Category: Their Eyes Were Watching God

The characters of Tea Cake and Janie in Zora Neale Hurston’s novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” play a central role. They are both complex characters shaped by their experiences and those around them. The story explores their relationship and its impact on Janie’s personality and her journey to find her identity and purpose. Hurston admits that Janie Crawford has a life divided according to the men who enter her life. Though the central message of the story is about Janie’s independence, it still seems to be doubtful whether her life would be as colorful without all her husbands, different in nature and attitude toward her. This essay provides an analysis of Tea Cake’s character traits and how Janie and her third husband influence each other.

There are three men in Janie’s life: her first husband, Logan Killicks, offered by Nanny, her second husband, Joe Starks, who is cruel and confident, and her third husband, Tea Cake, whom she loves a lot and finds as the only true love in her life. The role of Tea Cake remains to be crucial in the story as well as in the whole life of Janie as his passion, creativity, and desire to create the best living conditions promote safety and comfort that is so necessary for the story. Their Eyes Were Watching God is the story that touches human lives.

Emotions while reading Zora Neale Hurston help to understand the role of Tea Cake. Unfortunately, those readers, who are not able to make use of their feelings while reading, they fail to comprehend the importance of Tea Cake in Janie’s life as well as his abilities to change the development of the events.

The story with several purposes is not only an exciting but educative piece of writing. Zora Neale Hurston does not want to focus on one particular item and its development under the conditions set by society.

The point is that the chosen story is full of captivating flaws, certain imperfections, and even some contradictions which create a kind of challenge that has to be overcome (“Analysis: Finding Shades of Meaning in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God”).

Some so many people want to find true love, happiness, or richness; and the main character of the story seeks to find herself, and the character of Tea Cake aims at helping Janie achieve the goal.

Main themes raised in the text vary considerably and involve the reader in the story. It is hard to understand what the author wants to say by introducing Tea Cake as one of the most influential characters in the novel. On the one hand, some signs of feminism and the desire to achieve independence by means of changing men.

On the other hand, the society in which Tea Cake and Janie have to live in is prejudice by certain racial conflicts. And, finally, a number of psychological aspects and the idea to use human weaknesses and turn them into personal strengths are disclosed in the novel.

The feminism of Janie is a powerful weapon to analyze. Tea Cake shows how respectful and careful a man can be regarding a woman. However, his desire to lead the family is not enough. According to McCredie, the image of Janie introduces a female voice of authority (25), and even such powerful characters like Tea Cake are not able to break the judgments and diminish the role of female dependency.

In addition to feministic ideas, racism is considered to be an integral part of human life. There are three communities which are available to Janie as she marries different people (Crabtree 56). These communities introduce different attitudes to the role of a woman in society as well as the backgrounds of the relations which have to be developed between a male and a female.

Finally, the reader gets a good chance to learn how some people’s weaknesses promote the development of other people strengths. For example, Janie’s weakness concerning inabilities to find herself make Tea Cake more powerful in his intentions to protect Janie and create appropriate living conditions for her. And Tea Cake’s weakness concerning the inability to control his power makes Janie more confident and prudent.

During the whole novel, Tea Cake may be accepted as a stimulator of Janie’s life. Though Janie understands the truth and realizes that certain age differences may become a problem in their lives, she is ready to take a risk and believe in safer future for herself, her love, and her convictions. “Ah’m older than Tea Cake, yes.

But he done showed me where it’s de thought dat makes de difference in ages. If people think de same they can make it all right” (Hurston 115). Tea Cake’s desire to destroy any possible barriers on his way to happiness with Janie turns out to be so powerful that it helps Janie understand that there is nothing bad or wrong in their relations in case they are built on genuine feelings, understanding, and respect.

Personal experience of the author plays an essential role in the story as well. Zora Neale Hurston sees the cruelty inherent to the lives of many black women and the impact of men’s activities in society. She does not want to follow the requirements set by society. What she wants is to create an image of a woman that can break the rules and choose her independent way to success and satisfaction. And the role of Tea Cake is not the last in this way.

His presence makes Janie more confident in her desire to gain independence, and his support makes her believe that her ideas make sense and may come true soon. However, at the same time, Tea Cake does not want to leave Janie and chooses a form of control that is not always clear to the reader.

Main traits of Tea Cake impress the reader with its diversity. This character may become cruel and tentative, fair and absent-minded, loving and independent, serious and playful. Tea Cake’s creativity is the key to Janie’s development. Janie finds him creative as he as no one else supports the desire to be developed and probe the world around.

Playful behavior of Tea Cake makes him noticeable. For a long time, Janie’s life has been controlled by cruel men whose main goals were to have obedient wives, own business, and be able to manage the relations which are developed in families.

However, Tea Cake’s play with Janie is regarded as a new perspective, a new idea that has not been used before, and Janie is captivated with the offered methods. She is ready to accept the play by Tea Cake and try to change her life for the better. Respect turns out to be another powerful aspect of human relations. In comparison to the previous husbands of Janie, Tea Cake is attractive to the reader due to his respect for women. He does not want to create certain boundaries which allow men to take control of their women.

At the very beginning of their relations, Janie accepts Tea Cake as an integral part of her life and the feeling as they have already known each other a lot (Hurston 99). There are many such cases when the characters are not ready for everything that happens to them. Still, they have to accept reality as it is.

Unpredictable accidents define the quality of a human sense of self in the story. The unforeseen departure of Janie’s mother, sudden kiss noticed by Nanny, meeting with Joe Starks, or song gifted by Tea Cake as the beginning of the most important relations – Janie could not predict all this. Still, these very events influence her perception of life and her role in the world. The role of Tea Cake is vital yet not indispensable.

During the whole life, Janie gets evidence with the help of which she understands her financial independence. Of course, Tea Cake helps Janie understand that she can be free and happy with a man. Still, he should not be the only man in her life. This is why several critics admit that Tea Cake becomes an important figure in the novel. However, he is not too much important in Janie’s life.

Janie feels better with Tea Cake. However, it is evident that she is fine without him. She has already achieved a lot in her life: she gained certain financial independence, she knows how it is difficult for a black woman to gain recognition in the society full of prejudice and misunderstandings. Though Janie finds Tea Cake a reliable person with some positive traits, she cannot trust him entirely as she is afraid to become dependent on his words, ideas, and actions.

Tea Cake supports the idea to comprehend how one may see things that connect two characters (Wolff 31). This character is attractive due to his desire to create the conditions under which different people may feel comfortable. He does not focus on the methods used to achieve his goals as he tries to help people discover the most powerful sides of their characters and use them for good.

Tea Cake’s ability to create the world he and Janie are dreaming about remains to be an essential point in the novel. When Janie was a young girl, she had to perform the roles defined by her grandmother, first, and second husbands. She had nothing to do but accept the duties set. And with Tea Cake, Janie gets a chance to create the world and define the responsibilities on her own. This is why one of the main purposes of Tea Cake is to give opportunities which are so necessary for such people like Janie.

Though some critics admit that Tea Cake differs a lot from the previous husbands of Janie (Crabtree 60), still, Tea Cake and other husbands of the main characters have several things in common. First, Tea Cake wants to gain a specific portion of control over Janie. Second, this character continues putting his demands in the first place. And finally, he tries to help Janie as he still believes that his help is integral for her and no one else could provide the required assistance.

Beating Janie is defined as a possibility to establish a kind of claim on his wife (McCredie 28). This gesture may signify several things. On the one hand, Tea Cake still possesses some traits which inherent to males. On the other hand, male power is probably the only possibility to prove that men are not to gain control over all things in their lives.

The desire to protect the wife does not always have the required limitations and turns out to be a weakness of a man. It is hard for men to make quick decisions and consider their possibilities regarding women. This is why such characters like Tea Cake may be rather impulsive, and it is not always possible to control emotions under different conditions. Another significant point concerning the role of Tea Cake in the story is his direct influence on other characters.

Tea Cake’s love makes Janie lose herself again (“Analysis: Finding Shades of Meaning in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God”). The more time Janie spends with Tea Cake, the more confident she becomes about her dependency on this man. She is in love, and this love makes her weaker and even blind.

She does not want to see the evidence that she recently gained a sense of self is disappearing; this is why some urgent actions have to be taken. The unimportance of Tea Cake as a character is proved as soon as Janie shoots her husband because of self-defensive reasons.

The death of Tea Cake is another important step in Janie’s life that has to make her more powerful (Crabtree 57). This action is motivated by a rather selfish feeling – the desire to save her life as she “saw the ferocious look in his eyes and went mad with fear” (Hurston 184). She forgets her functions of a devoted wife, and what she remembers is that she is a human being, and Tea Cake is another challenge that has to be overcome.

Tea Cake and Janie are the two characters which show how dependent human life can be. There are many reasons why this novel of an African American writer has to be read and understood. First, this is a story about human life, its challenges, and peculiarities. Reading this work, it is possible to realize why there are so many people, who remain to be dependent on personal weaknesses and uncertainties. Another reason is about the properly chosen characters and the definition of the roles in the story.

The character of Tea Cake and his role in Janie’s life become rather important. He proves that in spite of human desire to become independent and create life in accordance to personal demands and ideas, people remain to be dependent on the events and circumstances around. Though it is not an easy thing, it is hard to avoid it.

Works Cited

“Analysis: Finding Shades of Meaning in Zora Neale Hurston’s ‘Their Eyes Were Watching God’.” Talk of the Nation. 17 Feb. 2000. Web.

Crabtree, Claire. “The Confluence of Folklore, Feminism and Black Self-Determination in Zora Neale Hurston’s ‘Their Eyes Were Watching God’.” Contemporary Literary Criticism 17.2 (1985): 54-66.

Hurston, Zora, Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 1998.

McCredie, Wendy, J. “Authority and Authorization in Their Eyes Were Watching God.” Black American Literature Forum 16.1 (1982): 25-28.

Wolff, Maria, Tai. “Listening and Living: Reading and Experience in Their Eyes Were Watching God.” Black American Literature Forum 16.1 (1982): 29-33.

The notions of freedom and independence are rather controversial ones. The problem is rooted in the thing that everyone sees these notions in his or her own way. It often happens that freedom and independence as one person understand them cannot be offered to him or her just because the people around have a bit different assumption of these values.

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston presents the reader an opportunity to consider these notions as the main character, Janie Crawford, sees them. The reader observes Janie’s search for her freedom and independence, thus being encouraged to appreciate their significance in one’s own life.

The novel is concerned with a story of Janie’s life. She is a black woman living in the town of Eaton where the back-white relations remain a serious problem:

It was the time for sitting on porches beside the road. It was the time to hear things and talk. These sitters had been tongueless, earless, eyeless conveniences all day long. Mules and other brutes had occupied their skins. But now, the sun and the bossman were gone, so the skins felt powerful and human. They became lords of sounds and lesser things. They passed nations through their mouths. They sat in judgment (Hurston 2).

The object of judgment was a woman who searched her personal happiness in three marriages and was tried for the murder of one of her husbands. Though Janie does not feel her duty to clear out herself, she explains the story of her life to her friend. We are inclined to believe that she did it to better understand herself and to ensure that her actions were justified.

Janie seems to be a person whose feelings and minds always contradicted each other. She had a philosophical assumption of her life: “Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone. Dawn and doom were in the branches” (Hurston 8), but she refused to be a leaf blown by the wind.

The reader observes the development of Janie’s character and the changes in her attitude to life. Since childhood Janie did not realize her identity: she knew neither that she was black nor her own name. Her mother’s story made her believe that to marry does not necessarily mean to be in love. When it comes to expressing herself Janie hides her personality.

Janie’s second marriage was her first radical step in searching for her freedom. Though the second Janie’s husband Joe was always restricting her, he played a crucial role in her self-development. The moment when Janie refuses to keep her hair tied as her husband asks, serves as a pivotal moment in her understanding of the feeling of personal freedom. After Joe’s death, she feels free of the restrictions placed by Joe and decides to start a new life where she will do what she wants to.

Soon, Janie realizes that her grandmother’s idea about finding and fulfilling the dreams contradicts her views. Her most cherished dream was real love which meant freedom for her. Janie got one more chance to become free and happy – she went off and married Tea Cake. Despite the public opinion, that was real love.

We believe that the person who is capable of love and does not hesitate to demonstrate one’s feelings can be called a really free one. Though love presupposes some voluntary interdependence, those who once feel it does not worry about the problems that human life is full of. A person in love is inspired by this feeling so that he or she feels absolutely free. Since Janie got her love more and more often she looked at the mirror and realized her right for happiness.

Though Janie was absolutely happy with the man near her, Janie’s life did not stop to put difficulties: a great hurricane, a rabid dog – these all hardened Janie’s character and made her power to resist the problems. But Janie’s destiny was really hard on her – killing the one man that she really loved made Janie broken-hearted. Still, the trial found Janie innocent and this gave her the power to live further.

As we do not differentiate between Janie’s love and her independence, she remained independent as she remained faithful to her beloved and to her idea of real love. She feels that Tea Cake is still with her and is satisfied by this fact. Thus, we may say that she succeeded in her search for love and independence that meant the same thing for her.

The Their Eyes Were Watching God makes the reader admire the main character’s yearning for freedom and evokes his or her burning desire to build one’s own happiness as Janie did.

Works Cited

Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. Harper Perennial Modern Classics,1998.

Their Eyes Were Watching God is a novel written by Zora Neale Hurston in 1937. It is a story about an African American woman, Janie Crawford, her lifelong search for love and self-assertion.

In 1937, the times of the Great Depression, the novel did not get recognition as it gets today. Black people criticized the ideas presented in the story a lot. They said that Hurston had not underlined the real treatment of whites to South blacks. They argued that demoralization had not been described as it was in real. Only in the 1970s, the book was rediscovered and began studied by students. The essay on Their Eyes Were Watching God shall analyze Hurston’s story about African American women in 1930s.

One of the peculiar features of the work is the form chosen by the author. Hurston begins and ends the story with one and the same setting and people. The main character, Janie, tells the story of her life to one of her friends, Pheoby Watson.

Her story is a kind of trip to Janie’s past life via a huge flashback.

General Analysis

To describe Janie’s story of life, the author uses a high number of metaphors and symbolism. First of all, it is necessary to clear up what a metaphor actually means.

“In cognitive linguistic view, metaphor is defined as understanding one conceptual domain of another conceptual domain.” (Kövecses 4)

In the novel, there are three brightest examples of metaphors: a pear tree, the image of the horizon, and mules. Two first examples are about Janie’s dreams and hopes. Janie climbs the pear tree to see the horizon. She wants to know what else is around her. She has a dream to make a trip and discover what is so special beyond the horizon.

The third example of metaphor, a mule, is an image of African American’s status during the Great Depression. Hurston tries to underline the plight of African American workers by comparing them with the mules.

Mule as a Main Symbol in the Story

The literary analysis essay on Their Eyes Were Watching God evidences consistent usage of symbolism in the novel.The image of mules represents Janie’s life, her searching, and her social status. Actually, mules represent Janie’s position in several ways.

With each stage of her life, Janie realizes more and more that her life is almost like the life of an ordinary mule. When Janie is a child, her grandmother, Nanny, usually compares black women and mules. She says: “De nigger woman is de mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see” (Hurston 14). Nanny tries to explain to her granddaughter how helpless the status of African American women in society is.

Nanny does not see another way for a good and free life for her Janie but a marriage. It is not that important to marry for love and happiness. Granny tells that love and joy may come with time. A family is the very place where true love will appear. This is why Nanny finds a good option for her daughter.

Inexperienced Janie has nothing to do but obey her granny, and she agrees to get married to Logan Killicks, an old farmer who needs a wife to keep the house and helps on the farm. She truly believes that in this marriage, she will find true love and become happy. Unfortunately, it was only her dreams.

Just like a mule, Janie is forced to work in the field with her husband. Janie continues to believe that, working together, she will be able to become closer to her husband. However, being closer was not the objective of her husband. The primary purpose that Logan wants to achieve is his financial prosperity, nothing more. Janie cannot stand such an attitude anymore. The only way she sees is to leave her husband and start a new life. She desperately thinks that her new lover, Jody Starks, will help her.

They come to a new town, where Jody becomes a major. However, the situation does not change considerably. Now, Janie’s role is to be a trophy wife.

A situation with Matt Bonner’s mule can serve as one more example to find more connection between the life of the mule and Janie’s life.

As is clear from the summary, Jody Starks tempted Janie with his money and burning ambitions. He made her fall in love with him and took away from the husband. The same thing happens with Bonner’s mule. He buys the mule and takes it away from Bonner just to make it his property. This mule becomes one of the major themes for discussions. It is a centerpiece of the town, as well as Janie (because she is a major’s wife).

“The association between the mule’s liberation and its release from the debt of slavery comments in interesting ways on Janie’s own life history.” (Joseph 146).

Janie feels sorry for that poor mule. Maybe, it happens because she compares herself with it. She also suffers from abuse and sneers from other people. She cannot get into a way of being a major’s wife, listening, and obeying each word of her husband. Even though she has a better job (now, she should not work in the field but in the office), she does not feel satisfied. Such a “golden cage” is not for her.

It is also essential to underline one more situation that happens with Bonner’s mule and Janie. When the mule died, Jody does not allow Janie to go to the funeral. What are the reasons for such a decision? It is so evident that the mule symbolizes Janie’s life. In this case, why does Jody allow the mule to die and be eaten by the birds? Does he want the same destiny for his wife? Or, can it be that Jody wants to prove that even after the death, he can control the situation?

However, in any case, the mule’s death is a symbol of Janie’s freeing, at least, her soul. This death changes Janie in some way. Now, she is more or less ready to leave Jody and continue her search for freedom and happiness.

There is one more thing that needs to be considered – the color of Matt Bonner’s mule. It was yellow. Yellow is referred to light-skinned African Americans, just like Janie Crawford is. Is it a coincidence or one more technique used by the author? Maybe, it is one more attempt to underline an unbelievable resemblance to the status of an African American woman and a working mule.

Of course, the way Hurston chooses to describe the status of working black women was a bit offensive. To represent the terrible attitude of whites to black workers, the writer picks out mules. These animals have to obey their masters. They have nothing to do but work all the time.

In Their Eyes Were Watching God resolution,the main character of the novel, Janie Crawford, should follow the same way. She wants to find true love and become free as it is in human nature. Unfortunately, her path is not that easy. Too many obstacles are in her way.

“Hurston’s heroine, Janie, progresses through a series of destructive relationships with men before finally choosing solitude and reflection as the resolution to her quest.” (Nash 74)

At the end of the story, Janie kills her true love. She has to do it to save her own life. Such a decision is the brightest evidence of her strengths and her only desire to survive and be free.

Novel Criticism

Zora Hurston created the novel during the times of the Great Depression. These were the times when African American female writers were rather rare. Because of serious critiques and discontents of either whites or blacks, lots of her works were overlooked and even not published.

In the 1970s, Alice Walker reintroduced Hurston’s works. She wrote: “Her best novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), is regarded as one of the most poetic works of fiction by a black writer in the first half of the twentieth century, and one of the most revealing treatments in modern literature of a woman’s quest for a satisfying life.” (Walker A. 6)

Conclusion

Zora Hurston described Janie as a strong and courageous woman who never stopped her searching for independence and happiness. It was an unusual theme for those times. The essay on Their Eyes Were Watching God showed that the vast majority of African American women could not demonstrate their characters and represent their own ideas at the time. It was a risky step, and the writer was not afraid to take it. Her attempt may be justified as the book is great, and all the techniques are appropriately used.

Work Cited

Joseph, Philip. American Literary Regionalism in a Global Age. United States: LSU Press, 2007.

Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. United States: University of Illinois Press, 1991.

Hemenway, Robert. E. and Walker A. Zora Hurston: A Literary Biography. United States: University of Illinois Press, 1980.

Kövecses, Zoltán. Metaphor: A Practical Introduction. United States: Oxford University Press US, 2002.

Nash, William R. Charles Johnson’s Fiction. United States: University of Illinois Press, 2003.

Their Eyes Were Watching God is a novel written by an African-American writer Zora Neale Hurston. This book secures a special place in American literature and remains the most famous work of the author. In this essay, the summary of the narrative and description of the main characters and themes will be provided. In addition, personal opinion on the novel will be included at the end of the paper.

The Summary of the Novel

The narrative represents a life story of a middle-aged woman, Janie Crawford, who was brought up by her grandmother, Nanny. Trying to build a better life for Janie, Nanny arranges her marriage with an old farm worker, Logan Killicks. This alliance, however, does not bring happiness for Janie, who is looking for love. Being a very pragmatic and cold man, Logan expects his wife to be a hard farmworker rather than a life partner.

After Nanny’s death, Janie decides to leave Logan and runs away to Eatonville with another man, Joe Starks. In Eatonville, Joe becomes a successful businessman and achieves recognition and respect for residents. Soon, Janie realizes that Joe does no treat her well and tries to control everything that she does. Even though they are married for a long time, this marriage turns out to be a torture for Janie as Joe starts hitting her and suppressing emotionally. Later, Joe dies of kidney disease, and Janie gains financial independence.

In some time, Janie meets a young and attractive man, Vergible Woods, and falls in love with him. He becomes her third husband, who she marries for love as she was always dreaming about. Unfortunately, this marriage does not bring much joy to Janie’s life either. One day, during the hurricane in Florida, her husband gets bitten by a rabid dog, which resulted in his aggressive and unpredictable behavior. Being unable to control his anger, Vergible initiates arguments and tries to kill Janie. During one of these disputes, she defenses herself and accidentally shoots Vergible. The story ends when Janie returns to Eatonville after her husband’s funeral.

The Main Characters and Theme of the Book

The protagonist of the story, Janie Crawford, is a very naïve and dreamy girl who believes in marriage for love. However, as the narrative develops, and she becomes older, readers can notice transformations in her personality. Being married three times, she is always under the pressure of gender norms and physical abuse from her husbands. Trying to change her life for the better, Janie struggles to find a partner who would treat her equally. While the first husband tries to force her to work hard on the farm, the second one treats her as his possession rather than a human being. Only during her third marriage, Janie experiences true love and equal treatment, but she is still easily manipulated by her spouse. Throughout the narrative, Janie tries to be independent, stay true to herself, and build a family based on equality and partnership. Her freedom-loving character is shown through Janie’s thoughts about life that is described in the novel numerous times. For instance, she advises her friend to never listen to the opinions of other people, but go and see if she wants to know something. “Pheoby, you got to go there to know there. Yo papa and yo’ mamma and nobody else can’t tell yuh and show yuh” (Hurston 199). Therefore, Janie’s view of life becomes one of the main reasons for the collapse of her marriages.

There are three other main characters of the narrative, who are three husbands of Janie. Logan Killicks, her first spouse, is an old man who has traditional views on marriage. He expects Janie to obey all his orders and always work hard, spending time either at home or at the farm. Trying to gain independence, Janie runs away with Joe Starks, her second spouse. Being a confident and smart man, he quickly convinces Janie to become his wife. The main goal of his life is to be rich, gain power, and support his status as a very important person. Therefore, Janie is just one of the puzzles he needs to create an ideal image of an authoritative figure. When Janie meets her third husband, an attractive, young, and funny Vergible Woods, she falls in love and feels so happy. He is a gentle and charismatic man who plays the role of Janie’s teacher. Unlike her first husband, Logan, Vergible is always ready to talk, to explain her something, or spend some time together. Living with him, Janie can break gender division by playing checkers or learning how to shoot (Hozhabrossadat 125). However, even Vergible possesses some similar traits of the previous husbands of Janie. He is jealous, intolerant, and always tries to control her.

One of the main themes of the book turned out to be self-realization. For the long-time, the main character of the story lives her life following her feelings. She understands the relationship between self and voice in feminist processes (Ayan 217).In her attempts to get rid of dictatorship from men, she is always ready to make desperate moves and try new things. To identify her true nature, Janie refuses for stability, wealth, and status, escaping from control and poor treatment of men around her.

The author pays particular attention to relationships between men and women and gender inequality. Throughout the narration, Janie wants to “be heard in a society which is dominated by male norms and values” (Fard and Zarrinjooee 97). All husbands of Janie express intolerance to her attempts to be independent or to give an opinion about something. Moreover, some of them treat her as their possession that has to obey their rules and do whatever they wish. Eventually, Janie realizes that it does not matter if a woman marries for love or stability as she can always face inequality and unfair treatment from men.

Personal Opinion on the Novel

Even though this novel narrates the life story of a woman, I think it is crucial for men to read stories like this as well. First of all, it helps men to understand females better and avoid arguments between genders. Second, it shows that the poor treatment of women by men can lead to inevitable consequences, which may negatively affect the whole life of a human being. However, in my point of view, not only men can be blamed for the collapse of marriages described in the book. The protagonist of the story, trying to pursue her own goals, never tries to understand her spouses and be a good wife, except for the case with her third husband. Every time, when there is an opportunity, she leaves her spouses for another man.

Conclusion

Their Eyes Were Watching God is a life story of a typical American woman of the 20th century who experience poor treatment and physical and emotional abuse from her husbands. Unfortunately, there is still a lot of evidence of gender inequality and women’s oppression in many countries around the world. Therefore, the main themes of this book remain topical even nowadays, almost a hundred years after its first publication.

Works Cited

Ayan, Meryem. “Marriage Confinement and Female Resistance in Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God.” English Studies: New Perspectives, edited by Mehmet Celikel and Baysar Taniyan. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2015, pp. 207–219.

Fard, Zahra, and Bahman Zarrinjooee. “A Quest for Identity in Zora Neal Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God.” International Journal of Literature and Arts, vol. 2, no. 4, 2014, pp. 92–97.

Hozhabrossadat, Sepideh. “Illuminating Nature and Gender Trouble in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God.” International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature, vol. 4, no. 5, 2015, pp. 124–128.

Hurston, Zora. Their Eyes Were Watching God. Reissue ed., Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2013.

The novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, describes the life of an African American girl by the name Janie, who has to undergo through numerous challenges, including three marriages, before realizing her desire for independence, empowerment, and happiness. One of the most influential male characters in her life is Vergible Woods, who is commonly known as Tea Cake. Tea Cake is Janie’s third husband, the first two being Logan Killicks and Joe Starks. The relationship between Janie and Tea Cake starts at Jacksonville when the two meet after the death of Janie’s former husband Logan, and they finally settle down at Everglades or “the muck”. The following paper will demonstrate the influence of Tea Cake in Janie’s life, including how he contributes towards Janie’s independence and self-actualization.

Tea Cake works at the railroad and spends most of his part-time gambling or playing his guitar. His simple character and easy manners make him attractive to Janie, who has hitherto experienced harshness from his former lovers. Also, he is young and nearly the same age as Janie. His love for beauty and nature makes it possible for the two to mingle easily with minimal conflicts. One of the common traits identifiable in Tea Cake is carelessness. When Janie decides to move in with Tea Cake, she secretly conceals two hundred dollars in her shirt pocket, and fears to reveal the secret to Tea Cake. However, Tea Cake soon finds the money and spends it with railroad workmates without Janie’s approval. Despite being aware of the risks involved in squandering Janie’s money on a big chicken and macaroni, he does not seem to care but proceeds with his careless life. Besides, he spends most of the time gambling, rather than spending time with his lover.

The love between Tea Cake and Janie is however dominated by happiness, although there are some short-lived conflicts. Tea Cake takes the domineering role throughout their relationship, but the happiness he brings to Janie makes the inequality insignificant. Unlike Janie’s former husbands, Tea Cake’s simple life serves as an advantage in Janie’s quest for true love and independence. Rather than discouraging her efforts in self-actualization, he plays a supportive role and encourages her to be resilient. After realizing his mistake with the hidden cash, he promises to reimburse through gambling. Also, he promises Janie that rather than using her savings in the bank, he would get work to provide for their needs. To prove his commitment to change, they both relocate to Everglades or “the muck”, where Tea Cake picks beans during the day and heads on to gamble and play guitar at night.

Tea Cake’s character fits Janie’s dream of a perfect lover. In him, she finds happiness, love, and an individual who appreciates her desire to develop. Since childhood, Janie always believed that a perfect marriage required true love and had hitherto not experienced the feelings she had for Tea Cake. The same feelings of ever finding true love emerge when Janie sits under the pear tree and starts to meditate over the joy of life. On his part, Tea Cake also has a genuine love for Janie, since as the narrator affirms, he feels lonely being away from his wife, and that is why he decides to increase the time spent with her at home. The confession of loneliness notwithstanding, Tea Cake’s absenteeism from Janie’s life increases her desire and love for him. The more he stays away gambling, the more she desires and longs for him, and the more she loves him. This is demonstrated in the type of food she prepares for him, while he spends his evening’s gambling and playing his guitar.

Tea Cake’s contribution to Janie’s empowerment is demonstrated when she teaches her to use a gun and play checkers. Although Janie emerges as a better hunter than Tea Cake, this does not deter him from encouraging her to press on. Besides, he offers her an opportunity to act out of her own will, when they relocate to Everglades. From his simplicity and sense of freedom, Janie acquires a different personality and starts to appreciate life in its simplest form. His love for nature and beauty strengthens their bond since Janie finds a partner who appreciates her desires and passion.

Also, she becomes independent in her decisions, since she does not have to rely on Tea Cake to make some personal decisions. Her empowerment is demonstrated when Tea Cake is attacked by a rabid dog and due to the infection, tries to shoot Janie. However, she uses her acquired shooting skills to defend herself, killing him in self-defense. During the trial, Janie is acquitted based on her argument and strong personality, which she had acquired while living with Tea Cake. Tea Cake’s role in the novel is therefore to empower Janie and increase her happiness. Through his crazy character, Janie finds someone in whom she takes pride. Besides, the freedom accorded to her makes her pursue her desires and interests while living within her long-time childhood dream.

In the novel, Their Eyes were Watching God, Jody Sparks, popularly known as Joe Sparks, has a significant influence on Janie’s life. Joe Sparks is Janie’s second husband and the two meet when Janie is on the verge of breaking up from the first marriage. Joe is a charismatic young man, who possesses rich entrepreneurial skills. His charisma convinces Janie that he is the man of her dreams and she agrees to run away with her to Eatonville. He is therefore an opportunistic person, who identifies an emotional weakness in Janie and capitalizes on every moment that can undermine her empowerment. He is bossy and exerts power on everyone including Janie, hindering her empowerment, independence, and freedom. His actions leave Janie desperate for love, disappointed, and emotionally distanced.

Joe’s entry into Janie’s life is at an appropriate moment, since Janie is on the verge of breaking up with her former husband due to mistreatment, and Joe creates the opportunity that Janie has been waiting for. Joe appears as the perfect husband to Janie, since according to the author, Janie gets attracted to him at first sight. His physique and charisma mislead Janie to think of him as a perfect lover, who can treat her the way she has always desired. To prove his point, he convinces Janie to run away with him and start a new life at Eatonville. Initially, their love life seems perfect, until Joe starts revealing his true character.

Joe is bossy, suffers from a superiority complex, and has poor communication skills. Upon arriving at Eatonville, his first move is to relocate some town dwellers to find space for constructing his businesses. He cares less about other people’s welfare since he is self-centered and selfish. These characteristics are not only evident in his business practices, but also at home. While Janie always desires for independence and freedom, Joe is against any of these. He considers Janie as his property, and hence expects no demands from her. Also, he dictates upon her the types of clothes and headscarves to wear, despite Janie having beautiful and straight hair that resembles the Caucasians.

The superiority complex in Joe extends the emotional gap existing between the couple since he does not seem ready to give in to emotional demands, which are significant in any relationship. When Janie accompanies Joe to some of the mayoral functions, he expects her to dress according to his will, as a show of power and might. He considers Janie as part of his lucrative businesses. Janie has no right to participate in any decision-making process and is expected to operate according to the decisions of the master.

Janie’s wish has been to find true love in a man, who appreciates and supports her quest for empowerment. However, Joe provides the opposite. His unspoken rule is that as long as he is in control, he does not expect any other person to speak, act, or behave in a way contrary to his will. When he becomes mayor, for example, he considers Janie, not as his wife, but as a symbol of what a mayor’s wife should look like. Joe’s emotional attachment to his wife is therefore confined within the helms of power and cannot tolerate or support Janie’s empowered and personal independence. When Eatonville’s popular mule dies, Janie wants to take part in the historic procession to interact with the community, but Joe denies her permission. By being confined within the domineering rules of her husband, Janie grows emotionally weak and nearly loses hope of ever pursuing her dreams.

Janie’s freedom to interact with other members of the community is affected by Joe’s covetousness. Heis jealous that Janie would be lured by other men and leave him, and hence makes sure that her movements are monitored, modes of clothing regulated and her speeches minimized. Joe expects Janie to live within a strict set of rules, with her only expected contribution being to be submissive and obedient. Any other attempt to cultivate her freedom is met with hostility. In one instance, Joe slaps Janie after complaining that his food is not up to the expected standards. Janie only gets an opportunity to express her feelings towards Joe at his deathbed. After realizing that Joe is now weak and yielding, Janie gets the courage to speak out about the mistreatments, oppression, and emotional disintegration.

Throughout the story, Janie is brought out as unhappy, desperate, and emotionally disturbed by Joe’s approach to love, independence, and freedom. Joe’s behavior of exerting power on Janie and considering her as part of his property rather than his wife limits Janie’s emotional and personal growth. Her freedom is confined within the rules of one individual, who disregards other people’s desires and always prioritizes his needs at the expense of others. While Janie expected Joe to be considerate, loving, and caring, he turned out to be oppressive, domineering, and emotionally detached.

Zora Neale Hurston was one of the greatest writers of her time. A lot of her literary works received outstanding appreciation from both her readers and other literal writers. In her career as a writer, Zora Hurston wrote a total of seven books. She further wrote innumerable short stories, magazine articles and play scripts. One of her most celebrated works is the book titled Their Eyes Were Watching God. This essay will give a short account of Zora Hurston’s life in relation to her career. It will further discuss various aspects of the above book that later led to the creation of a movie.

Zora Neale Hurston was unquestionably the leading black female writer of her time (Jones 23). Her excellent creativity and beautiful description saw the development of her career as a writer from one level to another. She was part of a consortium of African American writers in the first half of the twentieth century. The writers were actively involved in the fight against racism. Most of her magazine articles and plays focused on the issue of discrimination and racial segregation in the United States of America.

Hurston’s career underwent a series of transformations. While she started off by predominantly writing short stories, she ended up writing as a folklorist, a novelist and finally as an anthropologist. However, her writing style remained intact and captivating to her readers (Louis 17). In this process, Hurston also collaborated with other African American writers. For instance, she was once a contributor to Charles Johnson’s “A journal of Negro Life.” She also produced other works with the likes of Langston Hughes and George Antheil.

Nevertheless, Hurston’s popularity in the literary world declined over time. Her works failed to hold the attention of the literary world for long. Her career life was also interrupted by her prolonged illness that led to her death. Her death further reduced the popularity of her works until the release of her biography in 1977.

In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston tells the story of a young lady who is caught between love, materialism and male chauvinism. Janie, who is brought up by her grandmother after her mother runs off, is an attractive young black girl with big dreams about life. She aims at living a life full of explorations, freedom and happiness. However, her dreams are almost shattered when Nanny, her grandmother, forces her to marry Logan, a rich middle-aged man.

Nanny’s action is propelled by her desire to guarantee a good life and a high social status for her granddaughter. However, Janie treasures love above material things and she leaves Logan for Jody, an ambitious young man. Two decades into their marriage, Joddy dies, freeing Janie from his dictatorship. Janie finally finds Tea Cake, marries him and moves to another town. However, through a strange turn of events, Janie is obliged to kill Tea Cake for her own safety. She returns to her previous home where she faces mockery from her neighbors.

Several scenes in the movie portray Janie’s resolution to make a spiritual journey towards love and self-awareness. The flirting moments between Janie and Jody is an example of such a scene. Having been fed up with staying in a loveless marriage with Logan, Janie decides to take a spiritual journey that enables her to discover the true meaning and feeling of love. The encounter with Jody marks the beginning of this journey. Furthermore, the scene where Janie makes the final decision to leave Logan marks the beginning of her journey to find love. Another scene of a spiritual journey to love is the sweet conversation that Janie has with Tea Cake during their dates. The atmosphere created by Tea Cake’s jokes and charms portrays a relationship based on true love. Janie finds Tea Cake to be imaginative and creative which suits her description of an ideal man. The mutual attraction felt by the two creates a scene that depicts real love. The scene where Janie publicly shames Jody by remarking about his ugly nature and his impotence is the beginning of Janie’s journey to self-awareness. This comes after Janie decides that she is no longer in a position to put up with Jody’s domineering and suppressive character traits.

Janie’s appreciation of her independence is depicted when she refuses to be bound to Logan for the rest of her life because of material things. Since she was never independent at Logan’s house, Janie longed for a time when she will be able to do what she chooses to do. Her appreciation of independence makes her leave Logan for a man whom she hoped to enjoy freedom with. Secondly, Janie recognizes and appreciates the need for her self-independence when she decides to break loose from the restrictions and dictations stipulated by Jody. She acknowledges the fact that in order to be free, she has to stop giving Jody the opportunity to control her. Lastly, Janie gives an indication that she appreciates her self-independence when she turns down the marriage proposals from numerous suitors after Jody’s funeral. After being denied freedom by the two men consecutively, jeopardizing her new found freedom was the last thing on Janie’s mind. In fact, she only gives marriage a try after she is assured of happy times with Tea Cake.

Janie exhibits women agency throughout the story. The manner in which she reacts to different circumstances and makes decisions presents her as a typical woman. For instance, her refusal to accompany Jody to the farm is expected from a woman. Janie is therefore an epitome of any woman who refuses to let her course of action be influenced by men. Janie rashly gets attracted to Jody’s good looks and charm and makes a hasty decision to marry him. This rash decision costs her freedom for twenty years. It is also typical of a majority of women to make impetuous decisions when it comes to love and relationship matters. Janie also depicts the features of women agency when she gets fed up with the unexpected directions of her two marriages. Her decision to leave the marriages is final. Likewise, most women make such decisions when faced with similar circumstances. Janie’s decisions are therefore a representation of the general agency of women.

In conclusion, the story remains important to the traditions of black women by developing primary features of women agency. The story also gives an insight into how things were done in the first half of the twentieth century. Furthermore, the story emphasizes the strength that a woman can acquire through the process of self-awareness and appreciation of self-independence.

Works Cited

Jones, Sharon. Critical Companion to Zora Neale Hurston. New York, NY: Facts on File, Inc., 2009. Print.

Louis, Gates. Zora Neale Hurston: Critical Perspectives Past and Present. New York: Amistad, 1993. Print.

Introduction

Zora Neale Hurston was a proclaimed novelist, folklorist, and anthropologist whose artistic contribution in the Harlem renaissance was outstandingly evident. She was the fifth-born child to John Hurston, a Baptist preacher and a carpenter, and Lucy Potts Hurston, a schoolteacher. Zora Neale Hurston was born in Notasulga, Alabama on January 7, 1891.

The family relocated to “Eatonville, Florida, which was the first all-Black town to be incorporated in the United States, while she was still a toddler” (Ellis, 2009, p.20). They were eight children in the family. As Hurston later glorifies in her literary works, the town was the first to offer African Americans the chance to live freely and independent of the Whites, as they desired.

This assertion is depicted in most of her fictional works, as it is the setting for most of her stories. Her father later on became the mayor of the town. Despite the fact that the actual birth year of Zora Neale Hurston was in 1891, 1901 became the year of her birth throughout her life.

There was a significant happening in her life that year, which is argued as the reason behind her decision. In 1901, some schoolteachers from the north visited her hometown, and she was lucky to get some books that sparked her interest in literature (Baym, 2003, p.11).

In-Depth Look into the Life of Zora Neale Hurston

In an essay she wrote in 1928 titled “How It Feels to Be Colored Me”, Hurston describes her childhood in Eatonville as easy considering that she grew surrounded by the people who supported her, and the discrimination that was taking place elsewhere was not a reality in her hometown.

This, however, changed in 1904 when her mother died and the father remarried soon afterwards to a young lady named Matte Moge (Ellis, 2009, p.22). There were rumors that Zora Neale’s father Mr. Hurston had an affair with Moge even before the wife died.

Zora had a rough time living with the father and step- mother and later she was sent to a boarding school in Jacksonville, Florida. Mr. Hurston stopped paying his daughter’s school fees, and after a while, the school had to send her home. She worked as a barmaid for a while before joining the Gilbert & Sullivan travelling troupe where she worked as a maid to the lead artist (Jones, 2009, p. 12).

Her desire to accomplish her education led her to cut ten years off her actual age in order to qualify for the free public schooling. She then joined the high school division of the Morgan College in Baltimore, Maryland. From that time henceforth, she started claiming 1901 to be her year of birth. Hurston graduated from Morgan Academy in the year 1918.

Hurston joined Howard University in 1918 where she co-founded the University students’ newspaper named “The Hilltop” and later on graduated from the University with an Associate’s degree. While in Howard, Hurston took Spanish, English, Greek, and some courses in public speaking. After successfully applying by writing an essay, Hurston got the chance to join Alaine Locke’s literary club named ‘The Stylus’.

Hurston left Howard “later on in 1924 and the following year she got a scholarship to join the white dominated Barnard College” (Hemenway, 1977, p.45). She studied anthropology, and it is here where she met Franz Boas of Columbia University as she assisted him in conducting ethnographic studies.

She graduated in 1927 aged thirty-six with a B.A in anthropology. Hurston lived for extra two years in Columbia after graduating from Barnard (Ellis, 2009, p.20).

As an adult, Hurston married a former schoolmate at Howard named Herbert Sheen. Sheen was a jazz musician and later on became a physician. The marriage, however, did not last long as they separated four years later. Hurston remarried again at the age of thirty-nine while she was working at WPA, this time to a colleague at WPA who happened to be twenty-three years younger than she was (Hemmenway 1977, p.13).

The marriage did not last a year. In the 1930s, Hurston lived in Westfield, New Jersey, where she was a neighbor to the famous Black poet, Langston Hughes. Hurston wrote numerous short stories, folklore books, plays, novels and essays throughout her life.

In 1934, Hurston established a school of dramatic arts that was based on “pure negro expression” at Bethune- Cookman College now Bethune Cookman University. The English department in the University is consequently committed to preserving her legacy. In her life, Hurston travelled a lot both within the United States and outside (Boyd, 2003, p. 47).

For inside, during her anthropology research, she travelled to the Caribbean and South American and the works that came, as a result, are ‘Mules and Men’ in 1935 which was a folklore classic and the materials she later used to write the novel Jonah’s Gourd Vine which was published in 1934. Later in her life, Hurston worked in the North Carolina College for Negroes, which is now North Carolina Central University College.

In 1948, Hurston was a victim of a character assassination conspiracy. She was falsely accused of molesting a young boy, but she was later cleared when the claims were found as falsehood. The scandal negatively affected her social life afterwards.

The last decade of her life was marked by hardships as she worked as a freelance writer for magazines and newspapers, and later at the Am Technical Library at the Patrick Air Force Base. She later on moved to Fort Pierce where she allegedly worked as a part-time teacher and maid (Ellis, 2009, p. 15).

Hurston’s last years were marked by both financial and health difficulties. She was consequently admitted at the St. Lucie County Welfare Home where she died of hypertensive heart disease on January 28, 1960 aged sixty-nine years.

Contributions were conducted to give her a decent burial, but the money raised was not enough; consequently, she ended up being buried in an “unmarked grave in the Garden of Heavenly Rest in Fort Pierce” (Kaplan, 2003, p.89).

Five years later, Alice Walker, a young African American woman later who acknowledged Hurston as her source of inspiration and a literary scholar, Charlotte Hunt found the grave and marked it in her remembrance (Boyd, 2003, p.12).

Zora Neale Hurston’s and the Harlem Renaissance

It was during the 1920’s when Hurston began to participate actively in activities that could be regarded as part of the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance is considered the most famous period in the African American culture. It is recorded as having been between the years 1916 and 1940 (Jones, 2009, p. 23). It is during this period when the Negro movement and the age of the black stars developed.

During this period, “black artists broke away from the literary and other artistic movements that were shaped by whites in pursuit of a uniquely black culture that sought to bring a sense of pride to the black race” (Kraut, 2003, p. 87). Literary works, music, and fine arts were among the sweeping artistic expressions of the period.

By the time Hurston arrived in New York, the Harlem Renaissance had climaxed and she easily integrated into the system. Her charm and talent enabled her to become one of the writers at the center of the Renaissance after only a short while.

Before she entered Barnard College, “she wrote a short story titled ‘spunk’ that was selected for the landmark Anthology ‘The New Negro’ that was a significant publication during the renaissance” (Boyd, 2003, p. 15). As a young writer, Hurston contributed actively to the movement through her writings highlighting the issues of the Negroes.

Her stories about Eatonville were acknowledged as significant forces that shaped the ideals that were being pushed by the Harlem Renaissance. In the year 1926, “together with other young black writers and poets such as Langston Hughes and Wallace Thurman who called themselves Niggerati, they produced a literary magazine called ‘Fire’ which featured almost all popular black artists of the Harlem Renaissance” (Kraut, 2003, p. 78).

The Harlem Renaissance was a peculiarly creativity bolstering period for young Black artistes as they sought pride in their work. In addition, during this period, Hurston wrote most of her works that sought to uplift the Black pride and a sense of fight for the rights of the African Americans (Jones, 2009, p. 40).

Together with Langston Hughes, Hurston in 1930 worked on “Mule: A Comedy of Negro Life in Three Acts”. The play, which reveals the problems that shape the lives of African Americans, was not finished up until 1991 when it was posthumously published.

In 1937, Hurston got the coveted “Guggenheim Fellowship, which enabled to conduct ethnographic research in both Haiti and Jamaica…her text ‘Tell My Horse’ documents her findings about the rituals of Africans in Jamaica and the Voudon rituals practiced by the Africans in Haiti” (Walker, 1975, p.87).

She later interpreted these findings to an artistic viewpoint whereby she came up with plays and short stories and novels such as ‘There Eyes Were Watching God’ (1937) and ‘Moses, Man of the Mountain (1939). These works are considered as crucial works that characterize the Harlem Renaissance (Hemmenway 1977, p.14).

Hurston’s literary works were largely influenced by the fact that she was a folklorist. For instance, she used dialects that were characteristic of the speech patterns of the periods that she documented. This, in a way, led her work to slide into some form of obscurity in that the dialects were related to a racist tradition.

This revelation explains why, despite her many years in artistic work, she did not get enough money to sustain herself. Critics such as Richard Wright termed one of her works, ‘Their Eyes Were Watching God’ as not being addressed to the African American audience as she claimed but rather to the Whites (Jones, 2009, p. 64).

Hurston later became an opponent to most of her peers in the Harlem renaissance considering her rigid views about civil rights during the time of the Civil Rights Movement. Hurston’s views mainly depicted her Eatonville perspective and, as a result, she faced criticism for not considering the bigger picture (Abcarian & Klotz, 2003, p. 67).

At that point in time, most of the African American artists had adopted the theme of racism as a major issue of concern to address in their works (Walker, 1975, p.89). Many of her peers who were close to her earlier started analyzing her works as well as her person life, which they considered as marred with controversies. Even Langston Hughes who was at a time among her closest peers started criticizing her (Kraut, 2003, p. 53).

Her literary works, which once portrayed the black culture as superior and influenced many people in were regarded as irrelevant for a while. As a result, her literary appeal waned over time. In the year 1950, Hurston wrote a controversial article that attacked the right to vote of blacks in the south (Jones, 2009, p. 54). In this article, Hurston claimed that votes were being bought and that the process was not fair in any way.

Later on in 1954, Hurston sunk deep into controversies when she wrote ‘Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka, Ks’. In this essay, she railed the segregation ruling claiming that black children did not need to go to the same schools as white children in order to receive education (Abcarian & Klotz, 2003, p. 25).

This angered many of the civil rights activists. The civil rights activists branded Hurston a traitor due to her deeds, which included also writing for the “American Legion Magazine”, which was regarded as extremely right winged. She even campaigned for Senator Robert Taft of Ohio during the GOP presidential nominations of 1952 (Visweswaran, 1994, p. 34).

Zora Neale Hurston’s posthumous recognition

Alice Walker’s efforts to mark the grave of Hurston, and the subsequent publication of the article ‘In Search of Zora Neale Hurston’ in the ‘Ms’ magazine, in 1975, marked the beginning of the overwhelming posthumous recognition that Zora Neale Hurston received years after her death. Walker’s article revived an interest in Hurston’s works among the literary scholars and fans in the period (Kaplan, 2003, p.20).

Later on, Robert Hemenway wrote Hurston’s biography titled “Zora Neale Hurston: A literary Biography”. Other Biographies of Hurston include “Wrapped in Rainbows” written by Valerie Boyd, “Zora Neale Hurston: A Biography of the Spirit” by Debora G. Plant, and “Speak So You Can Speak Again” written by her niece, Lucy Anne Hurston.

Some of her unfinished and unpublished works were later published posthumously. These include her 1930 work with Langston Hughes; ‘Mule: A Comedy of Negro Life in Three Acts’ which was posthumously published in 1991 as well as ‘Every Tongue Got to Confess’ published in 2001.

The later is a book, which records the “field materials the Hurston gathered when she was conducting her research in the 1920’s which aided in writing her book ‘Mules and Men’” (Jones, 2009, p. 28).

Zora Neale Hurston’s house in Fort Pierce later on became a National Historic landmark in her commemoration. It is, however, notable that “there have been efforts to restore it, and that the house is still privately owned and closed to the public “(Kaplan, 2003, p.89). There have been recent efforts to open house to the public.

In Eatonville, there is The Zora Neale Hurston National Museum of Fine Arts, which was constructed in her memory. It is in the town where Hurston developed her interest in the arts and, therefore, she is honored as among the great people of the town (Baym, 2003, p.41).

Eatonville is a twenty-acre historic district, which is the setting for most of Hurston’s fictional works. In the Museum, there is the Zora Neale Hurston Trail, which correlates about sixteen historic sites with Hurston’s literary works.

In a bid to provide accommodation to visiting African American artists during the time of segregation, Dr. Wells, a black physician, constructed The Orlando Well’s Built museum. African Americans who visited Orlando to either do shopping or watch performances at the nearby South Street Casino ended up residing at the facility (Jones, 2009, p. 23).

During her numerous tours, Hurston spent some time in the facility and met other African American celebrities in the Hotel. The Hotel was declared a national Museum in artifacts and literary works produced by black artists of the time are displayed and documented respectively. As a result, the literary works of Zora Neale Hurston are displayed at the Museum.

A number of annual events are organized to honor Hurston in both Eatonville and Fort Pierce. These include events such as Hattitudes, the Zora Fest in Fort Pierce, the Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts, and humanities held in Eatonville.

The events celebrate her life, achievements, and legacy annually. Despite the fact that only a few of Hurston’s life artifacts remain in the community, her life lives in the pages of her stories and other literary works from generation to the next.

References

Abcarian, R., & Klotz, M. (2003). Literature: The Human Experience (9^th ed.). New York: Bedford/St. Martins.

Baym, N. (Ed.). (2003). The Norton Anthology of American Literature (6^th ed.). New York: W. W. Norton & Co.

Boyd, V. (2003). Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston. New York: Scribner.

Ellis, C. (2009) Zora Hurston and the Strange Case of Ruby McCollum. Lutz, FL: Gadfly Publishing.

Hemenway, E. (1977). Zora Neale Hurston: A Literary Biography. Urbana, Ill: University Of Illinois Press.

Jones, S. (2009). Critical Companion to Zora Neale Hurston: A Literary Reference to Her Life and Work. New York: Facts on File.

Kaplan, C. (Ed.). (2003). Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters. New York: Random House.

Kraut, A. (2003). Between Primitivism and Diaspora: The Dance Performances of Josephine Baker, Zora Neale Hurston, and Katherine Dunham. The Theatre Journal, 55(3), 53-89.

Visweswaran, K. (1994). Fictions of Feminist Ethnography. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Walker, A. (1975). In Search of Zora Neale Hurston. Ms. Magazine, 74, 84-89.