Their Eyes Were Watching God is a 1937 novel and the best-known work by African American writer Zora Neale Hurston. The novel narrates main character 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 in the early 20th century, the novel was initially poorly received for its rejection of racial uplift literary prescriptions. Today, it has come to be regarded as a seminal work in both African American literature and women's literature. Time included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.
Read more about Their Eyes Were Watching God: Politics of Their Eyes, Plot Synopsis, Inspirations and Influences For Their Eyes, Critical Analysis, Adaptations For Theater, Film and Radio
Famous quotes containing the words eyes and/or watching:
“The river, right, tumbled into a cove;
But the map dashed the road along the stream
And we dotted man’s fishiest enthymeme
With jellied feet upon understanding love
Of what eyes see not, that nourishes the will:
We were fishers, weren’t we?”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)
“If, while watching the sun set on a used-car lot in Los Angeles, you are struck by the parallels between this image and the inevitable fate of humanity, do not, under any circumstances, write it down.”
—Fran Lebowitz (b. 1950)