# Their Eyes Were Watching God

**Author:** Zora Neale Hurston
**Lexile:** 1080L
**Grade range:** Grades 10–12
**Age range:** 15–18
**First published:** 1937
**Page count:** 193
**Genre:** Literary Fiction
**ISBN-13:** `9780061120060`
**ISBN-10:** `0061120065`
**Canonical URL:** https://readinglist.school/book/their-eyes-were-watching-god
**License:** [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) — please credit ReadingList.school when citing.

## About this book

Janie Crawford, a Black woman in early 20th-century Florida, returns to her hometown and tells the story of her three marriages and her search for an independent life. Hurston's use of African American vernacular English and her portrayal of Janie's interior life were dismissed at publication and celebrated in later decades. Now a staple of AP Literature and 11th-grade American Literature courses.

## Themes

- African American womanhood
- marriage and autonomy
- voice and silence
- love
- Black folk culture

## Content notes

- domestic violence
- racial slurs (historical context)
- death and grief

Common Sense Media age recommendation: 14+

## Where this book is assigned

### AP English Literature & Composition

- **recommended** · 11th grade — [source: AP Lit representative text list](https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/courses/ap-english-literature-and-composition)
- **recommended** · 11th grade — [source: AP Lit summer-reading expectation — rising AP Lit student](https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/courses/ap-english-literature-and-composition)
- **recommended** · 11th grade · Florida — [source: Miami-Dade AP Lit frequently taught text (FL setting)](https://languageartsreading.dadeschools.net/)

### Common Core State Standards (ELA)

- **recommended** · 11th grade — [source: CCSS ELA Appendix B, grades 11-CCR exemplar](https://achievethecore.org/page/2699)
- **recommended** · 11th grade · Georgia — [source: Georgia Standards of Excellence grade 11 aligned reading](https://www.gadoe.org/)
- **recommended** · 11th grade · Illinois — [source: Illinois Learning Standards grade 11 aligned reading](https://www.isbe.net/)

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