Their Eyes Were Watching God
Dialect, Flawed Characters and Plot Structure of Hurston's Novel
Aug 4, 2008
Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God has become one of the most important pieces of African American literature. Though Hurston received much criticism for not empowering her people, Hurston’s honesty has led to an authentic narrative style that does not degrade her race but instead reveals and records a sample of the Southern black culture from a time where little has been documented.
Hurston wrote Their Eyes Were Watching God during the 1930s, following the Harlem Renaissance, a time of freedom and experimentation. Though the Harlem Renaissance brought freedom of cultural expression, the depression of the 1930s closed the openness of the renaissance, and the novelwas not well received after its publication in 1937.
Hurston’s novel resists a single classification and can be read as feminist, folklorist, Southern, or Harlem Renaissance literature, but no matter how the piece is interpreted, Hurston’s use of dialect, realistically flawed characters, and circular plot structure have contributed to a lasting artistic reproduction of a neglected ethnicity that strengthens Hurston’s narrative.
Use of Dialect
From the opening chapter, the most strident aspect of Hurston’s narration is the thick dialect, but after deciphering the unfamiliar spellings and grammar usage, the dialogue does not disgrace her race but instead highlights the mannerisms and customs of an orally documented generation.
Instead of clinging to a single pattern of dialogue to represent all characters, Hurston has twisted and mottled each character’s language pattern to reflect realistic speech, but what makes the dialogue most believable are the frequent colloquialisms and analogies. Though discussed less frequently than the dialect, the rich narration in Their Eyes Were Watching God is incomparable.
Realistically Flawed Characters
Hurston has created realistically flawed characters in Their Eyes Were Watching God to reveal truth through her narrative. The entire novel revolves around Janie’s search for independence, identity, and true love, but because she is desperate for change, she jumps into marriage with Jody Starks before she really knows him. Instead of demanding the respect she deserves, she falls into routine with Jody instead of in love with him.
From the opening of the novel, it is apparent Janie’s grandmother only loves and desires security for her granddaughter, but Janie resents her grandmother for sheltering her and planning her life for her.
Jody believes creating a functioning town and providing a comfortable lifestyle are more important than love. The characters mirror what can be found anywhere, anytime: people trying to live the best way they know how, unable to see their own faults.
According to some critics, Hurston’s characters do not push the limits of the black race, remaining trapped in the same slavery they were bound in for centuries, but this criticism does not accurately summarize Hurston’s characters.
Janie shatters the mold by breaking free of her predestined future (compliments of her grandmother) and finding true love, and while it dissipates in the end, Janie has still found her independence. Janie is not left between laughter and tears: she experiences triumph, disaster, and pain. Janie is a supremely real character who one can empathize with.
Circular Plot Structure
The narrative’s circular structure strengthens the overall effect of the novel, though the opening does not flow as well as it could. The narrative opens artistically with both witty truths, “Now, women forget all those things they don’t want to remember, and remember everything they don’t want to forget.” and vivid descriptions, “…firm buttocks like she had grape fruits in her hip pockets; the great rope of black hair swinging to her waist and unraveling the wind like a plume…”
The dialogue that follows, however, is jarring, not only because of the dialect, but more so because of the immediate character confusion and lack of proximity. But this initial literary prose versus colloquial dialogue provides transportation for the remainder of the novel, blending aesthetics with accuracy, creating an overall kind of organized discourse that mirrors Janie’s life.
Hurston’s use of authentic dialect, realistic characters, and circular structure has created a deep novel, rich with truth. Without a doubt Their Eyes Were Watching God is one of the most valuable novels to American, Southern, African American, Harlem Renaissance, feminist, and folklorist literature, but the novel’s resistance to a single category reveals its profound impact on all cultures.
The massive criticism Hurston received only highlights the layers of the book and multiple interpretative possibilities. A one-dimensional book with no room for interpretation would leave a singular criticism.
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