At the height of the Harlem Renaissance during the 1930s, Zora Neale Hurston was the preeminent black woman writer in the United States. She was a sometime-collaborator with Langston Hughes and a fierce rival of Richard Wright. Her stories appeared in major magazines, she consulted on Hollywood screenplays, and she penned four novels, an autobiography, countless essays, and two books on black mythology. Yet by the late 1950s, Hurston was living in obscurity, working as a maid in a Florida hotel. She died in 1960 in a Welfare home, was buried in an unmarked grave, and quickly faded from literary consciousness until 1975 when Alice Walker almost single-handedly revived interest in her work.

Of Hurston's fiction, Their Eyes Were Watching God is arguably the best-known and perhaps the most controversial. The novel follows the fortunes of Janie Crawford, a woman living in the black town of Eaton, Florida. Hurston sets up her characters and her locale in the first chapter, which, along with the last, acts as a framing device for the story of Janie's life. Unlike Wright and Ralph Ellison, Hurston does not write explicitly about black people in the context of a white world--a fact that earned her scathing criticism from the social realists--but she doesn't ignore the impact of black-white relations either: It was the time for sitting on porches beside the road. It was the time to hear things and talk. These sitters had been tongueless, earless, eyeless conveniences all day long. Mules and other brutes had occupied their skins. But now, the sun and the bossman were gone, so the skins felt powerful and human. They became lords of sounds and lesser things. They passed nations through their mouths. They sat in judgment. One person the citizens of Eaton are inclined to judge is Janie Crawford, who has married three men and been tried for the murder of one of them. Janie feels no compulsion to justify herself to the town, but she does explain herself to her friend, Phoeby, with the implicit understanding that Phoeby can "tell 'em what Ah say if you wants to. Dat's just de same as me 'cause mah tongue is in mah friend's mouf."

Hurston's use of dialect enraged other African American writers such as Wright, who accused her of pandering to white readers by giving them the black stereotypes they expected. Decades later, however, outrage has been replaced by admiration for her depictions of black life, and especially the lives of black women. In Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston breathes humanity into both her men and women, and allows them to speak in their own voices. --Alix Wilber


From AudioFile
Nora Zeale Hurston's notable story comes to life through Ruby Dee's fine interpretation. The story of Janie Crawford, her strength and gentleness, was written to be heard. Dee's deep, melodic tones enliven Hurston's evocative prose and powerful images. The colorful characters, Janie's three husbands, Mr. Killicks, Mayor Starks and Tea Cake, her friend Phoeby, and so many others emerge through Dee's strong command of dialogue and her mastery of dialect. She conveys Hurston's sense of drama and spiritual strength in a dynamic program. For readers who know Hurston's work, this program will be a joy, for those who are lucky and wise enough to discover her here, it will be an exceptional experience. R.F.W. An AUDIOFILE Earphones Award winner (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine


June Jordon, Black World
"The prototypical Black novel of affirmation; it is the most successful, convincing, and exemplary novel of Blacklove that we have. Period."


Saturday Review
"Their Eyes belongs in the same categorywith that of William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Ernest Hemingwayof enduring American literature."


Alice WalkerA
"There is no book more important to me than this one."


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"E-BOOK EXTRA: Janie's Great Journey: A Reading Group Guide; PLUS: The Comphrehensive Edition: This special e-book is the only edition to include all three essays by Edwidge Danticat, Mary Helen Washington, and Henry Louis Gates.Fair and long-legged, independent and articulate, Janie Crawford sets out to be her own person -- no mean feat for a Black woman in the '30s. Zora Neale Hurston's classic 1937 novel follows Janie's quest for identity -- a journey during which she learns what love is, experiences life's joys and sorrows, and comes home to herself in peace. "There is no book more important to me than this one." --Alice Walker "Their Eyes belongs in the same category with [the works of] William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Ernest Hemingway, that of enduring American literature." --Saturday ReviewFair and long-legged, independent and articulate, Janie Crawford sets out to be her own person -- no mean feat for a black woman in the '30s. Janie's quest for identity takes her through three marriages and into a journey back to her roots."

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This SparkNote delivers knowledge on Their Eyes Were Watching God that you won't find in other study guides: that you won't find in other study guides: Summaries of every chapter with thorough Analysis. Explanation of the key Themes, Motifs, and Symbols including:

—Speech and Silence
—Power and Conquest
—Love vs. Independence
—Community
—Race and Racism
—The Pear Tree and the Horizon

Detailed Character Analysis of Janie, Tea Cake and Jody Starks. Identification and discussion of Important Quotations. A summary of Key Facts, a 25-question review Quiz, and Study Questions and Essay Topics to help you prepare for papers and tests.

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