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Copy/paste the text below into your blog. <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37415.Their_Eyes_Were_Watching_God?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Their Eyes Were Watching God" border="0" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1168914994m/37415.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37415.Their_Eyes_Were_Watching_God?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Their Eyes Were Watching God</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15151.Zora_Neale_Hurston">Zora Neale Hurston</a><br/><br/> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/21917258?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a> rating: 4 of 5 stars<br/>Ali Crownover <br/>Great American Novel 3 <br/>May 9, 2008 <br/> <br/> <br/>Book Review: Their Eyes Were Watching God <br/>An author by the name of Zora Neale Hurston who was “a utopian, who held that black Americans could attain sovereignty from white American society and all its bigotry” (lkwdpl.org)wrote a revolutionary story about a girl’s quest to find love. This novel, “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” is now known as Hurston’s 1937 breakout that forever changed American History. <br/> Janie Crawford, the main character of “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” is a mixed woman who was raised with many different kids, much like her creator who was raised as the fifth of eight children, by a white woman and her grandmother. Throughout her youth she played with white children and in fact, during one of the cutest instances of this novel, Janie, at the innocent age of six, looked at a photograph and learned that she was colored. Like Zora, Janie had the spirit of her absent mother, and often longed for a more spiritual connection with the natural side of life. <br/> Janie’s first experience with love and marriage came after she was caught kissing Johnny Taylor over the gatepost. The writer beautifully wrote the following passage to describe what Janie thought marriage exemplified. “She was stretched on her back beneath the pear trees soaking in the alto chant of the visiting bees, the gold of the sun and the panting breath of the breeze when the inaudible voice of it all came to her. She saw a dust bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight. So this was marriage!” Although Janie Starks and Johnny Taylor did not work out, Janie did not give up hoping that one day, like the bee, she would find the one person that would make her truly happy. <br/> After marrying a man named Logan Killicks, who would bring Janie nothing but comfort and stability, Janie found herself once more longing for the love that had not come to her. While in a natural setting she met Joe Starks, a man that promised her the moon and stars. <br/>Janie quickly left Killicks for Starks and they set out to create the town of Eatonville. Like Janie, Hurston was a part of the first ever African-American incorporated town, Eatonville. Zora’s father, John Hurston, became the mayor of Eatonville in 1887. This utopian, black society greatly influenced Zora in writing “Their Eyes Were Watching God.” The settlement became a part of who Hurston was and therefore a part of who Janie was. <br/>Once Joe and Janie Starks became rich, and had obtained the biggest house and supreme status over the other inhabitants of Eatonville, all romance was lost. When the love had completely left their relationship, Janie, known for her long gorgeous hair, was once again bound to tying up her hair in a rag while out in public. Every time she wore her hair tied up it was a sign that her free soul was trapped. Hurston uses little symbols such as Janie’s hair to make huge statements about black womanhood. <br/>After Joe passes away Janie finally finds the bee to her pear tree. He is a younger man by the strange name of Tea Cake. The two of them flirt constantly in childish ways and it is with him that she discovers how fun attraction can be. After a long night of them playing chess and him “jumping her king” Tea Cake left Janie connected with nature again. It is at the end of this chapter that Zora Neale Hurston writes one of her most beautiful lines “So she sat on the porch and watched the moon rise. Soon its amber fluid was drenching the earth, and quenching the thirst of the day,” thus proving Janie’s found again oneness with nature. Tea Cake and Janie have an adventurous, fun-filled relationship. They are in love and everyone around them can sense it. Hurston puts a unique twist on the end of the story and turns the one thing that Janie loves the most, nature, against her. But, do Janie and Tea Cake stay together or does Mother Nature come between them? <br/>The author writes “Their Eyes Were Watching God” in the most beautiful and poetic style. She begins almost every chapter with breathtakingly meaningful sentences such as “Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board” and “There are years that ask questions and years that answer.” I recommend reading this story not only for the captivating story but also for the excellent language! <br/> <br/><br/><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/1133320?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>