Consensus: The interestingly hybrid style of writing and delightfully controversial symbolism provided by “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston makes it a worthy reading experience for any reader looking to fully immerse themselves in the controversy of the Harlem Renaissance.
“Their Eyes Were Watching God” is an ethnic and influential love story written by Zora Neale Hurston as a response to the events of the Harlem Renaissance. While the book deftly blends beautifully written narrative with somewhat “unconventionally” written pieces of dialogue, it also adds a pinch of backlash towards the oppression against women (black women in particular) into its literary makeup.
The book is told from the perspective of several highly-opinionated black characters, thus it is fitting for Hurston to have combined such jarringly contradictory forms of writing together in the book. The pieces of dialogue, which are written according to their literal pronunciation (for instance, “Ah got several chillin.”), were a gutsy move on Hurston’s part to include in a novel. However, due to the context of the book itself, it works extremely well to paint an accurate picture of both the literal context of the setting and the unfiltered thoughts of the characters’ minds.
The book is also thought of by some in its entirety as a metaphor for the oppression brought on to African American women by racism and sexism. Whether Hurston more or less actually intended this mindset for the reader, or all the controversy sparked by its popularity, is mostly up to the reader. That being said, I lean more towards the side of readers that believe Hurston intended the novel to be read as a somewhat symbolic love story, not a fiery political attack.
The phenomenon conveyed by Hurston’s novel is that the general public for some reason seems to look for the “deeper, politically opinionated” meaning to something that is intended to be simple. If you were to write a love story with a lot of symbolism, that’s one thing; but if you make all of the characters in the story black, all of the sudden you open a torrent of political controversy.
In conclusion, Hurston’s novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God” is a book that is best read with an organic mind. Meaning, the reader should approach the book with a fresh, unbiased mindset in order to enjoy the reading experience in the way Hurston intended. To me, this book is a solid 4 out-of-5 star effort. It is a truly beautiful love story that picks at the reader’s mind in an interesting and unprecedented way.
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