Analysis Of Their Eyes Were Watching God By Hurston

While Their Eyes Were Watching God is a work of fiction, it has been considered autobiographical as well. Hurston reveals her personality through the interaction of the author’s, protagonist’s, narrator’s voices and through the narrative events. For example, Hurston's own father can be found lodged in some of the characteristics of Jody. Like Jody, Hurston's father moved to an exclusively black town called Eatonville. John Hurston was also noted for “being very ambitious, owning property and having a prominent position of carpenter, Baptist preacher and, attaining a position of power within the South Florida Baptist Association.”(1) Like Jody, he sought to be a leader within that fledgling community of Eatonville. Janie similarly shares many

The novel is about Janie's journey, in a psychological and a physical sense. Zora was very much a traveler herself, exploring America with a theatre group and in search of other jobs and experiences. Later on in her life, she managed to find patrons to support her through academic programs. She was fascinated in “anthropological research into the folklore and cultural heritage of the southern blacks”(5). This curiosity initiated her to go on many places gathering information in the South, and while she travelled she erudite more about herself as she returned to her roots. These trips essential have influenced her work deeply, her observance of "Negro" culture is utmostly noticeable through her use of dialect as the dominant language pattern. There is a cordiality that originates from her characters and portrayal of community life that proposes that she is not merely a spectator of the culture, but a part of it as well. For instance when Janie and Tea Cake live on the "muck" they join in with games of "Florida flip" and "coon-can" (p.233), reciting rhythms beginning with "Yo' mama don't wear no Draws" (p.232), skipping with the Bahamans and telling exaggerated stories. There is a genuine and real sense of Zora's pride and marvel at her people's culture, it forms the backdrop of the novel and enhances

In her autobiography, she writes that she "walked by her corpse, smelt it and felt it" (p.135). The notion that one can be living, although dead spiritually or emotionally, is also found in Their Eyes Were Watching God - even the corpse image is used. Zora as a child was imaginative and curious, often claiming, "the trees, birds, and lake talked to her" (p14, Zora Neale Hurston by Howard). In the novel the pear tree talks to Janie in an "inaudible voice" (p.24) about marriage. On page 44 of Dust Tracks on a Road she reminisces that she "used to climb to the top of one of the huge chinaberry trees which guarded our front gate and look out over the world. The most interesting thing that I saw was the horizon". This is similar to the where a sixteen-year-old Janie "searched as much of the world as she could from the top of the front steps". This natural curiosity is deceptive in both Janie and Hurston from an early age and starts the beginning of a journey through life looking to the horizon. It is remarkable that in the novel it ended with Janie pulling "in her horizon like a great fish-net". The horizon is no more in front of her but around her, the journey is