Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God is widely recognized as an important piece of literature today, but at the time it was published, it was the subject of controversy among other contemporary black authors. Unlike Native Son or Invisible Man, in Their Eyes Were Watching God, the struggle of racism is secondary to the main love story of Janie Crawford, and because of this many felt Hurston wasn’t fulfilling her obligation as a black author: for Their Eyes Were Watching God to be a serious novel, it had to deal with the real social issues of the time.
Not only were many people opposed to the lack of serious social criticism, many also felt that Their Eyes Were Watching God pandered to white audiences and was too reminiscent of the long history of minstrelsy. Hurston’s portrayal of black life and traditions could seem far too idealized, particularly in the migrant worker community of the Everglades, where she downplayed the struggles black people faced working in oppressive conditions. And the scenes of Eatonville seem theatrical, almost as if the black characters are parading around for the amusement of the white audience.
When I first read Their Eyes Were Watching God, it seemed to me that these critics were probably right. It’s a really enjoyable book to read, but it seemed so quaint, so idealized, that I felt like I shouldn’t be enjoying it at all. I kept waiting for the penny to drop and the real narrative of racial struggle to come out, and then when it didn’t, there was the uncomfortable feeling that I just read and enjoyed a book justifying a docile, happy caricature of black history.
But while we watched the documentary about Zora Neale Hurston, it seemed like her novel wasn’t that at all. She spent most of her adult life documenting and researching the traditions of black communities in the South, and during the rest, she seemed to do whatever she wanted without regards to what other people might think. My interpretation of the novel slowly unraveled, because Hurston didn’t seem like the kind of person to write a minstrel story at all.
Now, the more I reread the novel, the more it seems to be a novel illustrating Hurston’s love for the community and traditions she spent her life documenting. The poetic dialogue, written in a non-standard dialect, draws in the reader and shows the beauty of long oral traditions. The portrayal of life in Eatonville shows the rich music and culture that developed in black communities in the deep south. There are elements of the story that are undeniably problematic, especially reading it from a modern point of view. But it doesn’t completely deserve the harsh criticism from Wright and others. Their Eyes Were Watching God may not confront the same issues as Invisible Man or Native Son, but that doesn’t mean it is somehow less valuable, or that Hurston is betraying the black community by writing it. The novel isn't supposed to be a protest novel. It's a love story, between Janie and Tea Cake, and between Hurston and the culture she spent her life immersed in.
The documentary characterized Hurston as a person who follows their her own path and doesn't care about what others think or the conventions they say she should follow, which relates to her intentions to focus on love instead of social issues in her novel. I think this is another important aspect to consider in connection to what critics thought of her novel, along with her love for her culture that she'd grown up with and documented.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Emma's comment above regarding the documentary's depiction of Hurston's personality. It seems as though she was very unique both in and out of her writing and often went against the norm to stand out or make a point. Thus, it doesn't seem as though Hurston would care about Wright's critique. This point also ties into whether Wright's critique is even valid in the first place. While his point about Hurston's writing possibly bolstering racist claims that black people are simplistic in their lifestyle is valid, it seems that Hurston wrote her book with no intention of even addressing racism. Keeping all this in mind, it is unlikely that Hurston would care at all about Wright's critique, as her goal was to simply describe the love story of one woman.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Emma as well on that Hurston doesn't seem to care that the current trend of protest novel is to depict how African Americans are struggling. She is interested in the beauty of the African American culture, so she writes about that. Racism does not encapsulate the entirety of the black identity. I think Wright's view on what is considered serious fiction is severely limited.
ReplyDeleteI think you bring up a lot of good observations you made through reading Hurston's novel.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing I noticed is that I don't think Hurston is catering to the white community at all. During the time she wrote, her books weren't that popular, she didn't make a lot of money.
But she was okay with that, she wanted the stories of the people she knew to be shared. No matter who the reader, she is focused on embracing her community and showing the type of love and happiness they share together.
I like the fact you brought up her love of community and traditions, because it is not the job of the African-American writer to always write about racism. Hurston is still writing about race, but in a anthropological sense, and a more human sense than Wright and Ellison did. No one is going to live day to day constantly bogged down by societal problems. People live, laugh, and love and Hurston's depiction of Janie's good and bad times show just that.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree Hurston seemed like a very self-interested person who I'd imagine self-validated her own work just fine. I remember that quote of her walking down a street in New York, hat tilted to the side, standing in front of the snoopy stone lions of some building and becoming "cosmic Zora" from the documentary.
ReplyDeleteShe had enough pride in her oral historian work to get into that debacle with her partner about authorship of her records. She had a love for the South, I think, proved by her documentary expedition into the South to immortalize Southern black culture; and I think she trusted her interpretation of this culture.
The intense love for something "flawed" like black poverty does echo minstrelsy a bit; but I don't think Hurston loved the poverty itself but rather the wonderful lifestyles that come from that injustice. Or, if nothing else, Hurston might've been trying to make sense of how people live their lives under that injustice. Wright was definitely swerving out of his lane