So here we are at the end of another book. I enjoyed Their Eyes Were Watching God very much, which is possibly why I don't agree with Wright's criticism of the novel. I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to wright/format this post, so bear with me.
One of Wright's main criticisms of the novel was the lack of theme, causing the novel as a whole to not have any significance and just become a book for "a white audience whose chauvinistic tastes she knows how to satisfy." Huston's book is not a politically charged protest novel that outwardly addresses racial struggles (and I guess that's what Wright didn't like about it), but I don't think this means it lacks significance. This may not be correct, but I feel like Their Eyes Were Watching God not being specifically about race in a way made it be more about race. That was confusing so I will try to explain. I saw the book as a story for everyone. It's not meant for only one race, unlike Native Son. The content of Native Son seems to isolate it, which makes me think that Their Eyes Were Watching God is more effective when handling racial barriers because it promotes equality.
Something I like about Hurston's book is the subtlety of the themes (which we talked about in class today) that don't slap you in the face and force you to think in a certain way, but rather allow you to form your own ideas throughout Janie's story. To me, this is better than Wright's method of establishing a theme because throughout Their Eyes Were Watching God, I found myself just noticing things like gender and race.
Lastly, we talked about this in class as well, but I think Wright's is a bit hypocritical when saying Hurston promotes stereotypes. I don't think I will elaborate on this too much because it's something we already discussed, but I think that Native Son and the character of Bigger Thomas showcase negative stereotypes more so than Hurston.
Or maybe I'm just biased.
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I also disagree with Wright's problems which was essentially the stereotypical criticism of black literature in the 1940s. That being said, I understand how Their Eyes Were Watching God would dissatisfy him given that he has a completely different mindset when writing. He's definitely hypocritical when he talks about stereotypes and I really think TEWWG did more to advance African-Americans than Native Son. Hurston portrays blacks with the same characteristics as whites: capable of feeling, love, thought while Wright depicts a static black male as the product of white oppression. The whole approach many black authors took during this time seems extremely ineffective to me.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Wright is a bit hypocritical and wrong in his criticism of Their Eyes Were Watching God. Wright feels that all novel written by black authors should be protest novels or have something to sayabout race. But by imposing this staandard he is segegating black writing from white writing. White authors can write about anything but according to wright black authors have to write about race.
ReplyDeleteI think that Wright's complaint that Hurston's novel lacks a "theme" reflects his own biases: Hurston has themes, as our class discussions and the stacks of published criticism on the novel attest. But these themes have to do with gender, individual identity, folk culture, and a host of other things that Wright simply didn't see as important, and therefore failed to even perceive *as* "themes." Of course, it's just as easy to hold his novel to Hurston's standard and point out all the ways it's lacking.
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