Their Eyes Were Watching God

Good afternoon everyone,

Today we have been talking about Zora Neale Hurston's novel Their Eyes were watching God. In this post, I would like to write some information that I found interesting to take into consideration and I hope that it helps you to better understand some aspects of the novel.

First of all, here you are an interesting and dynamic video where you can find some information about the whole novel, and its context of production, along with some information about the life of the author that we know has a special meaning in the text. Also, this "crash course on literature" provides an analysis of some important excerpts of the novel.

I also would like to talk about a theme we discussed in class — the main character, Janie, is trying to connect with herself, with her own personality and feelings. Today, we compared this spiritual and mystical search of the self with a meditation called mindfulness. According to specialists, this is a technique that make people more conscious, happy, and able to use their mind's full capacity. Plus, the teacher mentioned a Zen Master, Thich Nhat Hanh, who has been writing about how to integrate meditation in our daily lives and thus build a better world.

 

Still from Waking Life (2001), by director Richard Linklater

 Finally, talking about the consciousness, the nature of reality, free will and existentialism, I recommend you the film Waking Life. This will make you reflect on these topics. Here the main character wanders through a succession of dream-like realities.

Raquel Garcia Pérez