Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

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Their Eyes Were Watching Godby Zora Neale
Hurston

• Background Lecture

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I. Daughter of Eatonville

• A. Family
• 1. Father John ? sharecropper and carpenter
• 2. Mother Lucy? schoolteacher and daughter of
  a wealthy landowner
• 3. Zora ? 5th of 8 children born January 7,
  1891
• B. Eatonville
• 1. Family moved to Eatonville, Florida ? first
  and only incorporated all-black town in America
• 2. Father served as a Baptist minister and
  mayor
• 3. serves as setting for TEWWG

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• C. Upbringing and Schooling
• 1. she did not grow up worrying about prejudice
  and persecution
• 2. read her mothers books, the Bible, medical
  books, and any other books she could find
• 3. mother died when Zora was 13 ? father
  remarried and sent kids to school and to live
  with other relatives
• 4. Zora joined sister at Florida Baptist
  Academy, but father stopped paying the bill so
  she had to work to pay for her tuition
• 5. 1911 ? Zora left Eatonville and tried to
  survive

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• D. Adult Life
• 1. Brother promised to pay for her to go back
  to school if she came and helped with his 3
  children didnt happen
• 2. Tried many ways to support herself ?
  assistant to opera singer, waiter, manicurist
• 3. At the age of 26, she lied about her age to
  go back to high school to complete her education!
• 4. Earned her high school diploma at age 28

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Adult life (cont.)

• 5. Attended Howard University in 1919 and it
  took her four years to get her degree
• 6. Began writing short stories
• 7. Dropped out of Howard due to illness and
  finances
• 8. 1925 ? moved to New York City
• 9. studied anthropology at Barnard College,
  esp. cultural roots and black folklore
• 10. married in 1928, divorced in 1931

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II. The Harlem Renaissance

• A. Started after WWI (1918) and lasted until the
  Great Depression
• B. Sprang from northern migration of
  African-Americans looking for life free from
  discrimination and servitude
• C. Hurston joined other artists ? Langston
  Hughes, Countee Cullen, Cab Calloway, Duke
  Ellington

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• D. Many Harlem Renaissance artists believed that
  gifted blacks could elevate the masses by using
  art to promote racial pride
• E. Hurston believed in art for arts sake
  (remember, she did not experience the same kind
  of racism growing up) ? favored telling the human
  story
• F. She published her best work after the Harlem
  Renaissance

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III. Her Best Work

• A. 1932 ? love affair with Percy Punter (she was
  44 he was 25) ? became inspiration for TEWWG
• B. Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937)
• 1. written in 7 weeks
• 2. parallels between her life and Janies
• a. age and appearance of Janie
• b. Janies husband becomes mayor (like ZNHs
  father)
• C. Janie sits on the storefront to listen to
  gossip
• D. search for spiritual fulfillment
• E. fight for survival without sacrificing the
  self

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IV. Narrative Structure

• A. Frame narrative ? story within a story
• B. Point of view ? third person omniscient
• C. Janie tells her story to her best friend
  Pheoby Watson the plot unfolds as a series of
  flashbacks within this framework.

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• D. Hurstons narrative strategy allows for the
  most sympathetic of narrative voices. The
  narrator, though anonymous, reveals this sympathy
  through tone and the occasional subtle adoption
  of Janies manner of speaking.

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• E. Hurston uses dialogue to reveal information
  about the other characters.
• F. The narrator relays Janies thoughts and
  attitudes directly to the reader. Most of the
  time, the reader knows exactly what motivates
  Janie.

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V. Hurstons Harshest Critics

• TEWWG met with harsh criticism from the black
  writers and critics of the day. Her loving and
  careful attempts to preserve what was unique
  about African-Americans and their communities
  (dialect, folktales, spirituality, etc.) offended
  them.

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• A young, and then Communist, Richard Wright
  criticized it as a novel carrying no theme, no
  message, and no thought. Apparently, Wrights
  eyes were watching for social protest and thus,
  he dismissed Hurstons masterpiece as frivolous.
  Hurstons onetime Howard University professor
  Alain Locke similarly criticized Their Eyes,
  saying it was not serious fiction.

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VI. Afterword

• Zora Neale Hurston published four novels, two
  books of folklore, and a memoir-like
  autobiography over her thirty-year career. She
  died penniless on January 28, 1960, after
  suffering a stroke at the age of sixty-nine. Her
  grave in Fort Pierce, Florida, remained unmarked
  until 1973, when author Alice Walker paid for a
  stone, which reads, Zora Neale Hurston A Genius
  of the South.