Nathaniel Wasko

Zora Neale Hurston’s classic 1937 novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, is a book with a premise that I utterly adore, but is written in such a way that I could not enjoy it to its fullest extent. The overall style of this book is absolutely sublime, and the plot centers around the main character, Janie Crawford, and her journey through life and its hardships, which makes for a great read. Despite these strong suits, though, the pacing of the novel itself is irredeemably slow, preventing the read from being truly enjoyable. I thoroughly enjoyed the overall writing style of the novel to an entirely unnecessary extent. The way the style was manipulated and developed in order to present complex themes such as gender roles within society, the value of women in relationships, and race was fantastic. Janie Crawford is a perfect representation of feminism within the novel, not wishing to conform to traditional gender roles within her relationships, which often caused them to fall apart, much like her marriage with Logan Killicks. As a character, Janie is used as a device to tackle both of the aforementioned themes (two prevalent societal issues) through two of her husbands’ attempts to force her to conform to the traditional gender role of being a housewife. It is not until her third husband that Janie finally gets to become more than a housewife, despite still being ruled over by her patriarchal husband. Despite the fantastic writing, the slow pacing of the story made it nearly unbearable. While the writing alone is enough to make this novel an objective classic piece, the pacing is the sole reason that I cannot personally say that I loved the novel. I absolutely adore the writing and storyline, and I cannot praise it enough. Despite that, I find it physically painful to read books that do not progress at a pace that I like. For that reason, despite my unconditional adoration for the story itself, I cannot say that it is one of my favourite pieces of literature. While I will recommend it to others, the story does not fully redeem the pacing of the piece itself.