Review: Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neal Hurston

Should we promote the use of minstrel ideals in novels? In his review of Zora Neal Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Wright brought up this point. The book is set in the early 20th century, racism was at its peak and black people were often used as entertainment. This particular novel was set in Flordia which has a long and extensive past with racism. Their Eyes Were Watching God follows a young woman named Janie through her life as she grows from a young girl into a wiser woman. Richard Wright’s justified critique is that the novel utilized minstrel techniques to entertain and appease a white audience. He also noted it lacked theme or thought. While some might claim he is incorrect, it can be shown that Hurston’s novel used minstrel

Throughout the novel, we can see the use of African-American vernacular English. This helps promote stereotypes and a different mindset about people of color. An example of this in the novel is Chapter 6 “‘Worser’n dat. De womenfolks got yo’ mule. When Ah come round de lake ‘bout noontime mah wife and some others had ‘im flat on de ground usin’ his sides fuh uh wash board’ The great clap of laughter that they have been holding in, bursts out” (Hurston 52). This dialogue demonstrates the exaggeration of the way Black people talk. This display proves that Wright’s critique is justified. In the end, it only made the townspeople seem like caricatures. It shows them as jolly and over-animated. This is alike to how the minstrel shows and performances portrayed Black

In many moments in the book, there is no theme, and moments are put there for seemingly no reason. Not only that but towards the end of the novel much of the story is rushed and there are many paragraphs of just descriptions. For example in Chapter 18 “Morning came without motion. The winds, the tiniest, lisping baby breath had left the earth. Even before the sun gave light, dead day was creeping from bush to bush watching man. Some rabbits scurried through the quarters going east. Some possum slunk by and the route was definite. One or two at a time, then more. By the time the people left the fields the procession was constant” (Hurston 155). This quote shows the lack of thought, these are filler paragraphs, unnecessary to the plot. The end of the story is very rushed, the hurricane was shortened compared to the smaller moments in the book. A quote from Chapter 2 shows the lack of theme in the book. “She was stretched on her back beneath the pear tree soaking in the alto chant of the visiting bees, the gold of the sun and the panting breath of the breeze when the inaudible voice of it all came to her. She saw a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love and embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to the tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with the light” (Hurston 11). This shows that the book has no theme, it has