and so why wouldn’t his specific warning that Tea Cake might bite her and give her rabies also come true. Could Janie be telling Pheoby her story because she won’t be around for very long to tell it herself? What do you think?
Categories: fiction
Tagged: Big Read, book discussion, classics, fiction, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston
One of the questions from the NEA’s Big Read discussion questions for Their Eyes Were Watching God is:
”Why does Janie choose to tell her story only to her best friend Pheoby? How does Pheoby respond at the end of Janie’s tale?”
Do you think Janie will tell her story to others as time goes on? Why or why not?
At the end of the book (p. 192) Pheoby says to Janie,
“Ah done growed ten feet higher from jus’ listenin’ tuh you, Janie. Ah ain’t satisfied wid mahself no mo’. Ah means tuh make Sam take me fishin’ wid him after this.”
Do you suspect that Pheoby will be successful in her efforts to make changes in her life, like insisting that Sam take her fishing for starters?
Related links of interest:
Complete list of NEA Big Read discussion questions for the book
Categories: fiction
Tagged: Big Read, book discussion, classics, fiction, Their Eyes Were Watching God
While not strictly an autobiographical novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God is set largely in Eatonville, FL, the town Zora Neale Hurston herself grew up in, and noted for being one of the few all-African American towns in the US when it was incorporated in 1887. It is in Eatonville that Janie lives with Jody and to Eatonville that she returns to her story with Pheoby.
How is the setting integral to the book? Do you think the same story could have taken place somewhere else?
Related links of interest:
Zora! Festival: the annual Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities, sponsored by the Association to Preserve the Eatonville Community
St. Lucie County also holds its own ZoraFest annually
Zora Neale Hurston’s Fort Pierce home in St. Lucie County is listed as a National Historic Landmark.
Zora Neale Hurston Dust Tracks Heritage Trail (click on the tour markers for a virtual tour)
Categories: fiction
Tagged: Big Read, book discussion, classics, fiction, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston
