BannedBooks
Cover of Their Eyes Were Watching God
1937

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Zora Neale Hurston

Janie Crawford tells the story of her life and three marriages in early twentieth-century Florida, searching for identity, voice, and love. Largely ignored after its 1937 publication and dismissed by some Black critics for its dialect and lack of racial protest, the novel was rediscovered through Alice Walker's advocacy and has since been challenged in schools for its sexuality and dialect.

racegenderidentitysexualitylanguage

Why this book is challenged

  • sexually explicit content
  • dialect language
  • racial themes
  • unsuitable for age group