Author, American folklorist, and anthropologist Zora Hurston, aimed to express the speech patterns of the 1920's within her writings. Hurston traveled often, but would always return to a place she found home, Eastonville. Eastonville was the nations first black township in 1887 and also a primary setting in one of her most famous novels. It being, Their Eyes were Watching God, was completed within seven weeks (Digital Archive) while she was under emotional distress. In this novel Zora describes the hard life of a character named Janie. During Janie's journey through life she eventually finds herself and her confidence, but experiences man hardships among the way. One being, her grandmother practically forced her to marry Logan Killicks and their relationship doesn't last long before Janie runs off with a man named Joe Starks. Joe and Janie discover and develop the town of Easonville. Mr. Starks becomes the mayor and over time develops into a heartless and controlling character. After two unsuccessful relationships, Janie then finds true love. She marries a handsome dark man by the name of Tea Cake. Throughout the novel, Janie encounters multiple situations of race discrimination. For example from her novel, "The sun was gone...It was the time to hear things and talk. These sitters had been tongueless, earless, eyeless conveniences all day long... But now, the sun and the bossman were gone, so the skins felt powerful and human. They became lords of sounds and lesser things" (1). In this quote Hurston tell us that the black people of Eastonville can only live their lives peacefully when they are away from the white people, who surround them constantly during the daytime. On a more personal note, Janie says, "Aw, aw! Ah'm colored!" (9). Janie is at the age of six when she says this and is unaware of her true racial identity. Without seeing it with her own eyes, she might not have believed she was black. Janie didn't think anything different since she lived with white children all her life. She identifies herself with the people she's surrounded by, her community. During this time era, Janie experienced racial discrimination, different treatment between men and women, social class discrimination and the struggles of finding her true self.
Works Cited
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God: A Novel. New York: Perennial 1990. Print.
"Zora Neale Hurston Digital Archive." Zora Neale Hurston Digital Archive. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2015. http://chdr.cah.ucf.edu/hurstonarchive/?p=hurstons-life.
By Sierra Stendahl
By Sierra Stendahl