Eve's African American Literature Blog Fall 2021

     While reading Their Eyes Were Watching God  for this class, I kept thinking about how different it was from the two previous books we read: Invisible Man  and Native Son.  The setting, narrative style, and general tone of Hurston's novel is entirely distinctive (and I really enjoyed reading the book because of that). Looking back, however, I find the echoes of Their Eyes Were Watching God  in Invisible Man  more and more. I'd like to discuss the similarities and differences in this blog post.      To start off, they are both frame narratives told by the main character of the story. That frame impacts how the reader sees the story in both books, but there are many differences in how the frame changes the narrative. In Invisible Man,  the narrator is clearly talking about the process of writing, which is connected closely to his character. This established him as the narrator, and we have referred to him as such throughout out discussion of the book. However, in Hurston'

      In the first three chapters of Zora Neale Hurston's "Their Eyes Were Watching God," Hurston introduces two different frame narratives. The first frame narrative comes with Janie recounting her life to her friend Pheoby. The second comes from within Janie's life story, when she remembers a story from her grandmother's life. To call these "frame narratives" is a little bit unfeeling, because they are actually stories. This oral tradition adds. depth to the characters and the novel.      When the novel begins, Janie seems guarded and reluctant to talk about her life. We later learn that this is because she has been gone from town and has experienced a lot of hardship since, including losing a partner. However, her willingness to open up to Pheoby about her life and past shows the reader that their relationship is a lot deeper than their conversations would suggest. The reader also gets to learn more about Janie through her story, which helps to open u

     Chapter 21 of Invisible Man  follows the narrator organizing and then speaking at the funeral of Tod Clifton, who was killed by a police officer in chapter 20. The killing and funeral mark (what I think will be) the last straw for the narrator and his departure from the Brotherhood.  This also foretells a big change in the novel, and probably one of the last steps toward the narrator becoming "invisible."      Tod Clifton represents so much for the narrator within the Brotherhood. For the readers, Clifton is one of the first real organizers that we see, who has a stronger and more tangible connection to social change. He also acts as a role model for the narrator when he first starts out. For me personally reading Invisible Man, the introduction of Tod Clifton made me question if the Brotherhood was really so useless, or if maybe the narrator had only met the wrong people (or it made me realize something more insidious: there are people working within the Brotherhood who

      The term "brother" has been used so many times throughout "Invisible Man," it has practically become a theme of the novel. And yet, it is used in any way but a familial sense. Ralph Ellison uses the word with intention, and as a means to signal to the reader when white characters in the novel seek to align with the protagonist for their own gain.      A memorable time this word crops up is in chapter 10, when the protagonist stumbles into a union meeting and is immediately treated as suspect and bombarded by the "brothers" assembled there. He first remarks on the leader's use of the word, saying " Brother? Even after my weeks in the North this was surprising." (219) However, once they learn he is working for Brockway, the "brother" is quickly dropped, and the protagonist is seen as an enemy. After deliberation about whether he can be trusted again, the men in the locker room return to calling him brother. In this case, the wor

     When recalling reading Native Son, one of the most emotionally charged scenes takes place at the start of book three. Bigger has finally come out of his sickness after being caught, and is suddenly confronted by an array of people coming into his cell. The scene itself is difficult to read, as it is when Bigger first sees his family after being arrested, but I would like to focus on the end of the scene, during which Mrs. Thomas attempts to appeal to the Daltons to save her son. The reaction of each person in the scene to Mrs. Thomas's actions indicate how much of the rest of the book with unfold, and how each character relates to their place in US society.       Towards the end of the scene, Mrs. Thomas appeals to Mrs. Dalton by kneeling at her feet and begging her to have mercy on Bigger. She attempts to find common ground between the two of them, saying "Please, don't let 'em kill my boy! You know how a mother feels!" (Wright, 301).  However, Mrs. Thomas&#