Their Eyes Were Watching God

- Author and Background Zora Neale Hurston was a key American writer during the mid-1900s. Although she wrote many popular novels, short stories, and plays, Hurston is well known for her 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God (TEWWG). Hurston was born in Notasulga, Alabama but grew up in Eatonville, Florida. Her father was a preacher, while her mother was a teacher. Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia states Eatonville was a, “…pleasant all-black town… (Columbia 1)” and claims that Hurston had a…

Gender in the Bigger Picture As a commentary on the social system of the late 1930’s, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston truly reflects the norms of the time period in an accurate manner. Hurston was heavily impacted by the traditions and folklores of the African American culture, which are reflected within the ideals of the novel. From the desire to create an individual culture to the relentless search for love, Hurston includes elements that she discovered as she travelled and…

Marriage is not what most people imagine, love is not perfect and neither is a relationship. In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston portrays the the story of a young African-American girl named Janie who is married off to someone she does not love. Yearning for true feeling, Janie runs away and remarries to a promising rich man, only to discover that there is once again a lack of love. After almost twenty years of enduring, Janie’s second husband passes away, and by…

In the story, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston, there is a struggle between social status, class, race, gender, and wealth. Since the author, Zora Neale Hurston, is a female, it kind of presents the idea that the entirety of the story is to make the protagonist, Janie, seem to be a feminist hero like character. One of the most important struggles within the story is equality between the story’s “protagonist” and the other male secondary characters. While Janie would not…

In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston writes a story that revolutionizes and contradicts the traditional gender roles of the 1930’s. The basis of this book is about the ever-changing love life about a young girl named Janie. Throughout her various marriages, she becomes versed in herself and in the end, learns to be self-reliant and not reliable on others. Her first marriage was set up on a false hope. Every grandmother’s hope for her grandchild is to be married and…

is ought to read as both universal and particularly a black story because Hurston novel is a bildungsroman where the reader sees Janie’s development to womanhood in the novel. Ralph Thompson’s, Books of the Times, review stated that “Their Eyes Were Watching God is a story of Janie, who marries three times…in the case of Janie, we follow a typical progress from girlhood to middle age”. Not only does Janie’s three marriages portray her search for love, it portrays the stages of a girl becoming a…

Upon first writing and releasing Their Eyes Were Watching God in 1937, Zora Neale Hurston was subjected to a wide array of criticism from famous writers at that time. Most notably was Richard Wright, a powerful African American author amid his time, as he expressed in his audit that the novel "carries no theme, no message, [and] no thought" (Wright). Wright’s criticism shifted people’s attitude towards Hurston, as other critics began to feel that her novel only fulfilled the “white man’s”…

In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, the main character, Janie, emerges with a sense of independence, spiritual enlightenment, and a sense of her own identity. The book is not only a search for a partner, but a search for her own identity and independence; developing along the way by her use of her own voice and language. A huge part in her quest for independence were her three husbands in the novel- Logan Killicks, Jody Starks, and Tea Cake. They all taught her that…

dream was dead, so she became a woman.”(25) Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God took place in Florida during the early 1900s. In the novel, Hurston told of a woman named Janie Crawford and her romantic endeavors throughout her life, as well as her struggles with forces she cannot control. Janie constantly borders on the line of happiness until it is taken away time and time again in the blink of an eye. Janie Crawford is a character full of romance and dreams. Her…

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is an inspirational novel. The protagonist, Janie, embarks on a journey of self discovery, through heartbreak, domestic abuse, and happiness, she learns that she is free to make her own choices and live life her own way. One of the biggest themes in the novel is love. From the very beginning Janie is searching for love and what it means. Throughout Janie’s different marriages, she develops her own idea of what love is, which she eventually…