''Their Eyes Were Watching God'' is a 1937 novel by
American writer
Zora Neale Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston (January 7, 1891 – January 28, 1960) was an American writer, anthropologist, folklorist, and documentary filmmaker. She portrayed racial struggles in the early-20th-century American South and published research on Hoodoo ...
. It is considered a classic of the
Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and cultural revival of African-American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater, politics, and scholarship centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s and 1930s. At the ti ...
and Hurston's best-known work. The novel explores protagonist Janie Crawford's "ripening from a vibrant, but voiceless, teenage girl into a woman with her finger on the trigger of her own destiny."
Set in
central and
southern Florida
South Florida, sometimes colloquially shortened to SoFlo, is the southernmost region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is one of Florida's three most commonly referred to directional regions; the two others are Central Florida and North Florida. S ...
in the early 20th century, the novel was initially poorly received. Since the late 20th century, however, it has been regarded as influential to both
African-American literature
African American literature is the body of literature produced in the United States by writers of African descent. Phillis Wheatley was an enslaved African woman who became the first African American to publish a book of poetry, which was publis ...
and
women's literature
The academic discipline of women's writing is a discrete area of literary criticism, literary studies which is based on the notion that the experience of women, historically, has been shaped by their sex, and so women writers by definition are a g ...
. ''
Time
Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...
'' magazine included the novel in its 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels published since 1923.
Plot synopsis
Janie Crawford, an African-American woman in her forties, returns to her old town after a year-long absence and recounts her life story, along with the time she had been gone, to her friend Phoeby. Janie starts with her sexual awakening, comparing it to a blossoming pear tree kissed by bees in spring, that occurs when she allows a local boy, Johnny Taylor, to kiss her, which Janie's grandmother, Nanny, witnesses.
As a young enslaved woman, Nanny was raped by her white enslaver, then gave birth to a
mixed-race
The term multiracial people refers to people who are mixed with two or more
races and the term multi-ethnic people refers to people who are of more than one ethnicities. A variety of terms have been used both historically and presently for mul ...
daughter that she named Leafy. Though Nanny wanted a better life for her daughter and even escaped her jealous mistress, after the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
Leafy was later raped by her school teacher and became pregnant with Janie. Shortly after Janie's birth, Leafy began to drink and stay out at night, eventually abandoning the baby and leaving Janie with Nanny.
Nanny, having transferred her hopes for stability and opportunity from Leafy to Janie, arranges for Janie to marry Logan Killicks, an older farmer looking for a wife. However, Killicks does not love Janie and wants only a domestic helper, rather than a lover or partner; he thinks she does not do enough around the farm and considers her ungrateful. When Janie speaks to Nanny about her desire for love, Nanny, too, accuses Janie of being spoiled and dies soon after.
Unhappy, disillusioned, and lonely, Janie leaves Killicks and runs off with Joe "Jody" Starks, a glib man who takes her to the all-Black community of
Eatonville,
Florida
Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...
. Starks arranges to buy more land, establishes a general store, and is soon elected mayor of the town. However, Janie soon realizes that Starks wants her as a
trophy wife to reinforce his powerful position in town and to run the store, even forbidding her from taking part in the town's social life. During their twenty-year marriage, he treats her as his property, criticizing her, controlling her, and physically abusing her. Finally, when Starks's kidney begins to fail, Janie says that he never knew her because he would not let her be free.
After Starks dies Janie becomes financially independent through his estate. Though she is beset with
suitors, including men of means, she turns them all down until she meets a young
drifter and
gambler
Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of value ("the stakes") on a random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy are discounted. Gambling thus requires three ele ...
named Vergible Woods, known as "Tea Cake.” He plays the guitar for her and initially treats her with kindness and respect. Janie is hesitant because she is older and wealthy, but she eventually falls in love with him and decides to run away with him to
Jacksonville
Jacksonville ( ) is the most populous city proper in the U.S. state of Florida, located on the Atlantic coast of North Florida, northeastern Florida. It is the county seat of Duval County, Florida, Duval County, with which the City of Jacksonv ...
to marry. They move to
Belle Glade, in the northern part of the
Everglades
The Everglades is a natural region of flooded grasslands in the southern portion of the U.S. state of Florida, comprising the southern half of a large drainage basin within the Neotropical realm. The system begins near Orlando with the K ...
region ("the muck"), where they find work planting and harvesting beans. While their relationship is volatile and sometimes violent, Janie finally has the loving marriage that she always wanted. Her image of the pear tree blossom is revived. Suddenly, the area is hit by the great
1928 Okeechobee hurricane. Tea Cake is bitten by a dog while saving Janie from drowning and develops
rabies
Rabies is a viral disease that causes encephalitis in humans and other mammals. It was historically referred to as hydrophobia ("fear of water") because its victims panic when offered liquids to drink. Early symptoms can include fever and abn ...
. He becomes hydrophobic and increasingly jealous and unpredictable. When he tries to shoot Janie with his pistol, she fatally shoots him with a rifle in
self-defense
Self-defense (self-defence primarily in Commonwealth English) is a countermeasure that involves defending the health and well-being of oneself from harm. The use of the right of self-defense as a legal justification for the use of Force (law), ...
, and she is charged with murder.
At the trial, Tea Cake's Black male friends show up to oppose her, but a group of local white women arrives to support Janie. After the
all-white jury
Racial discrimination in jury selection is specifically prohibited by law in many jurisdictions throughout the world. In the United States, it has been defined through a series of judicial decisions. However, juries composed solely of one racial ...
acquits Janie, she gives Tea Cake a lavish funeral. Tea Cake's friends forgive her, asking her to remain in the
Everglades
The Everglades is a natural region of flooded grasslands in the southern portion of the U.S. state of Florida, comprising the southern half of a large drainage basin within the Neotropical realm. The system begins near Orlando with the K ...
. However, she decides to return to Eatonville. As she expected, the residents gossip about her when she returns to town. The story ends where it started as Janie finishes recounting her life to Phoeby.
Themes
Gender roles
The novel explores traditional
gender role
A gender role, or sex role, is a social norm deemed appropriate or desirable for individuals based on their gender or sex.
Gender roles are usually centered on conceptions of masculinity and femininity. The specifics regarding these gendered ...
s and the relationship between men and women. Nanny believes that Janie should marry a man not for love, but for "protection". Janie's first two husbands, Logan Killicks and Jody Starks, both believe Janie should be defined by her marriage to them. Both men want her to be domesticated and silent. Her speech, or silence, is defined by her physical locations, most often. For example, Starks forces her silence at the store, a public—and therefore, male space at the time. He says: "... Muh wife don't know nothin' bout no speech-makin'. Ah never married her for nothin' lak dat. She's ah woman
and her place is in de home." Janie is also forbidden from socializing with the townspeople on the porch. Tea Cake is Janie's last husband, who treats her as more of an equal than Killicks and Starks did, by talking to her and playing checkers with her.
Duke professor and
Black feminist
Black feminism is a branch of feminism that focuses on the African-American woman's experiences and recognizes the intersectionality of racism and sexism. Black feminism philosophy centers on the idea that "Black women are inherently va ...
cultural critic,
Mark Anthony Neal, writes that Tea Cake defies the
heteronormative
Heteronormativity is the definition of heterosexuality as the normative human sexuality. It assumes the gender binary (i.e., that there are only two distinct, opposite genders) and that sexual and marital relations are most fitting between peo ...
roles of his own
masculinity
Masculinity (also called manhood or manliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles generally associated with men and boys. Masculinity can be theoretically understood as Social construction of gender, socially constructed, and there i ...
and Janie's
femininity
Femininity (also called womanliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and Gender roles, roles generally associated with women and girls. Femininity can be understood as Social construction of gender, socially constructed, and there is also s ...
in their relationship despite his
domestic violence
Domestic violence is violence that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage
Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes r ...
towards her. He writes: "Tea Cake reads as progressive in opposition to traditional gender politics within black communities and institutions and the larger society during the era." Throughout the novel, Janie struggles with her agency in relation to domineering male figures, even Tea Cake whom she chose to love.
Masculinity and femininity
Scholars argue that in ''Their Eyes Were Watching God'' the role of
masculinity
Masculinity (also called manhood or manliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles generally associated with men and boys. Masculinity can be theoretically understood as Social construction of gender, socially constructed, and there i ...
is portrayed through the subordination and objectification of women. In a reflection of post-slavery Florida, Black men are subordinate only to their white employers and adhere to white, patriarchal institutions of masculinity
in which women are held in a positive social regard only if they are attractive, are married, or have attained financial security via previous marriages. Specifically, Black women face greater oppression, as their own struggle for independence was considered counter-productive to the greater fight for equality for Black Americans as a whole. Nanny explains this hierarchical structure early on to Janie when she says:
In the book, men view women as an object to pursue, acquire, and control through courting, manipulation, and even physical force. Janie's journey for the discovery of her self-identity and independence is depicted through her pursuit of true love—her dream—through marriages to three different men. Each of the men she marries conforms in some way to gender norms of the day. The role of
femininity
Femininity (also called womanliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and Gender roles, roles generally associated with women and girls. Femininity can be understood as Social construction of gender, socially constructed, and there is also s ...
is portrayed through the symbolism of property, mules, and elements in nature. Women in the book are considered a trophy prize for males, to simply look pretty and obey their husbands. The analogy of the mule and women is stated repetitively in the book. Janie's Nanny explained to Janie at a young age how African-American women were objectified as mules. "De nigger woman is de mule uh de world so far as Ah can see."
Mules are typically bought and sold by farmers, usually to be used to work until exhaustion. Later in the book, Janie realizes that Nanny's warnings were true when she identifies with an abused mule in Eatonville. She sees herself as a working animal with no voice, there for the amusement of others and at the expense of her own free will. This identification is shown in the book when the townspeople are laughing at the mule that Jody had eventually bought and rescued (in an attempt to manipulate Janie). However, Janie does not laugh alongside the townspeople as she is shown to empathize with the mule ("Everybody was having fun at the mule-baiting. All but Janie") and she feels disgusted by the situation. The mule represents the feminine gender role in the story by which men suppress and degrade women who are stereotyped as unable to think for themselves and needing constant guidance from men. These stereotypes "become a chain on the American women, preventing them from developing individuality, and from pursuing their personal happiness"
and ultimately what forces them to mold into their gender role.
Janie Crawford
Janie Crawford is the main character of ''Their Eyes Were Watching God''. At the beginning of the story, she is described as naive, beautiful, and energetic. However, as the story progresses, Janie is constantly under the influence and pressure of gender norms within her romantic relationships. As she navigates each of her relationships with men, Janie ultimately loses her confidence and self-image, conforming to roles that the husbands want her to fill.
In Janie's first relationship, she was given as a wife by Nanny at an early age and was told that love may come with marriage but that it was not important. However, as time passed, Janie was unable to love Logan. "She began to cry. 'Ah wants things sweet wid mah marriage lak when you sit under a pear tree and think.'"
As time passed on, Logan began forcing Janie to conform to a traditional lifestyle, telling her that he would buy a mule for her so that she could work. However, Janie was strong-minded and Logan made little progress on changing Janie. Janie raised her voice, but still she remained susceptible to suppression and abuse. "You ain't got no particular place. It's wherever Ah need yuh. Git a move on yuh, and dat quick."
Then, in Janie's second relationship, she left Logan Killicks in an attempt to pursue a better future with her new husband, Joe Starks. Joe was the mayor of Eatonville and achieved much wealth, placing Janie in a higher status than her peers, since she was "sleeping with authority, seating in a higher chair." Janie believed that her life would change for the better. However, she was confined in the roles of a housewife and was made to be Joe's prized possession. "The king's mule, and the king's pleasure is everything she is there for, nothing else."
In Janie's third and last relationship, she was able to experience true love, on her own terms, with her third husband Vergible "Tea Cake" Woods. Janie was older than Tea Cake by nearly twelve years. He loved and treated her better than her previous husbandsThough, while she was no longer strictly confined by the gender roles placed upon her by her previous husbands, she was still easily influenced and manipulated by Tea Cake. Janie was forced to shoot and kill Tea Cake in self-defense after he developed rabies.
Logan Killicks
Logan Killicks is Janie's first husband. Shortly after Nanny observes Janie sharing her first kiss with a boy named Johnny Taylor—and therefore showing signs of puberty—she informs Janie that she was promised to Logan Killicks, a widower, from a young age for her own well-being and protection. Logan owns a farm with 60 acres of land. He grows and sells potatoes as well as chops and delivers wood. He has one mule to plow the fields and decides that he needs to add another to the stable. Though Janie hopes that it will grow, there is never any gentleness or love between her and Logan. She is 15 or 16 years old when she is married off to Logan and later she grows to resent her grandmother for selling her off, like a slave.
Their marriage is purely based on logic, work and convenience—he is a man with property and he needs a wife while Nanny is an aging woman raising her grandchild alone, and she needs to secure Janie's future. There is little regard for Janie's happiness as Nanny believes Logan to be a good husband based on his financial prospects alone.
Logan has traditional views on marriage. He believes that a man should be married to a woman, and that she should be his property and work hard. Everyone contributes to tending the family land. He believes Janie should work well from dawn to dusk, in the field as well as the house, and do as she is told. She is analogous to a mule or other working animal. He is not an attractive man by Janie's description of him and seems to be aware of this. As such, his prospects at finding a mate based on attraction and his age are slim, thus the reason for approaching Nanny early on about an arrangement of marriage to Janie when she comes of age.
During the course of their brief marriage, Logan attempts to subjugate Janie with his words and attempts to make her work beyond the
gender role
A gender role, or sex role, is a social norm deemed appropriate or desirable for individuals based on their gender or sex.
Gender roles are usually centered on conceptions of masculinity and femininity. The specifics regarding these gendered ...
s in a typical marriage. He does not appreciate her streaks of independence when she refuses his commands and he uses her family history to try to manipulate her into being submissive to him.
At one point, he threatens to kill her for her insubordination in a desperate and final attempt to control her.
Joe "Jody" Starks
Joe "Jody" Starks is Janie's second husband. He is charismatic, charming and has big plans for his future. Janie, being young and naive, is easily seduced by his efforts to convince her to leave Logan. Ultimately, Joe is successful in gaining Janie's trust and so she joins him on his journey. Joe views Janie as a princess or royalty to be displayed on a pedestal. Because of her youth, inexperience, and desire to find true love, Janie is easily controlled, and manipulated, into submitting to his male authority.
Joe Starks is a man who is strong, organized and a natural leader. He has money from his time working for white men and he now aims to settle in a new community made up of African-Americans, a place in its infancy where he can make a name for himself. Joe quickly establishes himself as an authoritative figure around the town which has no determined name or governance of any kind when he and Janie arrive. With the money he has, he buys land, organizes the townsfolk, becomes the owner-operator of the general store and post office, and is eventually named Mayor of
Eatonville. Joe strives for equality with white men, particularly the mayor of the white town across the river from Eatonville. To attain this status he requires nice things: the largest white house, a nice desk and chair, a gilded
spitoon, and a beautiful wife. He is a larger-than-life character and during their time in Eatonville, he has grown an equally large belly and taken up the habit of chewing nice
cigar
A cigar is a rolled bundle of dried and Fermentation, fermented tobacco leaves made to be Tobacco smoking, smoked. Cigars are produced in a variety of sizes and shapes. Since the 20th century, almost all cigars are made of three distinct comp ...
s, both of which cement his status with the locals as an important man around town. Joe, like most of the men in the book, believes that women are incapable of thinking and caring for themselves. He likens them to children and livestock that need constant tending and direction. "Somebody's got to think for the women and chillen and chickens and cows. God, they sho don't think none fo themselves."
Jody is a jealous man, and because of this he grows more and more possessive and controlling of Janie. He expects her to dress a certain way (buying her the finest of clothes, with tight corsets) and requires that she wear her long, beautiful hair—symbolic of her free spirit and femininity—covered and up in a bun, so as not to attract too much unwanted attention from the other men in Eatonville. He considers her long hair to be for his enjoyment alone.
He excludes Janie from various events and the social gatherings in Eatonville to further his dominance and control over her. He restricts her from being friendly with the other townswomen, requiring her to behave in a separate and superior manner.
Vergible "Tea Cake" Woods
Tea Cake is Janie's third and final husband. He is her ideal partner in her search for true love. He is charismatic, charming, sharp-witted, and creative with a penchant for embellished stories. To Janie, he is larger than life, wise, and genuinely caring. Tea Cake is loving towards Janie and respectful of her as an autonomous individual. Unlike in her previous two marriages, Tea Cake never stops trying to make Janie happy. He is more than willing to share with her what he has learned from his own experiences and show her the greater world outside of her own existence. He enjoys being with Janie and playing the role of a teacher. Through Tea Cake, Janie learns to shoot a rifle, play checkers, fish, and hunt alligator, among other activities.
However, Tea Cake shows tendencies of patriarchal dominance and psychological abuse towards Janie, somewhat like in her previous two marriages.
He isn't always truthful with her—in a show of male dominance in their relationship, Tea Cake takes $200 from Janie without her knowledge or permission and spends it on a guitar and a lavish party with others around town without including her in the festivities. While accounting for his spending of her money, he tells Janie that he had to pay women that he deemed unattractive $2 each to keep them from the party. He then gambles the remaining amount to make the money back, telling her to put it in the bank and to only rely off of him and whatever money he could make. What differentiates Tea Cake from Joe in this regard is that Janie regularly confronts him and he acquiesces to her demand that she not be excluded from aspects of his life.
Another tendency that Tea Cake shares with Joe is his jealousy and need to maintain some amount of control over Janie. When he overhears another woman, Mrs. Turner, speaking poorly to Janie about Tea Cake and attempting to set her up with her brother, Tea Cake decides to take matters into his own hands. He initially discusses it with Janie, but when Mrs. Turner's brother actually comes to town, he slaps his wife around in front of Mrs. Turner and others to show them that he is in charge and to assert his ownership over her.
He ends up successfully executing an elaborate plan to ruin her establishment.
In the end, Tea Cake plays the role of hero to Janie when he saves her from drowning and being attacked by a rabid dog. Tea Cake himself is bitten and eventually succumbs to the disease. Not able to think rationally and enraged with jealousy, he physically attacks Janie, who is forced to shoot and kill Tea Cake.
Liberated woman
Janie is constantly searching for her own voice and identity throughout the novel. She is often without a voice in relation to her husbands as she will not fight back. Janie also encounters situations that make her feel that her value as an African-American woman is little to none. She is seen as distinct from other women in the novel, who follow traditions and do not find a life independent of men. Janie's physical appeal becomes a basis for Starks and Tea Cake to have jealousy and belittle her looks. Starks orders Janie to cover her long hair as other men are attracted to it. Similarly, Tea Cake remarks on Janie's lighter skin and her appeal to Mrs. Turner's brother. But Janie begins to feel liberated in her marriage with Tea Cake because he treats her as an equal and mostly does not look down on her. As a result, she loves him more than she did her other two spouses.
Janie does not find complete independence as a woman until after Tea Cake's death. She returns to Eatonville with her hair down, and she sits on her own porch chatting with her friend Pheoby. By the end of the novel, she has overcome traditional roles and cultivates an image of the "liberated black woman."
Liberation from racial history
Janie grew up under the care of her grandmother, Nanny. Nanny's experiences as a slave and freedwoman shaped the way Nanny saw the world. She hoped to protect Janie, by forcing her to marry Logan Killicks, although he was older and she was not attracted to him. Janie followed her grandmother's advice but found that it wouldn't be as easy to love him as Nanny had suggested. African Americans believed in marriage during the early 20th century because they had been prevented from such legal protection under slavery. Unhappy in her marriage to Logan, Janie runs off with Starks and commits
bigamy
In a culture where only monogamous relationships are legally recognized, bigamy is the act of entering into a marriage with one person while still legally married to another. A legal or de facto separation of the couple does not alter their mar ...
. After the death of Starks, Janie meets Tea Cake and they fall in love. Her community thought he was a broke nobody and was suspicious of him. Tea Cake wasn't the perfect man, but he was better than the community of Eatonville had expected him to be.
Janie’s journey is not only about love and self-discovery but also about liberating herself from the racial history that shaped the lives of the women before her. Her grandmother, Nanny, who was born into slavery, sees the world through a rigid racial and social hierarchy. In "Seeking Confirmation of the Voice and Vision: The Struggle for Janie’s Soul in Their Eyes Were Watching God,” Luella Putnam states, “Nanny sees the world demarcated in terms of power, race, and gender. She explicitly defines for Janie the hierarchy of the world as she sees it: white man, white woman, Black man, and then, finally, Black woman (5). This hierarchy influences her belief that security and survival matter more than love, causing her to transfer her fears onto Janie. Nanny’s insistence that Janie marry Logan Killicks comes from a traumatic past where marriage was seen as protection, a legacy rooted in the dehumanization of slavery. However, Janie comes to resent this mindset: “She hated her grandmother and had hidden it from herself all these years under a cloak of pity” (Hurston 89). By confronting the generational expectations and internalized racial limitations passed down to her, Janie begins to liberate herself from this inherited burden. Putnam emphasizes that although Janie internalized Nanny’s worldview early on, she eventually grows beyond it, realizing “though her relationships with those around her (and the races and classes they represent) have served to shape her, she no longer needs them to define herself” (Putnam 18). Through this process, Janie breaks free from the racialized gender roles imposed on her and embraces a self-defined life. Her return to Eatonville is not a retreat, but a powerful homecoming as a Black woman who has survived, resisted, and redefined what freedom means beyond the constraints of history.
Liberation from domestic violence
During the early 20th century, the African-American community asked African-American women to set aside self-realization and self-affirmation values. They imposed male-dominated values and often controlled who women married. Janie suffered
domestic violence
Domestic violence is violence that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage
Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes r ...
in her marriages with Joe Starks and Tea Cake. Starks initially seemed to be good for Janie, but later beat her several times, in an effort to exert his authority over her. Despite her husband's physical and emotional abuse, Janie did not complain, behavior that was approved by the townsmen. Domestic abuse was not entirely disapproved by the African-American community, and men thought it was acceptable to control their women this way. After Starks's death, Janie was freed from his abuse. Tea Cake was kinder to her and respected her, but he was occasionally abusive toward her, such as when he beat her in order to show his dominance when another man seemed to make a pass at Janie.
As a result, it is only after Tea Cake's death that she is fully liberated from the threat of domestic violence.
Liberation from sexual norms
The early 1900s was a time in which
patriarchal ideals were accepted and seen as the norm. Throughout the novel, Janie on multiple occasions suffers from these ideals. In her relationships, she is being ordered around by her husbands, but she did not question it, whether in the kitchen or bedroom. Janie in many ways expresses her growing distance from the sexual and social norms of her time. After the death of Starks, Janie goes to his funeral wearing black and formal clothes. But for Tea Cake's funeral, she wears workers' blue overalls, showing that she cared less about what society thought of her as she got older. In addition, critics say that Tea Cake was the vehicle for Janie's liberation.
She went from working in the kitchen and indoors to working more "manly" jobs, such as helping in the fields, fishing, and hunting. Tea Cake offered her a partnership; he didn't see her as an object to be controlled and possessed through marriage.
Value of women in a relationship
Throughout the novel, Hurston vividly displays how African-American women are valued, or devalued, in their
marital relationships. By doing so, she takes the reader on a journey through Janie's life and her marriages. Janie formed her initial idea of marriage off the beautiful image of unity she witnessed between a pear tree and a bee. This image and expectation sets Janie up for disappointment when it comes time to marry. From her marriage to Logan Killicks to Tea Cake, Janie was forced to acknowledge where she stood as a powerless female in her relationships.
Starting with her marriage to Logan, Janie was put in a place where she was expected to prove her value with hard work. On top of all the physical labor expected from her, Janie endured constant insults and physical beatings from her male counterparts. Hoping for more value, Janie decides to leave Logan and run off with Joe Starks. However, in reaction to this decision, she's only faced with more beating and c. Joe expected her stay in the home, work in the kitchen, and when she was in public, Janie was expected to cover her hair and avoid conversation with the locals. With one last hope, Janie engaged in a marriage with Tea Cake, a younger man, and things finally seemed to look up for her even though she was still expected to help in the fields and tend to her womanly duties. Overall, throughout her marriages, Janie experienced the hardships that most African-American women went through at that time. From the physical labor to the physical beatings, Janie was presented with the life that a woman was expected to live.
ee detailed argument and synopsis in Addison Gayle, Jr.'s article, "The Outsider."
Janie was able to feel like a woman in her third marriage with Tea Cake. In her first marriage, to Logan, she was being controlled by her husband. She didn't feel like a woman in her first marriage. She didn't feel any love or affection either. In her second marriage to Jody, she was able to experience independence as a woman. With Jody's death, she became in charge of the store and his property. She was able to experience freedom and an economic stable life. She learned about ownership, self-determination, self ruling, and home-ruling. In her last marriage to Tea Cake, Janie experienced true love. But she also learned who she was as an African-American woman. Throughout her marriages she learned how to value herself as a woman, an African-American woman, and a hard-working woman.
The novel is written in dialect and colloquial language that expresses it as a story of a Black woman from the
southern United States
The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, Dixieland, or simply the South) is List of regions of the United States, census regions defined by the United States Cens ...
. Throughout the novel, Janie serves as both protagonist and occasional narrator, detailing the events of her life, her three marriages, and the aftermath of each, which eventually lead to her return to Eatonville. This is done with two contrasting writing styles, one in standard English prose where the narration is done in the
third person and the other making use of Black Southern vernacular in dialogue. Having a voice and being able to speak out is a prevalent theme throughout the novel. During her first two marriages to Logan Killicks and Joe Starks, Janie is subjugated and held under their rule, the former comparing her to another mule to work his field and the latter keeping her in a powerless position of domesticity. Throughout both marriages she finds herself without the ability to speak out or to express herself, and when she tries she is usually shut down. This leaves her feeling like a "rut in the road," the isolation taking its toll until she finally confronts Joe and attacks his ego with a verbal assault against his manhood. This leaves Joe resenting Janie and in effect destroys what is left of their marriage. When Janie marries Tea Cake, we see how language affects the way Janie begins to feel about herself. The way Tea Cake speaks to her allows her to find the freedom in her own voice and to begin to learn how to use it. We are able to see how language helps Janie grow as a person once she learns that her voice is her power.
Race
While the novel is written about Black people in the South, it is not primarily a book about a racist society. Nanny is the first character to discuss the effects of slavery. "Ah was born back due in slavery so it wasn't for me to fulfil my dreams of whut a woman oughta be and to do. Dat's one of de hold-backs of slavery." The novel is mostly concerned with differences within the Black community. Starks is compared to the master of a plantation, as he has a huge house in the centre of the town. "The rest of town looked like servants' quarters surrounding the 'big house'. Starks becomes a figure of authority because he has money and is determined to create the first Black town. But his plans seem to result in a town where people impose their own hierarchy. "Us talks about de white man keepin' us down! Shucks! He don't have tuh. Us keeps our own selves down." When Janie marries Tea Cake and moves to the
Everglades
The Everglades is a natural region of flooded grasslands in the southern portion of the U.S. state of Florida, comprising the southern half of a large drainage basin within the Neotropical realm. The system begins near Orlando with the K ...
, she becomes friendly with Mrs. Turner. This woman compliments Janie on her light skin and European features from her mixed-race ancestry. Turner disapproves of her marriage to Tea Cake, as he is darker skinned and more "African" looking.
Inspirations and influences
Perhaps the strongest inspiration for Hurston's writing of ''Their Eyes Were Watching God'' was her former lover Percival Punter.
[King. ''The Cambridge Introduction to Zora Neale Hurston''. p. 25.] Hurston writes in her autobiography that the romance between Janie and Tea Cake was inspired by a tumultuous love affair. She described falling in love with the man as "a parachute jump". Like Janie in the novel, Hurston was significantly older than her lover. Like Jody, Punter was sexually dominant and sometimes violent. Hurston wrote ''Their Eyes Were Watching God'' three weeks after the tumultuous conclusion of her relationship with Punter. She wrote in her autobiography that she had "tried to embalm all the tenderness of
erpassion for him." With this emotional inspiration, Hurston went on to paint the picture of ''Their Eyes Were Watching God'' using her personal experience and research as a template.
In 1927, a decade before writing ''Their Eyes Were Watching God'', Hurston traveled south to collect
folk songs
Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has be ...
and
folk tales through an anthropological research fellowship arranged by her
Barnard College
Barnard College is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college affiliated with Columbia University in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a grou ...
mentor
Franz Boas
Franz Uri Boas (July 9, 1858 – December 21, 1942) was a German-American anthropologist and ethnomusicologist. He was a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology". His work is associated with the mov ...
. The all-Black Eatonville of ''Their Eyes Were Watching God'' is based on the all-Black town of the same name in which Hurston grew up. The town's weekly announced in 1889, "Colored People of the United States: Solve the great race problem by securing a home in Eatonville, Florida, a Negro city governed by negroes." The hurricane that symbolizes the climax of Hurston's story also has an historical inspiration: in 1928, "
a hurricane ravaged both coastal and inland areas of Florida, bringing torrential rains that broke the
dikes of
Lake Okeechobee
Lake Okeechobee ( ) is the largest freshwater lake in the U.S. state of Florida. It is the List of largest lakes of the United States by area, eighth-largest natural freshwater lake among the 50 states of the United States and the second-largest ...
near
Belle Glade". Scholars of the African
diaspora
A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of birth, place of origin. The word is used in reference to people who identify with a specific geographic location, but currently resi ...
note the cultural practices common to the Caribbean, Africa, and the United States in ''Their Eyes Were Watching God''.
Hurston wrote ''Their Eyes Were Watching God'' while living in Belle Glade, at the home of Harvey Poole, who, as manager of one of the local
labor camp
A labor camp (or labour camp, see British and American spelling differences, spelling differences) or work camp is a detention facility where inmates are unfree labour, forced to engage in penal labor as a form of punishment. Labor camps have ...
s, informed her tremendously about bean picking and the labors of African Americans on the muckland. The book was also written while on a
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...
in
Haiti
Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...
to research
Obeah
Obeah, also spelled Obiya or Obia, is a broad term for African diaspora religions, African diasporic religious, Magic (supernatural), spell-casting, and healing traditions found primarily in the British West Indies, former British colonies of th ...
practices in the West Indies.
Reception
Initial reception
Hurston's political views in ''Their Eyes Were Watching God'' were met with resistance from several leading
Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and cultural revival of African-American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater, politics, and scholarship centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s and 1930s. At the ti ...
authors.
Novelist and essayist
Richard Wright condemned ''Their Eyes Were Watching God'', writing in a review for ''
New Masses'' (1937):
Miss Hurston seems to have no desire whatsoever to move in the direction of serious fiction… hecan write; but her prose is cloaked in that facile sensuality that has dogged Negro expression since the days of Phyllis Wheatley... Her characters eat and laugh and cry and work and kill; they swing like a pendulum eternally in that safe and narrow orbit in which America likes to see the Negro live: between laughter and tears.
Ralph Ellison
Ralph Waldo Ellison (March 1, 1913 – April 16, 1994) was an American writer, literary critic, and scholar best known for his novel '' Invisible Man'', which won the National Book Award in 1953.
Ellison wrote '' Shadow and Act'' (1964), a co ...
said the book contained a "blight of calculated burlesque."
Alain Locke wrote in a review: "when will the Negro novelist of maturity, who knows how to tell a story convincingly—which is Miss Hurston's cradle gift, come to grips with motive fiction and social document fiction?"
''
The New Republic
''The New Republic'' (often abbreviated as ''TNR'') is an American magazine focused on domestic politics, news, culture, and the arts from a left-wing perspective. It publishes ten print magazines a year and a daily online platform. ''The New Y ...
''s
Otis Ferguson wrote: "it isn't that this novel is bad, but that it deserves to be better". But he went on to praise the work for depicting "Negro life in its naturally creative and unselfconscious grace".
Not all African-American critics had negative things to say about Hurston's work.
Carter G. Woodson, founder of ''
The Journal of Negro History'' wrote, "''Their Eyes Were Watching God'' is a gripping story... the author deserves great praise for the skill and effectiveness shown in the writing of this book." The critic noted Hurston's anthropological approach to writing, "She studied them until she thoroughly understood the working of their minds, learned to speak their language".
Meanwhile, reviews of Hurston's book in the mainstream white press were largely positive, although they did not translate into significant retail sales. Writing for ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', Ralph Thompson states:
e normal life of Negroes in the South today—the life with its holdovers from slave times, its social difficulties, childish excitements, and endless exuberances... compared to this sort of story, the ordinary narratives of Negroes in Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater ...
or Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
seem ordinary indeed."
For the ''
New York Herald Tribune
The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the '' New York Tribune'' acquired the '' New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and compet ...
'',
Sheila Hibben described Hurston as writing "with her head as with her heart" creating a "warm, vibrant touch". She praised ''Their Eyes Were Watching God'' as filled with "a flashing, gleaming riot of black people, with a limitless sense of humor, and a wild, strange sadness".
''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' critic
Lucille Tompkins described ''Their Eyes Were Watching God'': "It is about Negroes... but really it is about every one, or at least every one who isn't so civilized that he has lost the capacity for glory."
Rediscovery
As universities across the country developed
Black Studies
Black studies or Africana studies (with nationally specific terms, such as African American studies and Black Canadian studies), is an interdisciplinary academic field that primarily focuses on the study of the history, culture, and politics of ...
programs in the 1970s and 1980s, they created greater space for Black literature in academia. Several prominent academics, including
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Addison Gayle, Jr., established a new "
Black Aesthetic" that "placed the sources of contemporary Black literature and culture in the communal music and oral folk tradition".
[Spencer, Stephen. "On Hurston's Contribution to the Canon." ''Bloom's Guides – Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God''. Edited by Harold Bloom. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2009, p. 87.] This new respect coupled with a growing
Black feminism led by
Mary Helen Washington,
Audre Lorde
Audre Lorde ( ; born Audrey Geraldine Lorde; February 18, 1934 – November 17, 1992) was an American writer, professor, philosopher, Intersectional feminism, intersectional feminist, poet and civil rights activist. She was a self-described "Bl ...
,
Alice Walker
Alice Malsenior Tallulah-Kate Walker (born February 9, 1944) is an American novelist, short story writer, poet, and social activist. In 1982, she became the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, which she was awa ...
, and others, would create the space for the rediscovery of Hurston.
[
Hurston first achieved a level of mainstream institutional support in the 1970s. Walker published an essay, "Looking for Zora," in '']Ms.
Ms. (American English) or Ms (British English; normally , but also , or when unstressed)''Oxford English Dictionary'' online, Ms, ''n.2''. Etymology: "An orthographic and phonetic blend of Mrs ''n.1'' and miss ''n.2'' Compare mizz ''n.'' The pr ...
'' magazine in 1975. In that work, she described how the Black community's general rejection of Hurston was like "throwing away a genius". The National Endowment for the Humanities
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...
went on to award Robert Hemenway two grants for his work to write Hurston's biography.[ Carby, Hazel. "The Politics of Fiction, Anthropology, and the Folk: Zora Neale Hurston". In Harrold Bloom (ed.), ''Bloom's Interpretations – Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God'', New York: Infobase Publishing, 2008, p. 23.] The 1977 biography was followed in 1978 by the re-issue of ''Their Eyes Were Watching God''.
In 1975, the Modern Language Association
The Modern Language Association of America, often referred to as the Modern Language Association (MLA), is widely considered the principal professional association in the United States for scholars of language and literature. The MLA aims to "str ...
held a special seminar focusing on Hurston.[ In 1981, professor Ruth Sheffey of Baltimore's ]Morgan State University
Morgan State University (Morgan State or MSU) is a Public university, public historically black colleges and universities, historically black research university in Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland. It is the largest of Maryland's historically bla ...
founded the Zora Neale Hurston Society. Hurston had attended the school, then known as Morgan Academy, in 1917.
In 1978, Harper and Row
Harper is an American publishing house, the flagship imprint of global publisher HarperCollins, based in New York City. Founded in New York in 1817 by James Harper and his brother John, the company operated as J. & J. Harper until 1833, when ...
leased its rights to ''Their Eyes Were Watching God'' to the University of Illinois Press
The University of Illinois Press (UIP) is an American university press and is part of the University of Illinois System. Founded in 1918, the press publishes some 120 new books each year, thirty-three scholarly journals, and several electroni ...
. However, the printing was so profitable that Harper and Row refused to renew the leasing contract and instead reprinted its own new edition.[ This new edition sold its total print of 75,000 in less than a month.
In ''The New York Times'', Virginia Heffernan explains that the book's "]narrative technique
A narrative technique (also, in fiction, a fictional device) is any of several storytelling methods the creator of a story uses,
thus effectively relaying information to the audience or making the story more complete, complex, or engaging. Some ...
, which is heavy on free indirect discourse, lent itself to poststructuralist
Post-structuralism is a philosophical movement that questions the objectivity or stability of the various interpretive structures that are posited by structuralism and considers them to be constituted by broader systems of Power (social and poli ...
analysis". With so many new disciplines especially open to the themes and content of Hurston's work, ''Their Eyes Were Watching God'' achieved growing prominence in the last several decades. It is now firmly established in the literary canon
The term canon derives from the Greek (), meaning "rule", and thence via Latin and Old French into English. The concept in English usage is very broad: in a general sense it refers to being one (adjectival) or a group (noun) of official, authenti ...
.[
On November 5, 2019, the '']BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...
'' included ''Their Eyes Were Watching God'' on its list of the 100 most influential novels.[
]
Critical analysis
*In Maria J. Johnson's article "'The World in a Jug and the Stopper in erHand': ''Their Eyes Were Watching God'' as Blues Performance", she states that Hurston's novel takes a similar structure and aesthetic to blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...
culture. Johnson also shows how the contrast of Hurston's images, such as the pleasure and pain dynamic of the bee, can be seen in songs by singers like Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith (April 15, 1892 – September 26, 1937) was an African-American blues singer widely renowned during the Jazz Age. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Empress of the Blues" and formerly Queen of the Blues, she was t ...
.
*The article "The Cognitive Construction of the Self in Hurston's ''Their Eyes Were Watching God''", by Patrick S. Bernard, highlights the connection between the construction of self and cognition in Hurston's novel. According to Bernard, cognition is the inner essence of an individual that embodies the idea of "thinking, seeing, speaking, and knowing", but is often determined by one's exterior environment. Janie, the protagonist, uses her cognitive skill
Cognitive skills are skills of the mind, as opposed to other types of skills such as motor skills, social skills or life skills. Some examples of cognitive skills are literacy, self-reflection, logical reasoning, abstract thinking, critica ...
s to find her identity and throughout the novel develops her cognition further. While Janie is living in a sexist society, she continues to rise above her opposition, specifically that of her three husbands. Bernard demonstrates that:
In a conversation with Jody, Janie defends 'womenfolk,' disagreeing with the sexist claim that God made men "different" because they turn "out so smart" (70). When she states that men "don't know half as much as you think you do," Jody interrupts her saying, 'you getting too moufy Janie... Go fetch me de checker-board and de checkers' (70–71) so that he and the other men could play (Bernard 9).
:The comment from Jody, Janie's second husband, attempts to suppress her voice and manipulate her thoughts. Rather than acting submissive to Jody, Janie for a brief moment contends with Jody by telling him how men misunderstand women. Jody fears that Janie's thinking will lead to her gaining more knowledge and naturally to speaking her mind, eventually leading to Janie achieving the power of knowledge to recognize and change the mistreatment and unfairness she has been receiving. Bernard proposes the idea that Jody's relationship with Janie represents society's assumption that women are of limited cognition. This assumption positions women in subservient roles that limit their ways of thinking, speaking, and seeing.
:In addition to bringing up Janie's relationship with Jody, Bernard emphasizes how her relationships with her other husbands influenced her cognition. He points out the fact that Logan Killicks, Janie's first husband, mistreated her by severing any beginning form of self-construction by treating her as an infant. Bernard also brings forth the idea that Janie's construction of selfhood blossoms when Tea Cake, her third husband, allows her to participate in experiences unimaginable to her. While Logan Killicks gives her no opportunity of expressing herself, Jody overpowers her expressive voice; Tea Cake allows her construction of self to mature link between self construction and cognition. Bernard's main point therefore is that self-construction is influenced by cognition, that is, knowing, thinking, seeing and speaking are important to the construction of self in Zora Neale Hurston's novel.
*In "The Hierarchy Itself: Hurston's ''Their Eyes Were Watching God'' and the Sacrifice of Narrative Authority," Ryan Simmons argues that Hurston made a statement against models of authority that supplant an oppressive system with other oppressive systems and offered an alternative. By models of authority, he means the narrative voice of the author and Janie's narrative voice. Hurston represented the different ideologies of Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois ( ; February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American sociologist, socialist, historian, and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist.
Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up in a relativel ...
through the characters of Logan Killicks and Joe ("Jody") Starks. Like Washington, Logan models the path of "gradual progress" that would not threaten the white-dominated sphere of power and Hurston presents his practices as a tradeoff between liberty and modest prosperity. Joe models the path advocated by Du Bois, which is one of assertion of dignity and less compromise. However, the issue shown by Joe's eventual isolation from the community dialogue he helped establish and Janie's overpowering of him through a usurpation of authority, Hurston shows that the weakness with Joe's approach is that it mirrors that of white suppression.
:Instead, Hurston introduces a third way of achieving self-autonomy through Tea Cake. He represents an independence from reliance on communal validation, and instead serves as a mirror for Janie to discover her narrative power. In relation to the author's narrative power, Tea Cake is the epitome of a good reader, one that is receptive to the transformative message of the text. Language is the understanding and sharpening of one's identity while communication comes second. In Hurston's innovative narrative, she is attempting to fulfill the "ideal narrative", which is one that nurtures and changes both the reader and the author.
*In the article "'The Kiss of Memory': The Problem of Love in Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God", author Tracy L. Bealer argues that Janie's quest for her ideal form of love, as symbolized by the pear tree in bloom, is impossible within her existing sociohistorical environment. The forces of racial and patriarchal hierarchies lead Tea Cake, who generally treats Janie as his intellectual and communal equal, to beat her in order to display his dominance to their peers. Bealer asserts that the novel's depiction of Tea Cake, abuse and all, is intentionally ambivalent in order to simultaneously promote intersubjective love and to indict racism and sexism.
*William M. Ramsey, in his article "The compelling ambivalence of Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God", posits that the novel stands as an unfinished and unrealized work. He backs this claim by noting the short amount of time Hurston spent writing as well as statements made by Hurston in her autobiography. Ramsey also note how the numerous contradictions inherent in the novel (Tea Cake's treatment of Janie, Janie's idealization of Tea Cake, Janie's expectations of a utopian "pear tree" marriage, etc.) have led to wildly different interpretations and ultimately, a richly ambivalent text.
:He also suggests that Tea Cake's death is "Hurston's vicarious revenge on Arthur Price", a former lover that Hurston left to pursue a research fellowship in the Caribbean.
*In the article "Naming and Power in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God", Sigrid King comments that "Naming has always been an important issue in the Afro-American tradition because of its link to the exercise of power." Their names are a form of power. King also says that "Nanny teaches Janie the same lessons she learned about naming: Names are bound within the white male power structure, and the most a black woman can hope for is to endure within them". Nanny tells Janie that names are powerful and are used to take power away from people, and in the book, we see that Nanny's name is her role in society and not an actual name. Hurston is aware of the power that names have and she chooses to have Janie start off the book without having a name.
*In the article "Racial and sexual politics of Their Eyes are Watching God from a spatial perspective", Lihua Zhao argues that Janie is a victim of racism and gender sexism which leads to her poor character attributes in a lead Black female novel. Zhao comments on the novel saying "Janie's determined and consistent ignorance of racial spatial division implies her weak black identification, the horrible damage done by racism. Her vague and brief feminist consciousness suggests the brainwash of patriarchy is so successful that it is very hard to eliminate." Zhao states that in order to bring attention to a social political issue, we must first expose the problem in a meaningful manner like how Hurston has in her novel.
*In the article "Mules and women: identify and rebel—Janie's identity quest in ''Their Eyes Were Watching God'', Hongzhi Wu explores the symbolism of the mule in Hurston's novel claiming that it provides a deeper meaning of the external issues of racism. Wu states: "In all these animal talks they expressed their hatred of the abuses and exploitation from the white world; their despise of their white master's ignorance and viciousness; their acclamation of the black people's industriousness and intelligence; and they also expressed their hope of salvation." The mule acts as a metaphor for the exploitation and mistreatment of the Black community by the white superiority race.
Adaptations for theater, film and radio
*In 1983, the graduate repertory Hilberry Theater at Wayne State University
Wayne State University (WSU) is a public university, public research university in Detroit, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1868, Wayne State consists of 13 schools and colleges offering approximately 375 programs. It is Michigan's third-l ...
produced '' To Gleam It Around, To Show My Shine,'' which is based on ''Their Eyes Were Watching God''. The play was written by Bonnie Lee Moss Rattner and directed by Von Washington. It has been produced numerous times by other companies.
*Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Gail Winfrey (; born Orpah Gail Winfrey; January 29, 1954) is an American television presenter, talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and media proprietor. She is best known for her talk show, ''The Oprah Winfrey Show' ...
served as executive producer of the made-for-TV adaptation '' Their Eyes Were Watching God'' in 2005. Harpo Productions
Harpo Productions (or Harpo Studios) is an American multimedia Film production, production company (law), company founded by Oprah Winfrey and based in West Hollywood, California. The name "Harpo" is "Oprah" anadrome, spelled backwards, and it w ...
sponsored the film, directed by Darnell Martin and with a screenplay written by Suzan-Lori Parks, Misan Sagay and Bobby Smith, Jr.
*In 2011, the novel was adapted as a radio play for BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
World Drama, dramatized by Patricia Cumper. The play first aired on February 19, 2011.
*In 2012, a live radio play performance of ''Their Eyes Were Watching God'', written by Arthur Yorinks, was recorded and broadcast to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the book's publication.[Itzkoff, Dave]
"Radio Play of 'Their Eyes Were Watching God' Is Set"
''The New York Times'', February 8, 2012. Retrieved March 25, 2012.
References
External links
*
Describes Hurston's participation in the Harlem Renaissance; also summary, analysis, themes, and essays from "Their Eyes Were Watching God"
"Their Eyes Were Watching God": Folk Speech and Figurative Language
{{DEFAULTSORT:Their Eyes Were Watching God
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Literature by African-American women
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American novels adapted into films
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Novels by Zora Neale Hurston
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