Their Eyes Were Watching God Rhetorical Analysis

In Their Eyes Were Watching God, author Zora Neale Hurston tells a story of a mixed race woman, Janie, who finds her identity when faced with abusive relationships and with the racism of the early 1900s. Ultimately, Hurston prove­s that prejudice is like a disease because it can affect anybody, regardless of race, socioeconomic status, or religion. By purposefully omitting examples of segregation, Hurston illustrates racism’s normality. Hurston emphasizes black dialect, giving life to the oppressed black voice and implicitly affirming its worth. Hurston’s distinct, conversational narrative style, call-and-response, intends to initiate conversation regarding race relations. Finally, Hurston’s character driven plot draws her reader into the conversation, even though Aristotle claims that plot subjugates characters in

Their Eyes Were Watching God raises awareness for black culture and depicts racism through the omission of examples of segregation, Hurston’s use of dialect, the plot’s distinct narrative style, and Hurston’s emphasis on character development.

Hurston chooses to omit descriptions of segregation in order to demonstrate the normality of racism as a black individual. Lihua Zhao, student at the China West Normal University, points out that, historically speaking, Janie would be subject to Jim Crow Laws (Zhao). However, Hurston does not describe instances of racism, such as separate bathrooms, trains, or homes, nor does she depict racism from the white perspective. Hurston describes racism through the black perspective. Growing up, Janie does not discover that she is black until she sees a photograph of herself next to white children. Janie is uninterested in learning about her black identity and continues to esteem white characteristics; Janie blindly accepts that she cannot participate in the