A Little History Their Eyes Were Watching God Background Information

A Little History--Their Eyes Were Watching God Background Information:

Name:______Date:______Period:______

Directions: Listen to discussion and fill in the answers as they are given.

*Zora Neale Hurston's novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, was first published in ______(1937)______near the end of the ______(Harlem Ren)_____.

SO WHAT?

*What do you know about the Harlem Ren? Why important? Gives a formal and overt voice to African Americans who had been silenced by slavery and then Jim Crow--although they rebelled covertly. Able to because of great migration (blacks to North). Rather amazing that as a black woman she went to college to study anthropology... (1891-1960)

Means we will see "Negro"---was the PC term of the day... and "colored" and the racist term "nigger"... we don't use these now.

*Depression, increased racial tension (but also increased understanding) because of lack of work/strike breaking, AND Hurston hired to record folktales by Library of Congress with Alan Lomax and Mary Elizabeth Barnicle in 1935---why important? INFORMED HER VOICE/HOW SHE SAW THE IMPORTANCE OF NON-STEROTYPICAL VOICES.

*Still Jim Crow ERA. Harlem Renaissance--rebellion and reaction to.

*Although now considered an important member of the ______(Harlem Renaissance)_, Hurston was a controversial contributor what has also been called "The New Negro Movement."

WHY?

*Partially...woman... partially also because she "was not bitter enough, that it did not depict the harsher side of black life in the South, the Hurston made black southern life appear easy going and carefree."

"simply out of step with the more serious trends of the times"

"Hurston creating "these pseudo-primitives whom the reading public still love to laugh with, weep over, and envy..."

Richard Wright (black writer of day) "that (TEWWG) did for literature what the minstrel shows did for theater, that is, make white folks laugh... 'carries no theme, no message, no thought,' but exploited those 'quaint' aspects of Negro life that satisfied the tastes of a white audience." ---However... not exactly true... she is accused of this because of use of dialect and folktale... and in fact deeply, deeply, wanted African Americans to have their own voices.

*The ______(frame story)____ of the novel takes place sometime around ______(1928)____. (Note: ask how we know this after you read.)

WAIT, WHAT IS A FRAME STORY?

The story around the main story... it is a rhetorical strategy.

*The story within the frame story discusses events from ______(the main character's)__ life. Janie has just returned from a trip (about how long?______) and is explaining her life to her friend,Pheoby.

WAIT... SO WHO IS TELLING THE STORY? WHY MAKE THIS CRAZY FRAME STORY STUFF?

Janie is telling the story... which means that the narrator of the main story is Janie (in a way) although it is written in third person. This is Janie's reflections and recollections on/of her own life.

*Events discussed include those from the grandmother's life(____1865____) and Janie's childhood (_____late 1880s__), adolescence (___early 1900s___) and adulthood.

SO WHAT?

Means slavery is no distant shadow... real... the horrors are very real--sexual abuse, beatings at the hands of whites, and racist dogma (belief that the color of one's skin can reflect one's value) is all very raw. Jim Crow---particularly brutal period of white/back relationships... makes the idea of a non-white community particularly appealing.