Their Eyes Were Watching God Synthesis

Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neal Hurston, is a novel set in the early 1900s. The story follows the life of a young African American woman named Janie. Throughout the story, Janie goes through three-marriages. Within her marriages she faces years of loneliness, aggravating work, abuse, both verbal and physical, and betrayal. Along the way, Janie stayed on a consistent path of self discovery. Zora Neal Hurston depicts, Their Eyes Were Watching God, as both a reflection of, and a departure from, the Harlem Renaissance, by writing the book from a lower-class, woman’s, perspective. Over the years, Hurston has received praise for her use of African American dialect in her writing. An example of the dialect being, “She was an ironing board

The book states, “Yeah, de (redacted) women kin kill up all de mens dey wants tuh, but you bet’ not kill one uh dem. De white folks will sho hang yuh if yuh do” (Hurston 189). This is an example of a departure from the Harlem Renaissance because it shows women empowerment, specifically the empowerment of a black woman. At the time, black people were not held equally to white people, the difference even more apparent for black women and white men. Due to this, the book is clearly a departure from the Harlem Renaissance because it states that a black woman is just as free as a white man. Another example of Their Eyes Were Watching God being a departure of the Harlem Renaissance is, “So the very next morning Janie got ready to pick beans along with Tea Cake. There was a suppressed murmur when she picked up a basket and went to work” (Hurston 133). Others in the town assumed that Janie thought herself too good to work like the rest of the women because they were so obsessed with holding her image as the “mayor’s wife”. They constantly pressured her to uphold her image from her marriage with Joe, and even discouraged her from marrying Tea Cake. This is a direct departure from the Harlem Renaissance because the Harlem Renaissance was all about freeing oneself from the pressures of

Janie’s perspective being an African American woman provides ample examples as to how Their Eyes Were Watching God is both a reflection of, and a departure from, the Harlem Renaissance. For example, “Thank yuh fuh yo’ compliments, but mah wife don’t know nothin’ ‘bout no speech-makin’, Ah never married her for nothin’ lak dat. She’s uh woman and her place is in de home” (Hurston 43). The oppression shown towards Janie is a direct departure from the Harlem Renaissance. Had the novel not been from a woman’s perspective, this angle of oppression would not have been represented. Another example of Janie being the best perspective for Hurston’s writing is, “Lum, I god, dat’s enough! Y’all done had yo’ fun now. Stop yo’ foolishness and go tell Matt Bonner Ah wants tuh have uh talk wid him right away” (Hurston 57). Janie’s southern drawl and incorrect grammar within her speaking is a prime reflection of the Harlem Renaissance, because it represents the group of people most affected by the renaissance. Though Janie was rich in her community, in reality, she represents the large group of lower-class African Americans. With Janie’s perspective of being a lower-class African American woman, Hurston is able to provide readers with a broader and more in depth understanding of the Harlem