Their Eyes are Watching God (Chapters 16-18)

Chapter 18 contains the line the title comes from – “their eyes were watching God.” Explain what the line means in the context it appears.

In this chapter a huge storm is coming and a hurricane is expected to hit where Tea Cake and Janie are. Out of the people living there most of them thought that the storm would simply pass right through and not even hit them. Unfortunately Tea Cake also believed this and therefore decided to stay nice and warm at home with Janie.

Even the co workers who work at the muck who were in Tea Cakes backyard while the storm was coming decided to leave because the weather already seemed so bad. They left and went back home right away but that wasn't enough to convince Tea Cake that he should also prepare himself for this storm.

That evening Janie and Tea Cake have a conversation talking about God and everything that has been happening in the story so far that was due to God. As the storm made its way over to them Janie said the phrase "it's like their eyes are watching God" because they are waiting for one of gods strikes to come through. Since Tea Cake was so stubborn though and he could no longer leave his home he had to wait and sit it through with Janie hoping nothing bad would happen them.