Their Eyes Were Watching God: Book Review

    Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is an African American based novel. This fiction story is about a character by the name of Janie Crawford, who finds her individuality through relationships. The relationship were not only within romantic ones, they also contained friendly and family ones. The major characters consisted of: Janie Crawford, Nanny, Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, Pheoby Watson, Nunkie, and Tea Cake. There were many conflicts throughout the novel. Janie had a hard time with her first marriage because she was actually forced into it. Her grandmother, Nanny, felt that marrying Logan Killicks was a great choice for her. Even though Janie did not love Logan, Nanny told her that eventually it may happen. This was a major conflict in the novel. Mostly because this made Janie began to follow someone else's path rather than hers. Another conflict would be Joe treating Janie like a status figure, instead of a wife. When Janie first met Joe, he seemed like a fantastic guy. After Joe started creating his town, Janie became less of a priority to him. He believed Janie should just sit back and watch while he did all the work. Joe thought that because Janie was a woman she was not capable of performing any of the work he was. This gave Joe dominion over Janie until she had had enough. Mrs. Taylor was involved in a major conflict as well. She had a problem with black men, even though she was black. She felt that women like her and Janie should not settle for men like Tea Cake. Janie had mixed features because of where she came from. She is biracial because of her mother. Her grandmother was raped by a white slave owner and had her mother. Her mother was raped by a white school teacher and had Janie. With that being said, her physical appearance was different from most of the females she grew up around. When Mrs. Taylor noticed this, she spoke to Janie about the men she believe thet should be with. She thought that they were more superior than other women who were strictly African American. There was not much to dislike about the novel. The only thing that I struggled with was symbolism. This way Hurston explained symbols was understandable, but still complex. I could point out the symbols, but if you asked me to explain them in depth, I would struggled. I really enjoyed the book because of its truthfulness. I could tell that Hurston was a bold writer because of how she wrote and the time the book was published. I loved how she showed how Janie developed through relationships. I find that a lot of time people are afraid to admit the mistakes that they made in life and how they learned from them. I feel like this novel helped to open up a window for people like that. I also loved how she touched on slavery. She showed the aftermath of how slave owner's abuse effected the slaves life, even after slavery was "abolished". I would recommend this book to anybody who is African American and from the south. It is both entertaining and an eye opener.