Their Eyes Were Watching God (notes)

Their Eyes Were Watching God

By Zora Neale Hurston

Theme

Many times the love that a person is looking for is the one that a person doesn't realize.

Setting

The author begins and ends the book on a porch where Janie is telling her story to her friend Pheobe Watson. The book begins in the morning on the porch and then ends at night, symbolic of beginning and end. In between these two times Janie is telling her story which travels through the state of Florida.

Style

In this book, Hurston writes in the dielect of the black community of the time. Many of the words are slang. Hurston begins the story with Janie telling it, but then it becomes a third person narrative throughout most of the story.

Theme

Many times the love that a person is looking for is the one that a person doesn't realize.

Characters

Lee Coker - Lee Coker lives in Eatonville. He was one of the first people to meet Jody and Janie.

Coodemay and Dick Sterrett - Coodemay and Sterrett were friends of Tea Cake and Janie in the Everglades. One night they went to Mrs. Turner's restaurant while they were drunk. When they started causing trouble, Tea Cake made a big show of throwing them out. The crowd began to take sides, so a great deal of property damage took place in the process. Coodemay survives the hurricane; Sterett does not.

Janie Crawford - Janie Crawford is the protagonist of the novel. She was raised by her grandmother, Nanny. She wanted to define her identity on her own terms, but Nanny coerced her into marrying Logan Killicks. She valued financial security over love. However, Janie was miserable in