Their Eyes Were Watching God

From Bryan, guest review from 8th Grade.

“Their Eyes Were Watching God,” but was God watching them? This is the question that all readers ponder after finishing “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” an African American classic, written by Zora Neale Hurston.

In this novel that follows the life of an independent woman named Janie, who goes through three marriages and many obstacles before she finds what she was looking for. Set in the post-slavery era, it deals with themes such as racial and sexual discrimination.
In the beginning the book, we trail the footsteps of a woman dressed in dirty denim overalls with an air of mysterious grief. As she enters town, the words “Tea Cake” and “running away” are audible from the sudden flutter of talk from the neighbors, but she walks defiantly into her old house. The disheveled woman was Janie, the protagonist of the story, and through the retelling of her life story to her friend, Phoebe, the mystery of Janie and her life’s journey is slowly unveiled.

I recommend this book to anyone interested in the post-slavery era, because this book presents a vivid and faithful picture of the black community of this period.