Janie's Choice: Their Eyes Were Watching God

Their Eyes Were Watching God
by Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston, one of the leaders of the Harlem Renaissance, published this novel in 1937. It received mixed reviews and fell into relative obscurity before Alice Walker revived interest in Hurston, and this novel in particular, in the 1970s. 

Janie is a young woman bursting with life who yearns to discover herself and experience the world, but is unable to articulate her amorphous desires. Early in the book, she sits under a blossoming pear tree, gazing at the bees and flowers.

It had called her to come and gaze on a mystery. From barren brown stems to glistening leaf-buds; from the leaf-buds to snowy virginity of bloom. It stirred her tremendously.

Her grandmother tried to keep her safe by marrying her off to a relatively wealthy farmer, but Janie withered. Janie could never recognize her grandmother's love, her desire to see Janie safe rather than fulfilled. Nor did her husband understand Janie's heart. On a whim, Janie runs off with a man on his way to a town established for and run by blacks in Florida.

In Eatonville, Janie's new husband, Jody, becomes the mayor. He restricts Janie's freedom, forcing her to stay isolated from the community, a trophy wife. After his death, she falls in love with Tea Cake, a charismatic but troubling man. 

The end is spectacular and I don't want to give anything away. I reveled in much of Hurston's prose.

This book is my new first choice for an African American novel for my seniors in high school. It's much more approachable than Invisible Man, though it still includes important themes and insights into a world my own children probably don't understand.

There remain content considerations, so I encourage you to read it yourself before assigning it to your own children. Among other difficult subjects, Janie abandons her first husband, is intimate with Tea Cake before marriage, and endures emotional and physical abuse from more than one man.

The vernacular speech may also be difficult for a high school student to understand. It is helpful to read it out loud. I also heard on a podcast that listening to an audiobook version while reading along makes it much clearer.

For my own education, I listened to the Close Reads podcast episodes on Their Eyes Were Watching God. I also found an episode of Black Chick Lit, which I found highly entertaining and insightful (language warning).

I have received nothing in exchange for this post. Links to Amazon and Bookshop are affiliate links. I checked this book out from the library and then requested a copy from another member of PaperBackSwap (affiliate link).

November and December 2021 Book Reports

Calvary Hero: Casimir Pulaski by Dorothy Adams (American Background Series) - I picked this book up used at a big sale because my grandmother was Polish. I remembered stories she would tell about celebrating Casmir Polaski Day at her Polish school (in Illinois) when she was a little girl. This book is from an older series, well-written and enjoyable, though his life story has many tough times. It's a good supplemental book for a Revolutionary War study, if you happen to be particularly interested in Polish war heroes. (purchased used)

Anthony Burns: The Defeat and Triumph of a Fugitive Slave by Virginia Hamilton - I'm not sure where I heard about this book, but I wanted to add it to Second Son's history reading for the year (Level 2 Year 2, when he was still reading This Country of Ours, because I rearrange our history). It provides an interesting perspective of a slave's life in the years before the Civil War, when the patchwork of laws in different states were confusing to everyone, especially to the enslaved. (purchased used)

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison - This book is on the Mater Amabilis high school schedule for English in Level 6 Year 2 (twelfth grade). First Son was starting his senior year, but because he started high school on the beta plans and was taking a college writing course in the spring, I adjusted his English assignments. I pre-read this book, planning to assign it to him. It's a tough read, because the language is sometimes fluid and fast, the action is alternatively slow and shocking, and the subject matter is difficult to absorb. It's a masterpiece, but in the end I decided not to overwhelm First Son's schedule by adding it. (He did a semester of English with me in the fall in addition to a whole credit's worth of writing in the spring at a local college.) I feel like most high school students would be overwhelmed by this book without a wise teacher to walk through it with them, and I am probably not that teacher. If First Son continues in the seminary, he will read it in college, and that's probably a good plan. (Kansas Dad's course copy)

Lights in a Dark Town: A Story about John Henry Newman by Meriol Trevor - link to my review (purchased copy)

30 Poems to Memorize (Before it's too Late) edited by David Kern - link to my review (purchased copy)

Rainbow Valley by L.M. Montgomery - I've read this book many times, of course, but it's been decades. I think I enjoyed this book more now that I'm a mother; I found it easier to keep the children separate in my head. I encouraged Second Son to read it, even though he hadn't read the books between this one and Anne of Green Gables. He's always on the search for relaxing bedtime reads. He laughed at all the words they considered bad. There are a number of funny stories. If you're reading aloud to younger kids, this is a good book to follow Anne of Green Gables. (gifted copy)

Home by Marilynne Robinson - This is a slow gentle book I found a bit more depressing than Gilead by the same author, but still beautifully written. (library copy)

Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad by Ann Petry - I can't remember where I first found this book, either, but it was a good fit for Second Daughter's American History study in seventh grade (Level 3 year 2). I wanted something on the Underground Railroad. This is a well-written biography for middle grade readers that covers Harriet Tubman's life in slavery and freedom. (purchased copy)

Woman and the New Race by Margaret Sanger - link to my review (available free online)

My Man Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse - I wanted something funny and light-hearted to listen to while riding in the van with First Son. Neither of us had read or heard any Wodehouse. This had some truly hilarious moments, and we both enjoyed it in our little thirty minute increments. (purchased audiobook)

King Lear by William Shakespeare - This was First Son's final Shakespeare play. He read all three of his senior year plays in the first semester (to finish them before his college writing class in the spring), so it was a quicker read than we usually do. King Lear is an excellent choice for twelfth grade; it's one of the more referenced Shakespeare plays, and therefore a good one to read before going to college, but it's also grim and depressing. So, read it, but save it for your older high school students. (purchased copy)

I have received nothing in exchange for this post. Links to Amazon, Bookshop.org, and PaperBackSwap are affiliate links.

Preparing for College Writing: The Office of Assertion

The Office of Assertion: The Art of Rhetoric for the Academic Essay

by Scott F. Crider

This book is recommended in our Mater Amabilis high school English course (Level 6 Year 2, twelfth grade). First Son's English courses were a combination of the new plans and the old beta plans, so I spent a lot of time debating his options for senior year. I didn't want him to miss all of the great books and resources, but because he was going to take a college writing course, he didn't have time for everything that was left.

I decided to take a chance on this book and scheduled it for First Son. I really don't know how much it helped him; he's a fine writer, though a bit too succinct for my own taste. I think it's an excellent book, though, and I'm already looking forward to First Daughter reading it in a few years.

There book consists of six chapters, an example student essay, and a couple of other helpful appendices. The Mater Amabilis lesson plans cover it in nine assignments (once a week). I assigned it to First Son in the first term, along with some Shakespeare and novels I wanted him to read. (I gave him a semester's credit of English for this book and the plays and novels, then a year's credit for the college writing course he took in the spring.) The example student essay is about Telemachus and the Odyssey, which Mater Amabilis students will especially appreciate if they read it in Level 5.

Dr. Crider covers everything about crafting an essay - forming an argument, organizing the essay's structure, stylistic choices, revising, and critiquing. Most of these topics should be somewhat familiar to a Level 6 student (eleventh or twelfth grade), but The Office of Assertion pulls it all together clearly and succinctly. He includes examples throughout from masterpieces of rhetoric like the Declaration of Independence and Samuel Johnson's "Preface to Shakespeare."

All liberal arts, in both the sciences and the humanities, are animated by the fundamental human desire to know, the fulfillment of which is a good, even if it provides no economic or political benefit whatsoever. An education for economic productivity and political utility alone is an education for slaves, but an education for finding, collecting, and communicating reality is an education for free people, people free to know what is so. (pp. 122-123, emphasis of the author)

This book is an excellent part of our high school plans. It fits well in the senior year, when students are likely more proactive in improving their writing and when it will remain fresh in their minds as they begin college coursework.

I have received nothing in exchange for this post. Links to Amazon and Bookshop are affiliate links. I purchased my copy new from Amazon.

An American Odyssey: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

audiobook from Audible, performed by Elijah Wood

First Son is completing a blend of the beta Mater Amabilis high school plans and the updated ones, so I have to condense the six novels from Level 6 (eleventh and twelfth grades) into three novels for senior year. After talking with Kansas Dad and polling the Facebook group for thoughts, I think I've narrowed it down to four. I already own Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn on Audible, and I'm going to assign this to First Son as a free-time listen. He's not as devoted to audiobooks as First Daughter, but he'll find it easier than reading so I think we can squeeze it in as a fourth novel.

Mark Twain is not my favorite author, though I very much enjoyed his Joan of Arc. Listening to Elijah Wood's performance was vastly more enjoyable for me than reading the book would have been. He does a terrific job. It is a little disturbing for modern listeners to hear the language of the characters, but I feel like it's true to the historical dialogue Twain was invoking and the harshness of it to our ears is a reminder of the traumas of slavery and racism.

Because I listened to the book rather than reading it, I don't have many reliable quotes to share. My favorite parts of the book illuminated Huck's thought processes as he desperately tried to discern right and wrong in a world that honored the legal ownership of slaves. Twain skillfully reveals much of the despair and inequality of the institution of slavery, but without challenging it entirely, even though it was published after the Civil War.

I also loved the descriptions of the weather and natural world of the Mississippi River. Mark Twain knew that land inside and out and beautifully describes it, whether in narrative text or in the voice of Huckleberry Finn.

Huckleberry Finn lies at every town up and down the Mississippi. He lies even when he doesn't have anything to fear. Sometimes, these whoppers are tremendously entertaining, but I personally would have preferred half of them, and the ones remaining lasting only half as long. First Son will probably enjoy them more.

I'm pleased to include this book in our high school studies. It's a complicated book with lots of room for discussions and thoughts, most of which we won't cover explicitly, but I think it's an important American novel I'm sorry I missed before now. Now that I've read it, I feel sure I'll hear echoes of it in many other American works.

I have received nothing in exchange for this post. Links to Amazon are affiliate links. I purchased this audiobook.

Spiritual and Material: The Sacraments

The Sacraments: Discovering the Treasures of Divine Life

by Fr. Matthew Kauth

This book was first recommended in the Mater Amabilis Facebook group by a friend of mine. She knows Fr. Matthew Kauth, who is a priest and Rector of the college seminary at Belmont Abbey. 

This relatively short book devotes a chapter to each of the seven sacraments, along with an introduction, a conclusion, and a chapter on the definition of a sacrament. The sacraments might seem simple; after all, we introduce them to young children, but they are a convergence of the spiritual and the material and therefore an eternal source of meditation and contemplation.

Fr. Kauth's chapters are insightful, revealing mysteries of the sacraments through examples of modern life. Though short, they are rich in meaning. I read most of the chapters while praying at adoration and found much to ponder as I sat before the exposed host. Fr. Kauth doesn't just explain the sacrament featured in each chapter; he invites the reader to allow participation in the sacraments to become the center of life.

Living liturgically sanctifies the time and our lives. It allows us to move with the rest of the Body of Christ through the mysteries of Christ's life. It imparts meaning and drama. It inserts my mind into the mind of Christ and allows me to participate in his thoughts and capture the movements of his Sacred Heart. (pp. 144-145)

My son read this book in his eleventh grade year. I think high school, even later high school, is a perfect time for it. At first, I had considered this book as a replacement for The Creed in Slow Motion in ninth grade, which I've moved to middle school as our confirmation preparation. After reading The Sacraments, I've decided to keep it as a spiritual reflection book for later in high school. I believe an older student with a little more maturity will appreciate the book more.

I have received nothing in exchange for this post. Links to Bookshop are affiliate links. I purchased this book.