Their Eyes Were Watching God: Comprehension and Analysis Blog

Chapters 3-5 begin to introduce the reader to cultural influences from Florida.  The biggest historical influence from Florida at that time is probably the town of Eatonville.  When Joe and Janie show up, it is a town that is to be run and populated by all black people.  And that is in fact what is starts to turn into quite successfully into.  The Eatonville of the story represents the Eatonville of real life, which was indeed a small town in Southern Florida completely run by black people.  Hurston’s father was a powerful man in Eatonville, even the mayor for a while, and there was indeed a man named Joe Clarke: “…as well as the home of Joe Clarke’s store porch. The porch became a stage as neighbors sat around on milk crates skillfully transforming simple gossip into folktales” (Gale Research).  These overwhelming similarities leads the reader to believe that Their Eyes Were Watching God is an allegory for Zora Neale Hurston’s life.

     Another similarity between Zora’s life and Janie’s is that Janie is raised (and very much loved) by her Nanny.  Similarly, Hurston was reported to be very close with her mother: “Lucy Ann Hurston, a former country school teacher, was delighted with her daughter’s spiritedness” (Gale Research).  When Lucy Hurston dies when Zora is nine, Zora’s relationship with her father becomes increasingly strained and eventually falls apart.  Likewise, after Nanny dies in Their Eyes Were Watching God Janie’s relationship with the main male in her life, Logan, falls apart.  Are there more subtle ways shown to the reader so far in which the story is like Hurston’s life?

                                                                                                  -Kara Buchan