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's novel, the narrator and the main character, Janie, are two separate entities. They way that Hurston writes the two differs most noticeably in the use of vernacular. The reader takes the place of Phoebe in TEWWG, whereas in Invisible Man, the reader is addressed explicitly as the reader.
The second comparison I'd like to make is between the ending of TEWWG and the general chapter structure of Invisible Man. The "one long day" that Janie has after TeaCake's death reminded me a lot of many of the chapters of Invisible Man, and that is what inspired me to write this blog post. The narrator of Invisible Man continuously endures long episodes of dramatic action, similar to what happens to Janie and the end of the novel. The reader gets the sense that TeaCake dies and then several things follow, and the Janie returns to Eatonville all in a very short span of time. I would say the difference here is that the action in Invisible Man feels much more urgent, but when Janie finishes recounting her story to Phoebe, it is seemingly detached. This is an illustration of Janie's grief.
These books are very different, but looking at where they subtly overlap is valuable.
I really like the way that you compare these two books. The experience of reading them felt very different to me, but when you take the time to look at it like this there are significant similarities that you brought out.
ReplyDeleteThis was so interesting to read! Thank you for sharing this comparison! Before, I saw basically zero connections between these two novels and how I read them and reacted towards them, but the similarities that you highlight here are so, so clear. It’s awesome to think of it in this way. I especially was fascinated by how you compared both stories having a frame narrative but how this functions differently and is set up differently between both books: the audience of the narrator in Invisible Man being the reader and the audience of Janie being Phoebe (making it a bit more intimate and maybe even more trustworthy? Janie isn’t trying to “present” herself to the public or to readers in any particular way, and not trying to convince them of anything, when perhaps the invisible man is?).
ReplyDeleteThe ending “action” scenes were a super interesting comparison as well! It matches up perfectly. In both books, I just realized that the ending is pretty abrupt and quick as well. Which was interesting to read!
Thanks again! A great analysis and comparison.
I think its really interesting to look at two different stories and find parallels between them, especially when they are two deep stories like Invisible Man and Their Eyes Were Watching God. It especially especially interesting when the stories are about two different things, have different styles and forms of narration, and completely different characters. That makes for a really interesting blog post. Great job!
ReplyDeleteYour last paragraph is really interesting to me. One thing that stuck out to me was that as a reader, these novels seem very different on the surface. While reading Their Eyes Were Watching God, it was often hard to tell if the narrator or Janie was narrating at the time. In Invisible Man, the narrator never lets us forget that this is his story and no one else's.
ReplyDeleteI loved your post! I think it's really interesting to compare these two books in this way. I loved the writing style in Their Eyes Were Watching God as well. I found the contrast between the Narrator in Their Eyes were Watching God and Invisible Man to be really interesting because of how opposite they are. Great analysis!
ReplyDeleteI hadn't noticed this at all but it's really interesting to think about. The biggest difference, on the surface, to me was that Invisible Man felt much more fast paced than Their Eyes Were Watching God. It felt like we were constantly experiencing confusion inducing action in Invisible Man, while this book has focused more on thoroughly described moments - although nothing has to physically happen in them these still move the book and Janie's experiences forward. As you said the ending of TEWWG is where this changes and where it shows the most similarity to Invisible Man. Nice post!
ReplyDelete