Their Eyes Are Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is one of the best known and acclaimed novels, a classic of black literature. This novel is a story about the awakening of a black woman's soul, about her search for selfhood, and about her evolving character through her three marriages. This is a story about Janie Crawford and her journey in the pursuit of life, liberty, and most importantly, in the pursuit of happiness. (Burt:.365)

Zora Neal Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God portrays the search for self-identity and self-worth of a female African American protagonist, Janie. Along Janie's path toward individuality, she encounters three very different husbands who open her eyes to her true self and aid in the search for her unique voice. The main character of the novel is Janie Crawford, a strong, articulate, self-reliant black woman, who drastically stood out from the crowd, surrounding her in the novel. She started her journey as a young, innocent, romantic girl, in the search of a beautiful and happy world. Janie grew up in the home of her grandmother, Nanny, who loved her with all her heart, but with the broken heart of a former slave. Within Nanny's past, there were many great hardships and sorrows. Therefore, Nanny eventually began to look towards financial security as being the primary importance in life for Janie. (Henry: 11)

Through hardships and ill treatment, Janie's perseverance and determination despite terrible oppression eventually leads her to find her inner self. In all three marriages Janie experiences some form of verbal or physical abuse. The unquestioned male dominance and female servitude in the time period of Hurston's novel certainly adds to Janie's struggle and the magnitude of her accomplishment: self reconciliation.  

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