Their Eyes Were Watching God
Highland Park High School English Department
2016-2017 Literature Selection Process
Text Rationale / Teacher Recommendation
Text Proposed for the following Course(s): English IV AP TAG, AP, and Standard
Date of Submission:
01/20/2015
Title of Work:
Author:
Copyright:
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Zora Neale Hurston
1937
As we strive to encourage life-long learners and readers, selecting texts that engage students and foster
individual thought and varied perspectives is essential to ensuring the future success of our students.
Through this literature selection process, we hope to approve texts that support the philosophy and
curriculum goals set by the district.
After reading and annotating the proposed text, please fill out this questionnaire with specific detailed
answers so that the committee can have a full understanding of your input.
SUMMARY
From the book jacket:
“One of the most important works of twentieth-century American literature, Zora Neale Hurston’s
beloved 1937 classic, Their Eyes Were Watching God, is an enduring Southern love story sparkling
with wit, beauty, and heartfelt wisdom. Told in the captivating voice of a woman who refuses to live in
sorrow, bitterness, fear, or foolish romantic dreams, it is the story of a fair-skinned, fiercely
independent Janie Crawford, and her evolving selfhood through three marriages and a life marked by
poverty, trials, and purpose.”
Excerpted from Sparknotes.com:
Janie Crawford, an attractive, confident, middle-aged black woman, returns to Eatonville,
Florida, after a long absence. The black townspeople gossip about her and speculate about where she
has been and what has happened to her young husband, Tea Cake. Janie’s friend Pheoby Watson visits
her to find out what has happened. Their conversation frames the story.
Janie explains that her grandmother raised her after her mother ran off. Nanny loves her
granddaughter and is dedicated to her, but her life as a slave and experience with her own daughter,
Janie’s mother, has warped her worldview. Her primary desire is to marry Janie as soon as possible to
a husband who can provide security and social status for her. She finds a much older farmer named
Logan Killicks and insists that Janie marry him.
After moving in with Logan, Janie is miserable. Logan is pragmatic and unromantic and, in
general, treats her like a pack mule. One day, Joe Starks, a smooth-tongued and ambitious man, ambles
down the road in front of the farm. He and Janie flirt in secret for a couple weeks before she runs off
and marries him.
Janie and Jody, as she calls him, travel to all-black Eatonville, where Jody hopes to have a “big
voice.” A consummate politician, Jody soon succeeds in becoming the mayor, postmaster, storekeeper,
Their Eyes Were Watching God
and the biggest landlord in town. But Janie seeks something more than a man with a big voice. She
soon becomes disenchanted with the monotonous, stifling life that she shares with Jody. Jody sees
Janie as the fitting ornament to his wealth and power, and he tries to shape her into his vision of what a
mayor’s wife should be. On the surface, Janie silently submits to Jody; inside, however, she remains
passionate and full of dreams.
After almost two decades of marriage, Janie finally asserts herself. When Jody insults her
appearance, Janie rips him to shreds in front of the townspeople, telling them all how ugly and
impotent he is. In retaliation, he savagely beats her. Their marriage breaks down, and Jody becomes
quite ill. After months without interacting, Janie visits him on his deathbed. Refusing to be silenced,
she once again chastises him for the way that he treated her. As she berates him, he dies.
After Jody’s funeral, Janie feels free for the first time in years. She rebuffs various suitors who
come to court her because she loves her newfound independence. But when Tea Cake, a man twelve
years her junior, enters her life, Janie immediately senses a spark of mutual attraction. She begins
dating Tea Cake despite critical gossip within the town. To everyone’s shock, Janie then marries Tea
Cake nine months after Jody’s death, sells Jody’s store, and leaves town to go with Tea Cake to
Jacksonville.
During the first week of their marriage, Tea Cake and Janie encounter difficulties. He steals her
money and leaves her alone one night, making her think that he married her only for her money. But he
returns, explaining that he never meant to leave her and that his theft occurred in a moment of
weakness. Afterward, they promise to share all their experiences and opinions with each other. They
move to the Everglades, where they work during the harvest season and socialize during the summer
off-season. Tea Cake’s quick wit and friendliness make their shack the center of entertainment and
social life.
A terrible hurricane bursts into the Everglades two years after Janie and Tea Cake’s marriage.
As they desperately flee the rising waters, a rabid dog bites Tea Cake. At the time, Tea Cake doesn’t
realize the dog’s condition; three weeks later, however, he falls ill. During a rabies--induced bout of
madness, Tea Cake becomes convinced that Janie is cheating on him. He starts firing a pistol at her and
Janie is forced to kill him to save her life. She is immediately put on trial for murder, but the all-white,
all-male jury finds her not guilty.
She returns to Eatonville where her former neighbors are ready to spin malicious gossip about
her circumstances, assuming that Tea Cake has left her and taken her money. Janie wraps up her
recounting to Pheoby, who is greatly impressed by Janie’s experiences. Back in her room that night,
Janie feels at one with Tea Cake and at peace with herself.
AUTHOR’S WRITING STYLE
Determine which elements of the author’s writing style contribute to the meaning of the work.
How can students incorporate the author’s style of writing into their own writing?
Zora Neale Hurston integrates the voice of a reflective and lyrical narrator with the colloquial and
dialectical voices of multiple characters within communities. This creates both tension and harmony
between the protagonist’s idealism and the practical realities she faces. Additionally, Hurston’s use of
literary devices and poetic language adds depth to the novel’s content and provides syntactical and
poetic structures which students could imitate.
AWARDS AND RECOGNITION
Provide evidence of the book’s merit. This category may include outside reviews.
• NPR book club - http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1070428
• .
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Their Eyes Were Watching God
RATIONALE
Which aspects of the text do you think would be appealing and engaging to students?
The imagery and voice is appealing to most students, and the love story at the novel’s core is engaging
for teenage audiences. Also, the time period and various settings can be captivating for students.
What are the major thematic elements of this text?
• The novel deals with various aspects of community, race, and gender.
• The main character, Janie, is an atypical female for the time period of this novel: an indepdent
African-American woman in the 1930s. Through her, various developments occur with themes
concerning independence, strength, and love.
In your professional opinion, what is the reading level of this text? Provide evidence.
Having appeared on the AP Literature and Composition Exam thirteen times and being recommended
in a 2010 College Board curriculum module titled “Engaging Students with Literature”
(http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/repository/AP_CM_Eng_Lit_differential_instruction.pdf), this text is appropriate
for high school seniors.
How does this text address HP curricular objectives outlined in the course curriculum?
This text is being proposed for the HP English IV AP classes, and the AP course description says, “In
addition to considering a work’s literary artistry, students reflect on the social and historical values it
reflects and embodies. Careful attention to both textual detail and historical context provides a
foundation for interpretation, whatever critical perspectives are brought to bear on the literary works
studied.” This text allows an opportunity to fully address these course goals.
How does this text address the Learner of the Future Profile?
The teaching of this text creates an opportunity to address all of the following points on the Learner of
the Future Profile:
• Academically prepared for college and career through engagement in the arts
• A critical, innovator thinker who is intellectually curious
• A critical, innovator thinker who questions assumptions and evaluates evidence
• A critical, innovator thinker who uses reason, analysis, and synthesis to make informed
predictions and decisions and to draw conclusions
• An effective communicator and collaborator who writes, speaks, and listens for various
purposes and perspectives.
• Motivated, confident, and resilient through reflection and self-evaluation
• A globally competent person who is empathetic, compassionate, and open-minded
TEKS
The proposed text supports the following TEKS:
The proposed text supports the following English IV TEKS:
(2 a-c) Reading/Comprehension of Literary Text/Theme and Genre. Students analyze, make
inferences and draw conclusions about theme and genre in different cultural, historical, and
contemporary contexts and provide evidence from the text to support their understanding.
Their Eyes Were Watching God
(5 a-d) Reading/Comprehension of Literary Text/Fiction. Students understand, make inferences and
draw conclusions about the structure and elements of fiction and provide evidence from text to support
their understanding.
(7) Reading/Comprehension of Literary Text/Sensory Language. Students understand, make
inferences and draw conclusions about how an author's sensory language creates imagery in literary
text and provide evidence from text to support their understanding. Students are expected to analyze
how the author's patterns of imagery, literary allusions, and conceits reveal theme, set tone, and create
meaning in metaphors, passages, and literary works.
Additional TEKS will be covered with accompanying writing assignments integrated with the study of
this text.
CLARIFICATION OF CONTENT
HPISD policy states, “Literature selections shall not contain excessive or gratuitous explicit sexuality,
excessive or gratuitous profanity, or excessive or gratuitous graphic violence.”
Please clarify any graphic and/or explicit content likely to cause concern and why the text remains a
suitable choice. Consider social, violent, and sexual content as well as the intellectual level of students.
• Although the text does deal with racial implications, three marriages, and one death by shooting,
there is no explicitly graphic description.
SIMILAR WORKS
Identify two alternative texts that meet the same curricular objectives and goals as the proposed text.
- Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (male perspective instead of female)
- The Color Purple by Alice Walker