Their Eyes

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Their Eyes Were Watching God
Love, I find, is like singing. Everybody can do
enough to satisfy themselves, though it may not
impress the neighbors as being very much.
Zora Neale Hurston
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Born Jan. 7th,1891, in Nostasulga, AL.
1892-Moved to Eatonville, Fl. (claims as her
hometown)
1901-The year Hurston claims to have been born
1917 Graduates from high school
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1919 Goes to Howard University- Publishes her
first short story.
1925-Goes to New York (Harlem Renaissance)
works with Eugene Oneill
1927 Married longtime boyfriend Herbert Sheen
1931Gets divorced
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1933 Publishes Gilded six-Bits (most famous SS)
1936 Begins dating Percival Punter (23) She
calls him the real love affair of my life
1937 Their Eyes Were Watching God
published (rumored inspired by Punter, whom she
abandoned
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1939 Marries (violent) Albert Price III
1939 Divorces Price after 6wks
1942-1950 Writes controversial stories
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1950 Moves to Miami and works as a maid
1954 Blacks don't need Caucasian America or its
educational system
1959 Suffers stroke
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1960 Dies of heart disease, broke and
alone Buried in unmarked grave in segregated
graveyard (FL)
1973-75 Alice Wlker discovers Hurston's
writing, finds her grave and puts a marker on
it. Then publishes "In search of Zora Neale
Hurston".
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Background

• Origins of the Harlem Renaissance

• Roots of the HR reach back to Reconstruction

• 1920-1936 Creative outpouring and political
  action for African-Americans.

African-Americans expected respect after
WWI-didnt get it. (300 lynchings between
1919-1923)

• Harlem became the center for African-American
  writers, artists,
• actors

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Women's Role in the HR
Addressed race and gender bias
Voiced opinions of life of African-American women
Used a "dialect" to show realism
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1920's had diverse population (African-Americans,
Whites, and seminole Indians
Nicknamed"the Muck"
Galveston Hurricane, 1900
Surrounded by Atlantic Ocean and Lake Okeechobee
The Everglades
Prone to violent storms (hurricanes)
Home of 2nd worst natural distaster in history
(1,800/ 5 of Palm Beach County)
Novarupta June6-9, 1912
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After storm African-American's forced, at
gunpoint, to recover and bury bodies
Whites got buried, Blacks were thrown into a
mass grave
Hurston uses this to develop her setting.
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Themes
Love
Search for an identity
Racism
Class
Family relations
Marriage
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Foil A character who is the opposite of another
Frame Narrative a story used to tell another
story
Dialect a version of the language by a
particular group of people
subplot mirrors or contrasts the primary plot