There eyes were watching God ONCE

The phrase "there eyes were watching God," only appears once in this whole book and it comes near the end when Janie, Tea Cake, and Sop were all huddled together in the shack watching the door as the hurricane started up outside them. The hurricane had been going on for a bit and put out all the light, and they could already hear things flying around and crashing into things, which meant that the winds were already really strong let alone the rain and lightning as well. This phrase comes then because in the dark they could not see anything and yet their eyes were wide open. They also could not see anything outside the door yet they continued to stare at it. They did this because they believed that they were watching God's wrath and might, and that it was God's test for them and they were completely in his mercy. Their lives have always been up to God in their beliefs, however, in this moment they were never as aware of this as they were then, and all they could do was watch. It seemed odd that Zora would choose such a small line to be the title of her book, but when one looks back I guess it becomes a bit more obvious. She seems to choose this title because all of her characters believe that their lives are completely up to God and in the greatest moment of crisis or simply in completely key moments of everyone’s lives, their eyes are only watching God's work and not their own. No matter how much they like to believe in their own work, or trust themselves above all others, they will always fall subject to God's deeds and that was proven many times in this book. Also this title could be directed towards the reader. The reader’s eyes were watching God through this book because this book is about life, and only life. It is about growth, love, security, nature, society, all things controlled and created by God. So by reading about Janie's life, and her love, and her hardships, we are really watching God's work.