Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston Essay

In 1937, Zora Neale Hurston broke up with the love of her life, a charming man 25-years younger than her, she ended the relationship to continuing living her life on her own uncompromising terms. The same year she wrote Their Eyes Were Watching God. The story of Janie Crawford, a black deep-thinking, deep-feeling black woman, who is in search for her own self. In Janie´s life, we can find many similarities to Hurston´s own life. Hurston, born in 1891, was the child of ex-slaves who were liberated after The American Civil War. Janie grandmother was born into slavery, she then pressured Janie into a secure but loveless marriage. Like Janie, Hurston childhood was not together with her parents, when Hurston as nine her mom died, she was then also …show more content…
In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie moves to Eatonville together with her second husband, Joe Starks, and lives there for around 20 years. Joe Starks is described by another character in the book as “uh throne in de seat of his pants”, and clearly modeled on Joe Clarke, the mayor of Eatonville during Hurston´s childhood.her early years in an African American community in Florida, a community which we also see a version of in “Their Eyes were Watching God”. During her time in Eatonville, Janie´s second husband is a powerful man and frequently abuses and oppresses her, and a marriage that started passionately becomes as loveless as her first marriage. After her husband´s death, Janie meets the love of her life Tea Cake, around 15-years younger than her. Janie felt that Tea Cake viewed her as an equal, she wanted her to do several things that her previous husband would not allow. Obviously, Tea Cake is referring to the love affair that Hurston had with a younger man. Although their community was against their relationship, Janie decided to marry Tea Cake and move to another town. They left Eatonville around the time that the Harlem Renaissance, an African American cultural, social, artistic and intellectual movement, started in New York. At the same time as Harlem Renaissance, Janie gained freedom and become more independent. During this time period, Hurston moved from Florida to Harlem and she is said to have personified the movement and was dubbed the “Queen of the Renaissance.” In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston uses Black Vernacular English for the conversation parts between African Americans, when white are speaking she is using standard English. Her way of writing is celebrating African Americans rich cultural heritage, which was the goal with the Harlem Renaissance. Although Tea Cake and Janie´s relationship was portrayed as a happy