Their Eyes Were Watching God

Written By Dale Mahfood

What a ride! The only thing I regret about reading Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, is that I hadn’t read it sooner. As far as I’m concerned, this novel is right up there with Fitzgerald’s Gatsby and Twain’s Huck Finn. It’s a lyrical novel with a feast for the literary soul, yet it’s an easy read for those who just want a good story (with a little slowing down for the Black Southern dialect in the dialogue).

Janie, an African American woman, has heard from her grandmother that Black women are the mules of the world, and Janie spends the novel living that out until she comes to a place where she gains the mutual love and respect of a man. As Henry Louis Gates, Jr. puts it, she goes on a “journey from object to subject.” That journey makes this novel worth reading.

By the way, one of the themes also speaks to the racial issues that America still faces eighty-four years after the novel was published.

Dale Mahfood

Dale Mahfood was born in Kingston, Jamaica, to parents whose roots run deep into the island’s past. He has lived in London, England, and up and down the U.S. Eastern Seaboard, from New England to Florida, where he earned a master’s degree in English Education from Florida International University. All these experiences, together with a career in education, have developed his passion for writing about diverse peoples and places. Dale is a co-founder of the Jamaica Brew Festival, a literary and film festival in South Florida, where he also served as the Literary Program Coordinator for 2024 and 2025. He is currently working on Up From Mountains, Book Two of the Wood and Water Saga series. Dale lives in South Florida with his wife, Janet.

https://www.dalemahfood.com/
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