Their Eyes Were Watching God

[Guest Marea D. Cole]

I must start this post with a bit of background about myself. I am 33 years old and live in Southern California. At the age of 18 I joined the United States Marine Corps and served for ten years. After getting out of the military, I enrolled in community college. Only to drop out due to a diagnosis of PTSD and my inability to cope with life as it was. Months of homelessness, confusion, and hopelessness, I eventually received much needed help by choosing to go into a PTSD in-patient treatment program. It hasn’t been a year since I left the center, however, since then I now have housing, and I am enrolled in community college as an English Major. 
 

So, I am currently in school while the “pandemic” is going on around the world. In one of my English classes we are reading “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston. My class is ran remotely, so I am able to actively participate in conversations about the book. However, I have not felt entirely comfortable expressing how I truly feel. 
 

This book had been on my list to read for a while. I sometimes read too many books at once, and am constantly adding new books to read on my “to read” list. I was excited to learn from my class syllabus that we would be reading it. Yet, somehow I now feel disappointed. 
 

I feel torn between two ideas. One, that I should love this book because it was written by such a strong African American writer. And two, the story seems to ignore so many fundamental truths about a black woman’s roles and responsibilities in romantic relationships.
 

Aside from the information we can already filter through about how Hurston and her writing was perceived during the Harlem Renaissance, I was curious to know if others felt the same, or were willing to talk about how the story makes them feel... 
 

I have decided to read it again after my class is over, hoping that I’ll be able to find the hidden gems I may have overlooked while trying to finish the many assignments. I really do want to love the book...

 

I must add that I am the only black woman in the class and one young black man.... and the conversations tend to ignore or overlook topics I feel are highly important. 
 

Note: I am not looking for assistance on a paper or assignment. I genuinely want to have a conversation about something so important to me— African American Writers.