Their Eyes Were Watching God

The title of Zora Neale Hurston’s 1937 novel “Their Eyes Are Watching God,” perplexes many readers  before and even still after reading though the novel. Who is they? Why are they watching? Can they even see God? The book begins with an archetypal “Watcher” staring off into the horizon of the sea, gazing at all of the wishes of his heart sailing away in passer-by ships. But this Watcher is not staring at God, he is staring at himself and his own desires, all the while, “being mocked by death.”

So, if this Watcher in the first paragraph is not the reason for the title, then what is? Later in the novel, during the horrible storm, Hurston writes the title phrase out in the book. She writes “They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God.” At this point, they are trapped inside of a rickety house and the most terrible storm either have ever seen is coming up to their front door.

Is God A Storm?

This is a moment of almost total helplessness. To say “Their eyes are watching God,” is almost a resignation. It’s as if to say, you have lost all control and now leave up your fate to chance, or God. It is a mantra for the fearful and the powerless. And yet, it is the title of the book, which follows the story of a woman who learns to stop being so fearful and powerless.

The novel ends with her Janie taking the place of the Watcher from the first paragraph. She is standing by the coast and looking out. “She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder. So much of life in its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see.” Does this sound like a narration of a woman “watching God.” I don’t think so. Rather, this final passage sounds like a woman who is looking into herself, seeing the bountiful memories and experiences she has bore witness to and now holds around her like royal clothing. In a way, Janie lays in stark contrast against the title, as if the title were something she was battling against throughout the novel. She stops watching God, and is able to see herself.