1. By: Zora Neale Hurston

2. The novel follows the fortunes of Janie
Crawford, a black woman living in the
black town of Eaton, Florida

3.  January 7, 1891 (Notasulga, Alabama)
 January 28, 1960 (Fort Pierce, Florida)(Stroke-69)
 She has published 4 novels and over 50 short
stories, plays, and essays
 Best known for “Their Eyes Were
Watching God” novel
 5th of 8 children of John(Baptist Preacher)
and Lucy Ann(Teacher) Hurston

4. Genre: American Southern Spiritual Journey Novel Characters
 Janie Mae
Setting: 1920s or 1930s in Rural Florida Crawford
 Nanny Crawford
Narrator: Unknown, but presumably southern  Logan Killicks
based upon the dialogue  Jody Starks
 Tea Cake
 Pheoby Watson
Narrator’s Tone: Sympathetic and affirming
towards Jane
Point of View: Third person, knows thoughts and
insights, abstracted from Janie

5.  Their Eyes Were Watching God was written during
seven weeks in 1937 while in Haiti
 The first publication of Their Eyes Were Watching
God was in September of 1937

6. “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

7. At the height of the
Harlem Renaissance
during the 1930s, Zora
Neale Hurston was the
prominent black female
writer in the United
States.

8. Hurston’s use of dialect
enraged other African
American writers, such as
Richard Wright, who
accused her of
“pandering to white
readers by giving them
the back stereotypes
they expected.”

11. “We are a
people. A people
do not throw their
geniuses away. If
they do, it is out
duty as witnesses
for the future to
collect them
again for the sake
of our children. If
necessary, bone
by bone.”
--Alice Walker