Download Their Eyes Were Watching God Study Guide
Ideas for Reports and Papers
(Beacham's Guide to Literature for Young Adults)
1. Study the relationships between wealthy white patrons and the writers of the Harlem Renaissance and argue whether Their Eyes Were Watching God is meant to appeal to white readers of the time or is directed only at black readers.
2. Study the historic debates between Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. DuBois and, based on your reading of Their Eyes Were Watching God, create a response based on how you think Zora Neale Hurston would have responded to the fundamental issues of racial progress and race relations that they discussed.
3. Although many women writers participated in the Harlem Renaissance, they experienced the prejudice of their male counterparts, who excluded all but a chosen few of them from the anthologies and prestigious periodicals. How do these conditions compare to the reception women writers receive today?