Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston Background Lecture

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

C. Upbringing and Schooling 1. she did not grow up worrying about prejudice and persecution 2. read her mother’s 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

D. Adult Life 1. Brother promised to pay for her to go back to school if she came and helped with his 3 children; didn’t 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

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

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

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 art’s 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

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 Janie’s a. age and appearance of Janie b. Janie’s husband becomes mayor (like ZNH’s father) C. Janie sits on the storefront to listen to gossip D. search for spiritual fulfillment E. fight for survival without sacrificing the self

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.

D. Hurston’s 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 Janie’s manner of speaking.

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

V. Hurston’s 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.

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

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.”