Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Setting
The book Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston took place in many different places. Some of those places were on farmlands in Eatonville, Florida and Fort Pierce, Florida. Fort Pierce was the last place that Zora Neale Hurston lived. When Hurston was alive, Eatonville was one of the rare all-black towns - and is still 89% African American. It was a small black community and is one of the oldest communities in Florida with a rich African American culture and heritage. What is the timee period of the novel
Historical Context
Many time periods influenced Zora Neale Hurston when she wrote Their Eyes Were Watching God. One was The Great Depression. The Great Depression began in 1920. It was a time of widespread poverty for black southern farmers for many reasons. Soil erosion made it hard to grow many crops as well as weevil attacks on the cotton which grew led to bad farming. Competition from other foreign markets also made it hard for the farmers to make money. Most southerners were African American and they were hurt more by the Great Depression than the white southerners. There were relief groups sent to the south to help the poor southerners but they discriminated by race and some didn’t help African American farmers and if they did help they didn’t help them as much. In her book, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston refers to the poverty in the south when she writes about the “downtrodden migrant workers who picked the little beans they had.”
The Great Migration was also another time period which influenced Zora Neale Hurston. After the Great Depression many African American southerners became unemployed. In the 1920’s they began to migrate in large numbers to north in search of jobs. Jobs were available in factories and in packing houses. They also left to avoid racial discrimination by groups like the KKK. This migration of African Americans to the north worried northerners because they were afraid that they would lose their jobs when they the southerners came north. They too discriminated against the African Americans though not as openly. This kept most African Americans in overcrowded neighborhoods and they would not allow them to buy a home in a white neighborhood. Zora Neale Hurston herself was a part of the Great Migration when she migrated to the North in 1925 to Harlem, New York which is similar to the setting of Their Eyes Were Watching God.
The Harlem Renaissance was the period which inspired Zora Neale Hurston the most. In Harlem in the 1920’s there was a sudden increase in African American culture. These creative arts were done by African Americans and included poetry, fiction, drama, music, dance, painting and sculpture. During the Harlem Renaissance critics took African American literature seriously and gave it praise. Zora Neale Hurston was a part of the Harlem Renaissance as well. She wrote much folklore but they were not well appreciated because she was a woman until the 1940’s.
Author Biography
Zora Neale Hurston was a novelist, folklorist, and an anthropologist. Her birth date is unknown, but her family members say she was born around 1891-1902. Zora’s father was a Baptist preacher, carpenter, and tenant farmer. When she was three, she moved to Eatonville, Florida. Her father became mayor of Eatonville. Eatonville, Florida was the first black incorporated of African American community in America. Later on in her life, Zora praised Eatonville as a place where blacks lived without the prejudice of white society. In 1918, Zora graduated from Morgan academy. Then Zora went on to study at Howard University.
Zora’s style as a writer was to combine literature with anthropology. Zora’s works that gained her attention for the first time were her short stories “John Redding Goes to Sea” and “Spunk”, which appeared in African American literary magazines. Zora completed several sponsored years of anthropological research. Then, in 1934, her first novel Jonah’s Gourd Vine was published. Her later novel Mules and Men was published in 1935.
In 1937, Hurston’s well known novel Their Eyes Were Watching God was published, and in 1938 her travelogue Tell My Horse, was published. Zora’s autobiography Dust Tracks on a Road, was published in 1842 and was a commercial success. Her novel Seraph on the Suwanee, which was published in 1942, received negative feedback.
Hurston believed that blacks could reach sovereignty from white society. Her beliefs were influenced by her hometown, Eatonville. Zora didn’t stress racism of whites towards blacks in her novels, and unfortunately, was pushed aside by black writers who appeared in the civil rights era that was post World War II. Later on, sadly, she died in poverty on January 28th, 1960, in Fort Pierce, Florida.
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Setting
The book Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston took place in many different places. Some of those places were on farmlands in Eatonville, Florida and Fort Pierce, Florida. Fort Pierce was the last place that Zora Neale Hurston lived. When Hurston was alive, Eatonville was one of the rare all-black towns - and is still 89% African American. It was a small black community and is one of the oldest communities in Florida with a rich African American culture and heritage. What is the timee period of the novel
Historical Context
The Great Migration was also another time period which influenced Zora Neale Hurston. After the Great Depression many African American southerners became unemployed. In the 1920’s they began to migrate in large numbers to north in search of jobs. Jobs were available in factories and in packing houses. They also left to avoid racial discrimination by groups like the KKK. This migration of African Americans to the north worried northerners because they were afraid that they would lose their jobs when they the southerners came north. They too discriminated against the African Americans though not as openly. This kept most African Americans in overcrowded neighborhoods and they would not allow them to buy a home in a white neighborhood. Zora Neale Hurston herself was a part of the Great Migration when she migrated to the North in 1925 to Harlem, New York which is similar to the setting of Their Eyes Were Watching God.Author Biography
Zora’s style as a writer was to combine literature with anthropology. Zora’s works that gained her attention for the first time were her short stories “John Redding Goes to Sea” and “Spunk”, which appeared in African American literary magazines. Zora completed several sponsored years of anthropological research. Then, in 1934, her first novel Jonah’s Gourd Vine was published. Her later novel Mules and Men was published in 1935.
In 1937, Hurston’s well known novel Their Eyes Were Watching God was published, and in 1938 her travelogue Tell My Horse, was published. Zora’s autobiography Dust Tracks on a Road, was published in 1842 and was a commercial success. Her novel Seraph on the Suwanee, which was published in 1942, received negative feedback.
Hurston believed that blacks could reach sovereignty from white society. Her beliefs were influenced by her hometown, Eatonville. Zora didn’t stress racism of whites towards blacks in her novels, and unfortunately, was pushed aside by black writers who appeared in the civil rights era that was post World War II. Later on, sadly, she died in poverty on January 28th, 1960, in Fort Pierce, Florida.
Works Cited
External Links
Official Zora Neale Hurston Website
The Harlem Renaissance
The Great Migration
The Great Depression