Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston

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…of the society's racial pecking order, her hair is a form of power against which her first two husbands strive. It is only toward the end, when Janie both lets her hair down and condemns Nanny's vision, that Janie sheds the same restrictions that continue to doom others to personal stagnation. In one compelling novel, Hurston ties together the important issues facing her generation without distracting from the tale of one woman's struggle with them.