Published in 1937 , Zora Neale Hurston’sTheir Eyes Were Watching Godwas not initially well - encounter . In an era when “ black literature ” wasexpectedto be affirmative and uplifting , Hurston ’s story of a woman sieve through the ashes of her love sprightliness was stark in its depiction of a woman ’s independency and sexual exemption . It was n’t until the seventies that readers embracedGodwholeheartedly , urge on a generation of provocative artists from Maya Angelou to Beyonce . Take a spirit at some things you might not get laid about this germinal novel .
1. IT WAS WRITTEN IN JUST SEVEN WEEKS.
Hurston was raised in Eatonville , Florida , one of the first all - inglorious towns in the U.S. to establish its own local governance , and where her family was prominent in the community . After attending Barnard College for anthropology , Hurston became engross in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s andset her sightson writing , publishing several shortsighted news report and one novel by 1935 . Her 1937 follow - up , Their Eyes Were watch God , was written inseven workweek , an improbably little period of time for a book . Hurston say that she felt commanded by a " violence somewhere in blank , ” complete the novel in Haiti while researching another book on Caribbean culture .
2. IT WAS INSPIRED BY HER OWN LIFE.
Godis the story of Janie Crawford , an independent spirit who retrieve her relationship to a friend while visiting her nursing home town . Hurston said that the novel was inspired in part by her own complicated personal entanglements . In her forty , she dated a gentleman’s gentleman in his 20s whom she perceived as the great love life of her life . But the young man — Percival McGuire Punter , a alumnus student at Columbia University — beganto implore Hurston to give up her vocation in party favor of a more traditional domestic role . One eve , their inflamed feelings turned crimson , and a physical scuffle result : To distance herself from what had become an emotionally draining relationship , she left for Jamaica and Haiti on the research trip .
InGod , Janie falls for Tea Cake , a man much young than she . The two also endure a hurricane , a natural calamity that Hurston patterned after a 1928 tempest in Lake Okeechobee in Florida .
3. IT HAS AN INCREDIBLE OPENING SENTENCE.
You ’ve probably regard many internet lists that catalog memorable porta blood from classical novels . Hurston ’s first sentence inGodis a staple : “ Ships at a distance have every man ’s wish on board . ” Hurston ’s entire paragraph ( which continues , “ That is the life of men . Now , women forget all those thing they do n’t need to remember , and remember everything they do n’t want to blank out … ” ) has beeninterpretedas the generator ’s scene of how man and cleaning woman draw close their desires otherwise .
4. THE BOOK GOT EARLY CRITICAL REVIEWS.
Upon its publication in 1937,Their Eyes Were Watching Godwas lionize by many eminent - profile electric receptacle for being a well - drop a line meditation on what it meant to be a adult female of colouring and independence in the 20th century . at the same time , some African - American critics were unimpressed , taking Hurston to task for not conforming to the underlying subject matter among fateful authors to challenge racism . Fellow novelist Richard Wright spoke about hisdisappointmentin Hurston not addressing the issue of par ; Hurston and her supportersarguedthat hers was a story about love , and that not every novel by a black source need to touch on on racial stress in parliamentary procedure to be celebrated .
5. IT WAS REDISCOVERED IN THE 1970S.
6. SPIKE LEE WAS INSPIRED BY THE NARRATIVE.
In his 1986 filmShe ’s Got ta Have It , movie maker Spike Lee begin byquotingHurston ’s notable opening passageway and then unspools a narrative about a woman trying to negociate three complex romantic family relationship , much like the Janie eccentric of the novel .
7. IT WAS TURNED INTO A RADIO PLAY.
AlthoughGodhas been accommodate into film — notably by Oprah Winfrey for a 2005 TV flick — the Word of God was also the footing for a radio dramatic event . To celebrate the volume ’s 75th day of remembrance in 2012 , theGreene Spaceproduced an sound play that was diffuse across the country that September . Phylicia Rashad narrate the workplace , while actress Roslyn Ruff portrayed Janie .
