Their Eyes Were Watching God

The novel, "Their Eyes Were Watching God," written by Zora Neale Hurston, is a tale of a biracial African American woman (with half Caucasian roots due to here father being white) named Janie Crawford.   It tells the story of a woman who overcomes her domestication from her two ex-husbands and finally gaining her independence when she married her third husband.   The heroine of the novel has always been rebellious in nature.   Janie Crawford was unable to accept the stereotypical norms of a woman's role during the era the story takes place, resulting in conflict and is demonstrated in her three marriages. The book takes place during the 1920s and 1930s in the South, primarily Eatonville, Florida.   The story is told through the eyes of Janie and her native dialect in a recountment of her personal and tragic journey in life, upon her return to Eatonville after several years of absence.   She is asked by her best friend, Phoeby Watson, about the disposition of her husband and that is when the real story begins.  
The life of Janie Crawford begins with the abandonment of the main character by her birth mother, Leafy Crawford, which results in her grandmother, Nanny Crawford becoming her guardian.   Nanny Crawford, whose roots derive from slavery days, arranges the marriage of her grandaughter to a much older man, Logan Killicks.   Due to the beliefs of Nanny Crawford, she believes that the marriage with Logan will ensure her grandaughter's future because she was going to be a honest man who earns a honest living, therefor providing financial security, despite the absence of love.   Janie and Logan's marriage was not to survive.   After a year of self devotion by Logan to Janie through gifts, she is asked to help him with the farm.   As his wife, through guilt, and feeling obligated (because of his kind gestures) agrees to aid her husband.   During her labors with the farm, she is felt unloved and unappreciated.   However, this would not last long.   She is courted by Jody...