Search - Their Eyes Were Watching God

Powerful prose from a fantastic writer. I never bothered to see the movie because her descriptions created a vivid painting in my mind that no director could recreate. Historically, it's an important book, as well as a wonderful read.

This book is one of the very best books that I have ever read. I first read it in high school. I still pick it up again every now and then just to read my favorite parts. If you saw the movie and didn't read the book - READ THE BOOK! The movie did not do this book justice at all. Hurston's writing is so poetic, so symbolic . . . A truly careful reader will savor every word of this wonderful masterpiece.

I tried very hard, but couldn't get into this book. I'm sure it's wonderful, but it's one of those books you have to sit down with and make an effort to read and I guess I'm not in the mood to make that effort.

Written in 1937 this novel has a turbulent history. Simultaneously praised and panned it finally achieved its potential in 1978 and has been on many must read lists ever since. It is a story of a woman’s struggle for love and survival in the Deep South of the early 20th century. All the dialog is in the negro vernacular of the day and takes some getting used to. (Fortunately I had some practice reading the original “Uncle Remus” tales.)

One of the best books I've ever read!

West Florida, Eatonville, Florida, and the Everglades during the early 1900s.


The slave culture of the southern U.S., though dead by the time of Janie’s life, has a profound effect on the book, grounding all discussion of racism and emerging most strongly in the character of Nanny. Nanny’s early experience as a slave shapes her mentality so that the highest honor she can imagine would be to occupy the position of a wealthy, married white woman. She imposes this goal on Janie and proceeds to ruin her granddaughter’s life. Thus, even Janie chafes under the continuing legacy of the slave tradition – racism and a twisted mentality that white is right.

Janie spends time in both rural and urban parts of the state of Florida. Rural spaces seem to represent periods of innocence and relative happiness for Janie. She is comfortable living in nature, under the pear tree as a child and in the Everglades with Tea Cake in her final marriage. These rural settings emphasize Janie’s poverty and the relative decency and integrity of the lower classes, giving a sense of naturalness and righteousness to Janie’s innocence. The Everglades provide the necessary setting for the hurricane – a force of nature, destiny, and God – to interrupt Janie and Tea Cake’s utopian life and bring tragedy on them.

The central urban setting, Eatonville, is a center of vice and corruption. There, chafing under her marriage to Joe, Janie loses her innocence most profoundly and discovers in herself the ability to deceive. Cities also mean walls and, appropriately, Janie stifles in claustrophobic spaces where she is confined both physically and metaphorically by Joe.


A must read!!!