In the intro­duc­tion to *Their Eyes Were Watch­ing God*, we learn about Zora Neale Hurston, an influ­en­tial fig­ure born on Jan­u­ary 7, 1891, in Nota­sul­ga, Alaba­ma. Despite her claim of being born in Eatonville, Flori­da, she became known as a pro­lif­ic author whose oth­er notable works include *Jonah’s Gourd Vine* and *Mules and Men*. Through­out her life­time, Hurston was rec­og­nized for her con­tri­bu­tions to lit­er­a­ture, anthro­pol­o­gy, and activism. How­ev­er, she faced chal­lenges, par­tic­u­lar­ly from the polit­i­cal cli­mate of her time, which often con­flat­ed artis­tic expres­sion with polit­i­cal com­men­tary.

The text reflects on the ini­tial recep­tion of *Their Eyes Were Watch­ing God*, which fell out of print short­ly after its pub­li­ca­tion and remained large­ly unno­ticed for near­ly three decades. This decline raised ques­tions about how a cel­e­brat­ed writer could dis­ap­pear from pub­lic con­scious­ness. The per­sis­tence of schol­ars and writ­ers like Alice Walk­er in the 1970s ulti­mate­ly lead to Hurston’s works being redis­cov­ered and appre­ci­at­ed once more.

Alice Walk­er’s efforts, espe­cial­ly her act of plac­ing a grave­mark­er for Hurston in the Gar­den of Heav­en­ly Rest, high­light the urgency felt by her con­tem­po­raries to hon­or Hurston’s lega­cy. The grave­mark­er car­ries the inscrip­tion acknowl­edg­ing Hurston as a “Genius of the South,” which encap­su­lates her con­tri­bu­tion to lit­er­a­ture and cul­ture.

The intro­duc­tion ends with dis­cus­sion ques­tions meant to pro­voke thought about themes in Hurston’s work. These queries explore con­cepts like the nature of God in the book, the sig­nif­i­cance of hori­zons in Janie’s life, the rep­re­sen­ta­tion of black cul­ture and wom­en’s voic­es, as well as the impact of ver­nac­u­lar dialect on char­ac­ter and com­mu­ni­ty.

Over­all, this intro­duc­tion not only serves to con­tex­tu­al­ize Hurston’s life and work but also invites read­ers to engage deeply with the themes and ques­tions pre­sent­ed in her nov­el. The nar­ra­tive empha­sizes the impor­tance of her con­tri­bu­tions to Amer­i­can lit­er­a­ture and the ongo­ing rel­e­vance of her explo­ration of iden­ti­ty, com­mu­ni­ty, and wom­an­hood.