Author: Zora Neale Hurston

Published: 1937

Publishing Company: J.B. Lippincott & Co.

I recently started the latest season of Spike Lee’s “She’s Got to Have It.” The season opened with a tribute to the influential African-American author Ms. Zora Neale Hurston and her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God (which in retrospect has a lot of similarities to the film and series). This past week I read TEWWG, here’s my brief review:

The novel follows the unconventional journey of Janie Crawford as she maneuvers through various romantic relationships in Jim Crow era Florida. Readers watch as Janie grows from a clueless adolescent into a liberated woman. Hurston touches on numerous themes such as marriage and economic mobility, patriarchy and gender roles, as well as colorism.

When I started reading, my thoughts were “what in the 1865 hell do we have going on here?” But my mind quickly changed after realizing Hurston wrote in Southern dialect to immerse readers into not only the time setting, but to also add depth and humor to the characters’ in the most natural way. (What’s that? Art you say?).

To save you from any spoilers if you plan to read TEWWG in the future, I will focus on 5 things I gained from the novel:

1. Do not feel pressured to get into anything you are not ready for.

2. Do not settle. Ever!

3. People are going to talk, do you, regardless. (Not a new idea, but for the sake of its relevance in my life right now, it needed to be reiterated.)

4. Be careful when acting off of temporary emotions. Young decisions lead to adult problems.

5. We are all on our own journey to find meaningful love.

Question: Has anyone else read Their Eyes Were Watching God? Thoughts/feelings?

Also, I’m looking to add to my reading list, do you have any book recommendations? (I’m pretty open to genres) Thanks in advance!

As always, love.

Ty

xx