Their Eyes Were Watching God: Summary and Overview of Zora Neale Hurston

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Their Eyes Were Watching GodSummary and
Overview of Zora Neale Hurstons Novel
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Background Information on Author

• Zora Neale Hurston was born in Eatonville,
  Florida in 1891.
• She lived in an all African-American community
  for her childhood years.
• She wrote several novels and short stories.
• Her lifes motto was Jump at the sun! given to
  her by her mother.
• Her writing helped shape future female
  African-American writers approach to authorship
  and development of identity.
• She was a writer, anthropologist and political
  activist.

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Harlem Renaissance

• Lasted from 1919-1937.
• Goals of the Harlem Renaissance
• To respond to the social conditions of African-
  Americans
• To break with the 19th century minstrel
  stereotypes of African-Americans
• To place greater emphasis on black folk culture
• To provide political and social uplift for
  African-Americans through social programs such as
  the NAACP.

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Zora Neale Hurstons Influence on the Harlem
Renaissance

• Their Eyes Were Watching God is considered the
  last text of the Harlem Renaissance.
• Her portrayal of an African-American female able
  to define herself outside of social conventions
  and stereotypes has provided a model for modern
  African Americans seeking their identities in
  unconventional roles.

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Feminist Issues in Their Eyes

• Their Eyes Were Watching God is considered the
  first modern feminist text by an
  African-American.
• Their Eyes Are Watching God describes Janies
  search to find her identity and voice apart from
  her three husbands.
• Janie leaves her first husband in search of a
  more fulfilling relationships.
• Janie finds her voice through her femininity and
  through her community.
• Janie chooses to work outside the home to find
  purpose outside of domestic life.

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Regional Dialect as a Form of Realism

• Hurston employed regional black dialect in her
  writing.
• Hurston chose to do this because she wanted to
  portray African-Americans as they appeared in
  some southern areas of the United States.
• Realism includes dialect, local color and
  familial settings.

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Parallels From Their Eyes to Hurstons Life

• Janie married several times, as did Zora Neale
  Hurston.
• Hurston was often poor financially like Janie.
• Hurston and Janie each search for identity as
  black women.
• Hurston had an affair with a young man, as with
  Janies affair with Tea Cake in the novel.

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Hurstons Views of the South

• Zora Neale Hurston believed that authentic black
  culture can only be found in the south.
• Hurston opposed the integrationist measures
  implemented in the Brown vs. Board of Education
  decision, seeing integration as a way for
  cultural values to become tainted.
• Hurston became a spokeswoman for the first
  integrated all-black community, Eatonville,
  Florida.

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Hurstons Relationship With Langston Hughes

• Both authors shared the same financial patron
  Charlotte Mason.
• Hurston and Hughes collaborated to write Mule
  Bone, an African-American play.
• They also worked together to publish the first
  issue of Fire, a magazine in which several
  up-and-coming black authors were able to publish
  their early works.

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Black Arts Movement

• Their Eyes Were Watching God marked the end of
  the Harlem Renaissance.
• After this period (post 1937), the Black Arts
  Movement began, in which African Americans
  continued to seek a new black aesthetic that
  captured the emotions, desires and unique talents
  of blacks in America as they face prejudice.