Migration Narrative

The next important question to ask when examining Hurston’s works of migration literature is why she chooses the South as a destination for her migrant characters. Hurston traveled extensively throughout Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and even to Haiti, Jamaica, and the Bahamas, with the intention of capturing and sharing the traditions of rural folk culture, which as I note in the next chapter of this thesis, helps her to form part of the migrant stranger identity that permeates her version of the migration narrative. Hurston successfully redraws the boundaries of the migration narrative with her characters’ physical and spiritual journeys throughout Southern spaces, thus re-emphasizing the significance of Stepto’s concept of symbolic journeys
When extended to Their Eyes, Yitah’s argument substantiates the contention that Hurston successfully situates her migration novels within the South—which diverges from the prototypical migration narrative structures laid out by Stepto, Griffin, and Rodgers, who argue that the only way to reach full ascension and immersion is through a direct journey north—and in doing so, she brings attention to the plight of black migrants who remain in the South. Yitah expresses that she believes “looking at Jonah’s Gourd Vine from the perspective of the migrant’s inward search for self-knowledge leads to a more nuanced view of the Great Migration in African American fiction” (11). Because Hurston’s characters do not always fall victim to their environments (Tea Cake being one obvious exception) or other oppressive forces, they are granted a certain agency not found in other migration narratives: the agency to choose to remain in the South. Through the journeys of her characters, Hurston “focuses on black migrant movement patterns within the South, using John Pearson’s frequent changes of location and employment to show that migration
The next chapter of this thesis will address that at length. But before moving on, it is important to note that I have provided numerous examples as to how Hurston displaces the migrant stranger character into Southern folk communities, such as Eatonville. Not only do several of Hurston’s works, most specifically Their Eyes Were Watching God and Jonah’s Gourd Vine, mold into the conventions of the migration narrative, in most cases, they push the boundaries of the genre. Hurston creates, in these two works especially, migration narratives with characters who travel on symbolic journeys all over the southern United States: Janie in search of love and companionship; Starks, Woods, and Pearson for financial and personal freedoms and opportunities—and through her exploration of ascension and immersion in Southern African-American communities, Hurston distinguishes herself from other migration authors, such as Dunbar, Johnson, and Toomer, whose narratives mostly center on northern migration. After examining her works through the critical lenses of Lawrence Rodgers, Helen Yitah, and Hazel Carby, I believe that Hurston clearly chooses the South as a destination for her migrants because the folklore customs of the all-black communities Hurston depicts provide a