Their Eyes Were Watching God, a novel written by Zora Neale Hurston, depicts the tumultuous tale of Janie, a black woman living in the South, and her love affairs and journey of self-realization. Due to Hurston’s culturally rich scenes and choice of narration, using dialect traditional of southern black, this classic novel can be interpreted as a folktale. Folktales, defined as “… tale[s] or… legend[s] originating and traditional among a people or folk, especially… forming part of the oral tradition of the common people” (dictionary.com), were traditionally passed down in older African American communities in the context of this novel. This was especially prevalent in the South, where slavery was prominent and there were still freed slaves
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While Janie is telling her story, there is absolutely no way of knowing how much of what she is saying is true. This is similar to folk tales, where aspects of the story can be made up by whomever is narrating the story at a particular time. When Janie is telling her stories of the Everglades, such as on page 166, when Janie “... achieve[s] the tale of the cow… [and] continue[s] on,” Janie may be exaggerating her story by saying she had to latch onto a cow to survive the hurricane. Although it comes from Janie herself, if Phoeby retells it, she could change certain aspects of the tale. This story can also serve as a traditional story of caution if anyone chooses to retell it, as Janie’s life contains many hardships, obstacles, and lessons of overcoming them. Janie’s sadness and loneliness, as exemplified on page 114 when she writes that she felt like “languish[ing] to death” while she was with Joe can let people know that nothing is more important in a marriage than love. Certain aspects of the story make it a cultural folk tale as well. Janie’s stories of her trips to the Everglades with Tea Cake brim with tidbits of Floridian life in the 1930s, including the diversity among immigrants who went to work there. This is evident on page 154, when Hurston writes, “... Tea Cake and Janie had friended with the Bahamian workers in the ‘Glades… they
While Janie is telling her story, there is absolutely no way of knowing how much of what she is saying is true. This is similar to folk tales, where aspects of the story can be made up by whomever is narrating the story at a particular time. When Janie is telling her stories of the Everglades, such as on page 166, when Janie “... achieve[s] the tale of the cow… [and] continue[s] on,” Janie may be exaggerating her story by saying she had to latch onto a cow to survive the hurricane. Although it comes from Janie herself, if Phoeby retells it, she could change certain aspects of the tale. This story can also serve as a traditional story of caution if anyone chooses to retell it, as Janie’s life contains many hardships, obstacles, and lessons of overcoming them. Janie’s sadness and loneliness, as exemplified on page 114 when she writes that she felt like “languish[ing] to death” while she was with Joe can let people know that nothing is more important in a marriage than love. Certain aspects of the story make it a cultural folk tale as well. Janie’s stories of her trips to the Everglades with Tea Cake brim with tidbits of Floridian life in the 1930s, including the diversity among immigrants who went to work there. This is evident on page 154, when Hurston writes, “... Tea Cake and Janie had friended with the Bahamian workers in the ‘Glades… they