Shortly after Janie's birth, Leafy began to drink and stay out at night, eventually abandoning the baby and leaving Janie with Nanny. Though Nanny wanted a better life for her daughter and even escaped her jealous mistress after the American Civil War, Leafy was later raped by her school teacher and became pregnant with Janie. She starts with her sexual awakening, which she compares to a blossoming pear tree kissed by bees in spring, which occurs when Janie allows a local boy, Johnny Taylor, to kiss her, which Janie's grandmother, Nanny, witnesses.Īs a young enslaved woman, Nanny was raped by her white enslaver, then gave birth to a mixed-race daughter she named Leafy. Janie Crawford, an African-American woman in her forties, returns to her old town after a year-long absence, and recounts her life story along with the time she'd been gone to her friend Pheoby. TIME included the novel in its 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels published since 1923. Since the late 20th century, however, it has been regarded as influential to both African-American literature and women's literature. Set in central and southern Florida in the early 20th century, the novel was initially poorly received. The novel explores protagonist Janie Crawford's "ripening from a vibrant, but voiceless, teenage girl into a woman with her finger on the trigger of her own destiny". It is considered a classic of the Harlem Renaissance, and Hurston's best known work. Their Eyes Were Watching God is a 1937 novel by American writer Zora Neale Hurston.
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