Their Eyes Were Watching God, 2.

I guess I could say I am a little overwhelmed with the task of inferring the significance of the title of Zora Neale Hurston’s book, Their Eyes Were Watching God.  In the novel, the phrase itself is used in Chapter 18 when Teacake and Janie are waiting out the hurricane in the shanty and Hurston writes, “…They sat in company with the others in other shanties, their eyes straining against crude walls and their souls asking if He meant to measure their puny might aginst His.  They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God” (Hurston 160).  From this passage, and the book as a whole, it seems that Hurston is showing that nature, whether it’s physical or emotional is not in the hands of the people, but in a higher power such as God.  The book does not actually have large religious undertones, but in situations such as the hurricane, or in Janie’s pursuit of the true feeling and connection of love, there is definitely a source much more powerful and in control than the individual, and this higher source is God.