The
Life and Times of Zora Neale Hurston (Peggy Whitley; 6 min.)
Hear the language of the novel
in A Reading From Their Eyes Were
Watching God (5 min 25 sec.) Or, at
Orion Magazine Online.
Listen to Zora Neale Hurston read and sing songs she
collected in her work for the WPA sponsored Florida
Folklife project.
Zora Neale Hurston was born in Eatonville, Florida, January 7, 1903 and died on January 28, 1960 in Fort Pierce. When Hurston lived there, Eatonville was one of the rare all-black towns - and is still 89% African American. Forced to leave school at the age of thirteen to take care of siblings, she was still able to get an associates degree from Howard University and to receive a B.A. degree in anthropology from Barnard. She did graduate work at Columbia University.
Her careers included employment as an actress, maid, librarian, and college professor. However, she is best known for her work as a writer and folklorist. She was one of the most important authors of the Harlem Renaissance Movement, a major Black literary and cultural movement in New York's Harlem during the 1920's. The Harlem Renaissance movement stimulated pride and confidence in Black life and culture. Among the talented writers, musicians, playwrights, etc, congregated in Harlem at this time were Langston Hughes, Josephine Baker, Eubie Blake, and James Weldon Johnson.
Hurston is said to have influenced the writing of Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, and Ralph Ellison. Their Eyes Were Watching God is considered her finest work of fiction. This work is controversial since some critics feel that she glosses over Black oppression and focuses on the woman or individual. Others say that this novel is a celebration of Black language and cultural heritage. Hurston died in poverty. Alice Walker (The Color Purple) arranged for a gravestone for Hurston in her beloved Eatonville.
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Subjects to Consider:
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Catalog
terms you might consider using Subject Keyword
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| REF
PN771.G27 Vol 7,30,61 |
Contemporary Literary Criticism [CLC] | This multi-volume set contains excerpts from critical essays in books and journals. Use these volumes to 1) select a topic or theme, 2) find the full article or essay in the library, and 3) locate other articles and books from the "Further Reading" section. |
| REF PS221.T834 Vol 4 |
Twentieth Century American Criticism | This multi-volume set has biographical and general critical entries for most important American authors of this century. It is helpful for an overview. |
| CALL NUMBER | TITLE | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|---|
| REF E185.96.N68 1992 | Notable Black American Women | Brief biography, critical analysis of the book, and references. |
| REF PN41.D5 Vol 51, 86 |
Dictionary of Literary Biography | DLB is a multi-volume work which provides detailed biographical sketches of the authors' literary writings as well as general critical commentary. It is a most useful collection. |
| PS3515.U789Z465 | Dust Tracks on a Road | If you have time, this book is recommended. Their Eyes Were Watching God is said to be autobiographical. Read this autobiography by Hurston and draw your own conclusions. |
| REF PS374.C43M35 | Major Characters in American Fiction | Long-ish entries on the most important characters. |
| PN56.4.H37 | Characters in 20th-Century Literature | Brief entry on the characters in this book under Hurston. |
| REF E184.A1K58
Vol 6 |
Encyclopedia of Multiculturalism | Use the index to find entries on Hurston, Harlem Renaissance, Folklore, and other topics of interest to you. |
| REF F209.E53 | Encyclopedia of Southern Culture | Great entries on Southern Folklife, Women's Life, and quite a bit of information throughout on Hurston. Worth spending time with. |
| REF NX511.N4H37 | The Harlem Renaissance: A Historical Dictionary for the Era | This book attempts to give brief biographical sketches and entries explaining the culture of Harlem. It references books and articles where more information can be found. |
 Librarian
Talk . . . About Finding Journal and Newspaper Articles!
To find articles in newspapers and journals, letters, reference books, illustrations, photographs and more, use your Lone Star College System library card to login to the following databases. If you find an interesting article that is not full-text, please give the correct bibliographic information to our Reference Librarians and they will see that you get the article. They will need full bibliographic information - and your name and address. Send your phone number as well, so they can contact you if they need to. There is some overlap of articles in the following databases. However, we encourage you to use more than one. All are excellent sources for this topic. [Get a card] |
MLA Bibliography This is the most important database for your research. Use it to find articles in journals and essays. This is not a full-text database but many of the journals will be available in the Lone Star College System.
JSTOR Print or save full-text articles from high quality scholarly journals, generally from older issues.
Project Muse Find scholarly, full-text articles from selected journals, including more recent issues.
Literature Resource Center Find articles full-text from CLC, DLB, and other Gale products.
ProQuest Research Library This full-text multi-discipline database includes articles on literature, although many of the journals are not scholarly or literary.
Academic Search Complete This is another full-text multi-discipline database from EBSCO.
Setting: Their Eyes Were Watching God takes place in Eatonville, Florida, in the 1920s. Eatonville is and was a completely black self-governing community.
Characters include:
Janie
Crawford (Killicks Starks Woods) - a strong and passionate main
character in search of self-definition.
Nanny
Crawford - Janie's grandmother born and raised a slave and determined
that Janie will break the cycle of oppression of black women.
Logan Killicks - Janie's first farmer husband.
Joe Starks - Janie's politically ambitious
and successful second husband.
Tea Cake
Woods - Janie's third husband. The husband with whom Janie finds real
love.
Phoebe Watson - The friend to whom
Janie is telling the story of her life.
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The Internet will be a wonderful source of original documents. Browse the sites we have suggested below. Remember, you do want to find reputable sites. Ones from .edu, .org, .gov may be best. Think about:
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The Lone Star College-Kingwood Librarians bring your their comments after reading Their Eyes Were Watching God.
The words bubble and tumble over
each other like poetry. When Janie tells her story, you forget that she's using
dialect and just want, like her friend Phoeby, to hear the rest of the story.
Phoeby sits on the porch listening, not daring to move because she doesn't want
the story to end. You'll keep on turning the pages, unable to put the book down
because Janie might leave and you've got to hear the rest of the story. What is
the story? It's about love and change and a woman's place in the
world.
--Susan
Goodwin
Janie's tale has just about
everything: love, sex, violence, and suspense; comedy and tragedy; and
unforgettable imagery and dialogue. What more could anyone want?
--Professor Joseph
Minton
"Ships at a distance have every
man's wish on board." Such a memorable first line! Their Eyes Were Watching
God by Zora Neale Hurston is a story within a story. Janey tells Phoebe
Watson the story of her marriages and, through her telling, we watch as she
searches for self-definition. While this book is the story of a black woman
living in a black community, I really liked it because Hurston ignores the
(stereo)typical ethnic issues and writes a story of a woman's life and her
personal growth. And while the book is written in rural southern black dialect,
instead of slowing me down, I felt the lyrical dialog made the characters come
to life. I loved this love story and will read it over and over. My copy is NOT
for re-sale.
--Peggy Whitley
Janie longs for love. After two
lonely and loveless marriages she meets and marries Tea Cake. He is the love of
her life. "He drifted off into sleep and Janie looked down on him and felt a
self-crushing love. So her soul crawled out from its hiding place." But Janie's
joy is short-lived. They have been together for two years when they get caught
in a hurricane, and Tea Cake is bitten by a rabid dog in an attempt to rescue
Janie. What happened next? "... the sun went down."
--Ann Jenkins
Citing Sources Using the Library MLA Style Guide | Lone Star College-Kingwood Library guide. Examples of both paper and electronic citations.
Learning Center | Check our Learning Center hours for in-house tutoring.
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English 1302 Students: | Write Professor Joseph Minton |
