Their Eyes Were Watching God Essay

The Experience and the Withdrawal from the Harlem Renaissance

Life is compiled of time intervals of change that move people with each passing moment. Literature is the mirror that reflects the culture of the time, including people’s opinions and behaviors, giving modern day people perspective of how life was like in that given time era. In the iconic literature novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston takes us through the life of Janie Crawford, a black woman in the early 1900’s, and her journey for love and identity through three different marriages. Janie experiences the influence slavery still has on the Black community even after slavery was abolished, and also the re-emergence of racial stereotypes, rendering Zora Neale

Hurston’s writing to be both a reflection and departure from the ideas of the Harlem Renaissance.
The Harlem Renaissance was a time period full of change, especially for the African Americans living in the United States.

One important aspect of the Renaissance was music. Jazz and Blues were introduced and embraced by the African American culture as part of their identity. “The term "Jazz Age" was used by many who saw African American music, especially the blues and jazz, as the defining features of the Renaissance”, and these new types of music “emerged out of the African American experience around the turn of the century in southern towns and cities, like New Orleans, Memphis, and St. Louis” (Wintz), and proceeded to spread throughout the entire country. The embracing of Jazz and Blues provided African Americans with a newfound sense of identity, which was promoted by the majority of the country, to help construct their culture. During the Harlem Renaissance, African Americans sought many ways to create their own identity to replace what slavery had previously labeled them

as.
The massive influence that slavery still had on the lives of African Americans and the attitudes of the American people as a whole played a dominating role during the Harlem Renaissance, and is depicted in Zora Neale Hurston’s writing.

After a huge flood had occurred in Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie and her third husband, Tea Cake, were desperate for the needs to survive, and part of that is the necessity of work, but some of the people near where Janie and Tea Cake ended up after the flood/storm, had different ideas of what they should be doing. “‘Hello, there, Jim,’ the tallest one called out. ‘We been lookin’ fuh you’ … ‘Dat’s whut we want yuh fuh-not doin’ nothin’. Come on less go bury some uh dese heah dead folks”(Hurston 169-170). A fair few of white citizens still believed that they were racially ‘superior’ to African Americans, which resulted in them forcing African Americans to do as they said, and work under their care and watch, despite the new freedoms that had been given to them. Slavery still continued to shape the new lives of African Americans as a result of their previous occupations, which appears in Zora Neale Hurston’s writing. “Land and labor were an important theme used in Hurston’s work. African Americans have had a strong connection to the land that they live on because of their past as slave workers and sharecroppers”(Project Mosaic). The work that they did as slaves was very similar to the work they did once they achieved their freedom.

Because they were accustomed to working in fields, they continued to do so throughout the Harlem Renaissance, except they were getting paid for their work. Consequently, the lasting impression slavery held on American society is depicted through Zora Neale Hurston’s writing, which revealed her writing to be a reflection of the Harlem Renaissance.
Despite the new civil rights movements that were put in place and the promotions of Black identity, the ramifications of slavery continued to prevail through and after the Harlem Renaissance. After the Renaissance came to a close, the dominant and aggressive stereotypes that were present before the Harlem Renaissance resurfaced and were expressed by those that didn’t have positive opinions of African Americans, who continued to critique Black identity. In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, Ms.Turner is a secretive lady who has very strong opinions towards Blacks, and is seen to be fairly racist in those opinions. “You’se different from me. Ah can’t stand black niggers … Dey laughs too much and dey laughs too loud. Always singin’ ol’ nigger songs! Always cuttin’ de monkey for white folks. If it wuzn’t for so many black folks it wouldn’t be no race problem. De white folks would take us in wid them. De black ones is holdin’ us back”(Hurston 141). Zora Neale Hurston uses Ms.Turner and her strong opinions to illustrate how, despite the promotion of Black identity during the Harlem Renaissance, when the Renaissance was over, many Americans returned to their original position towards Blacks, which preceded the Renaissance. Harsh stereotypes created misjudgment and tension throughout society, which demonstrated that there was a departure from the Harlem Renaissance, as seen in Zora Neale Hurston’s writing.
The Harlem Renaissance was a movement of Black identity, as shown in Zora Neale Hurston’s, as well as the enduring influence of slavery during the Renaissance, and the recurrence of harsh Black stereotypes in the sentiments of some American citizens that postdated the Harlem Renaissance. Throughout the novel, the joy felt and brought by African Americans into society projected a large essence of the Harlem Renaissance by portraying the celebration of the black culture by their jovial parties and gatherings, where they enjoyed each other's’ company. Zora Neale Hurston used her writing to inform others of the lives of the African Americans during and after this critical period in history. She illustrated the sufferings and the adversities of the African Americans, as well as the festive and heartfelt moments they encountered. Informing others of these different time periods and how people felt and were during them, will benefit all by reflection of the events and consequences, and by changing for the improvement of all.