Elements of Folklore in Chapter 2
Elements of folklore are prevalent in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God. The most obvious examples don’t occur until Chapter 2, as Chapter 1 serves mostly to describe the setting. Many of the folk elements can be examined into their small contribution to the larger picture of folklore. For example, when Janie is describing her childhood and states that “Before ah seen de picture ah thought ah wuz just like de rest,” she is confirming a sense of the culture in which she lives (Hurston 9). Growing up and playing with the white children she didn’t think anything of racial status. When she sees herself and realizes she is black, and more importantly, that black sets her apart from her surroundings, it affirms a cultural understanding of racial separation. This carries much the same purpose as when Janie’s Grandma states, “De nigger woman is de mule uh de world so fur as ah can see” (Hurston 14). Although the narrator is simply reminiscing about something her Grandmother once said, on another level these situations serve as windows into the culture in which the characters live and, are therefore, elements of folklore. Similiarly, when Janie is caught kissing Johnny Taylor and is called inside by her Grandmother, the narrator states, “That was the end of her childhood” (Hurston 12). This statement alludes to tradition. Janie’s Grandmother believed she was growing old enough to marry based on what she witnessed. In today’s society, this of course would not be the case, however, this element of folklore allows the reader to accept something that is different from there own life.
