Their Eyes Were Watching God Reading Guide Part 1
Chapter 1
1. What do men (“The Watcher”) do about their dreams?
2. What do women remember and forget?
3. In the beginning a woman is coming back from burying the dead. How have they died?
4. When describing the people sitting on the porch, Hurston says, “Mules and other brutes had occupied their skins.” What does this mean?
5. What are three questions the women on the porch have about the woman who has just returned to town?
6. How old is Janie Starks, according to her best fried, Phoeby Watson?
7. Why is Pearl Stone upset?
8. What food does Phoeby give Janie for supper?
9. Why does Sam Watson say most of the women go to church?
10. How much money does Janie have in the bank?
11. Where has Janie been? What has probably happened to Tea Cake?
Chapter 2
1. Who raised Janie? Where and with whom did they live?
2. What does Janie say she realized at six years old by looking at a picture? What does this realization suggest about how she has been treated?
3. How does Janie get along with Mayrella? Why?
4. What story do the children tell Janie about her father? What does she say they do not know about?
5. Who is Johnny Taylor?
6. What is Nanny afraid might happen to Janie if she does not marry soon?
7. What does Nanny ask for in her “daily prayer”?
8. In Nanny’s story about “de big plantation close to Savanah,” who does she reveal is Leafy’s father?
9. Why does Nanny run away?
10. What happened at Richmond? At Fort Moultrie?
11. Who is Janie’s father? What does Leafy do after Janie is born?
Chapter 3
1. What question does Janie ask herself concerning marriage?
2. What does Janie’s husband, Logan, say about hitting Janie? What chores does Logan do for Janie?
3. What is Janie concerned about? What does she dislike about Logan?
4. What does Nanny mean by “folks is meant to cry ‘bout somethin’ or other”? What about Nanny’s experience has caused her to believe this?
5. What does Janie say to falling seeds? Why does she say this?
6. What was Janie’s “first dream” and why is she considered a woman now?
Their Eyes Were Watching God Reading Guide Part 2
Chapter 4
1. What are four things that Logan Killicks has stopped doing for Janie?
2. What nickname does Logan use for Janie?
3. Why is Logan going to Lake City to buy a second mule?
4. What does Joe Starks look like? How much money does he have? Where is he from and why has he come to Florida?
5. According to Joe, what is a “pretty doll-baby” like Janie made to do?
6. What does Joe want Janie to do? Why is it ironic that Joe calls himself “uh man wid principles?”
7. Why does Logan threaten to kill Janie with an ax?
8. Where do Janie and Joe run off to and get married?
Chapter 5
1. Janie and Joe get off the train at Maitland and ride a buggy to the “colored town.” How many houses are there, “scattered in the sand and palmetto roots?”
2. Why does Guv’nor Amos Hicks describe himself as “Free, single, disengaged.”?
3. Who does Lee Coker say is the mayor of the town?
4. What does Hicks say women like about him?
5. What does Hicks mean when he says, “Ah’m a bitch’s baby round lady people”?
6. What are the two possible names of the town? Who is Captain Eaton?
7. Why does Joe say he’s going to see the Captain? Why do the men follow him?
8. How does Janie insult Hicks?
9. What does Hicks tell Coker about Janie to make himself feel better?
10. What question does Joe ask Tony Taylor? What two things does Joe intend to build?
11. How many new families buy land from Jody and move to Eatonville?
12. When the store is completed Joe throws a party and Tony Taylor makes a speech. Why does Lige Moss make fun of Tony’s speech?
13. Who is named Mayor of Eatonville?
14. How does Janie respond when Jody does not allow her to make a speech?
15. For what occasion does Jody say the town needs to barbeque three hogs?
16. How do the men of the town react to Joe making them build a drainage ditch on the road in front of his store?
17. Why does Jody force Henry Pitts to leave town? How do some people react to this? What does Sam Watson say about it?
18. What has Jody forced Janie to do with her hair when she is at the store? Why do the men suggest he has done this?