Their Eyes Were Watching God Language Analysis

The English language is and always has been a fluid, ever changing form of speech. The way we think, speak and write is influenced several different factors. In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, the reader sees examples of multiple forms of English on the same platform. Though it can’t be known exactly why the novel was written this way, its impact is unmistakable. The use of both formal language and Southern black colloquialism not only shapes how the reader sees the characters and the main character Janie’s transformation, but it also exposes how the average reader has been subjected to the elitism of English.
The way people speak English is primarily affected by where and from whom they learned to speak it. In many cases,

a person’s race plays a factor as well. The most relevant example today is African-American Vernacular English (commonly abbreviated to AAVE). AAVE is thought to have originated from African creole accents and the inflection common in the Southern United States, where Their Eyes Were Watching God takes place. There is constant controversy around AAVE and many other dialects that just happen to be frequently spoken by races that are not white. These dialects are ridiculed for not following “proper English”, and someone who speaks them is almost guaranteed to be viewed as less intelligent or poorly educated. This is what makes Hurston’s decision to utilize Southern black speech so revolutionary. During the time that the novel was published, regional colloquialism was common in novels, but not to the scale that Hurston used it on. Nearly all the dialogue in the book is written in Southern colloquialisms, whereas the narration is written in “proper” Standard English. Initially, Hurston was thought to be mocking black culture, but it is now clear that she utilized the speech in a way that was essential to her book.