Analysis Of Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston was the best and most prolific African American woman writer of the 1930’s. Before writing her masterwork Their Eyes Watching God, she was an anthropologist and novelist. She was a revolutionary in helping to protect the rights of African Americans and she was known during the Harlem Renaissance for her wit and folk writing style.

Hurston was born in Notasulga, Alabama on January 7, 1891. She was the fifth of seven children of Lucy Ann Potts and John Hurston, who moved to Eatonville when Hurston was three. (Anderson) Hurston’s mother always encouraged her to pursue her dreams, such as being a writer, but her father didn’t express the same enthusiasm. In fact, when Hurston was born, her father was disappointed that she was

The novel was classified as a feminist novel and it was the first major novel published by a black woman. It is about a woman’s search for love in a form of a frame and about how she returns to her hometown of Eatonville, Florida after years of absence and her neighbor are curious as where she’s been and what she’s been up to. The story outlines racism and women’s rights of the 1930’s. Their Eyes Were Watching God generated a lot of controversy upon its release because activists, such as Richard Wright, felt that the work wasn’t extensive enough in its condemnation of racism. Others felt that Hurston’s treatment of sexism weakened the novel. (Cassidy 28) In many libraries around the world the book is banned due to sexual explicitness but there are other reasons that shape why the book is disliked. Hurston approached racism, took a stand on women’s rights, and showed what discrimination looks like from the point of view of a black

She left home when she was tired of being mistreated and set out on her road to be one of the most memorable woman from the Harlem Renaissance. She covered issues such as racism and women’s right and brought a lot of attention to them in Their Eyes Were Watching God. She helped to redefine how Americans and the world should understand African American Culture. The Harlem Renaissance marked the beginning of a black urban society and it is truly amazing that Zora Neale Hurston was able to be apart of that to help set up the stage for the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950’s and