Transcript Their Eyes Were Watching God

Their Eyes Were Watching God
Zora Neale Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston
Born in the early
1900’s in the South
5th of 8 children
Father - a Baptist
preacher, tenant
farmer, and carpenter
Mother died when
Zora was thirteen
Eatonville, Florida
Zora moved to Eatonville,
FL at age 3
This town became the
setting of many of her
writings
The first incorporated
black community in
America
Her father would later
become mayor
Education and Writing
Enrolled in high
school at age 26
Attended Howard
University
Inspired by a professor
to pursue a literary
career
Began publishing
short stories
Harlem Renaissance
A period during the 1920’s when black
artists, writers, and musicians broke from
imitating white artists
The artistic movement focused on black
culture and pride in the black race
Zora Neale Hurston was a major force in
this movement especially her work with
African American folklore
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Published in 1937 –
Hurston’s 2nd novel
The novel centers on Janie
Crawford, an AfricanAmerican woman who
tells her life story
Janie was an unusual
protagonist for her time-black, female, independent
and strong.
Reception to the Novel
Critiques
Black readers felt Hurston
had not been harsh enough
in her critique of the white
treatment of blacks in the
South
They also felt that she
painted too rosy of a picture
of black life, showing them
singing and dancing instead
of portraying them as
demoralized, devastated and
ill-treated
Rediscovery
In the early 70's, black
literature professors,
particularly women,
rediscovered Hurston's
novel and began teaching it
to students.
Their Eyes Were Watching
God is most often
celebrated for Hurston’s
unique use of language,
particularly her mastery of
rural Southern black dialect.
Zora Neale Hurston
January 28, 1960 –
Dies in the St. Lucie
County Welfare Home
of “hypertension heart
disease” buried in an
unmarked grave in the
Garden of Heavenly
Rest, Fort Pierce.
Mama exhorted her children at every opportunity to “jump at de sun.”
We might not land on the sun, but at least we would get off the ground.
-Zora Neale Hurston