"The wind came back with triple fury, and put out the lights for the last time. They sat in company with the others in other shanties, their eyes straining against the crude walls and their souls asking if He meant to measure their puny might against His. They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God." p. 160
Of the many noteworthy quotes in the novel, this quote stood out to me more than most, and not only because it contains the title. In this section of the story, Janie, Tea Cake, and friends are sitting in their little houses waiting out the hurricane. In this point of the novel the characters are truly frightened and facing death. What I most like about this quote is that I feel it can be applied to a lot of other moments, it is almost a universal description of real fear; the people are small and at the mercy of a higher power and can do nothing to stop it. If this quote were to stand alone the reader wouldn't know it was about a hurricane. Anyone who has ever been utterly afraid of something, not even a natural disaster but perhaps even an idea or something emotional, can relate to this. It captures the feeling of powerlessness and the darkness of something you feel you cannot prevent.
I also feel that this quote avidly represents Hurston's talent in writing. She manages to take something that could have been simply stated and makes it into nothing short of a poem. Her writing has rhythm, and her words are powerful so that they leave a mark in your mind when you read them. She is also able to accurately describe a scene without the reader feeling that she is simply describing a scene.
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