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Their Eyes Were Watching God Comparative Analysis

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Their Eyes Were Watching God Comparative Analysis
anguage in a society can differ vastly amongst different social classes or races. The rich are seen to use more pompous words while people in cities make use of slang. This difference isn't as big a deal as it used to be and is seen as very normal for the current times. However in the case of blacks in the early 1900s this was different, especially in the south. They adopted a very lackadaisical cadence which in term reflected just how ignorant they were at times but they had no choice in the matter. While this may seem like a negative in certain aspects is is starkly the opposite. Take for example the book Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Hurston, in it Hurston uses the way of speaking used by those kinds of black people to tell a rich

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    Reading Guide Preview Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston About the Author Although Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960) died penniless and was buried in an unmarked grave in a racially segregated cemetery, she had a remarkable career as a novelist. She was also a pioneer in documenting African American culture. Hurston grew up in Eatonville, Florida, a fully incorporated African American township, and studied at Howard University. In 1925, she moved to New York City, where she became an influential talent of the Harlem Renaissance, the blossoming of African American literature and art. While attending Barnard College, she met the famous anthropologist Franz Boaz, who convinced her to study the folklore of African Americans in the South. Her first collection of African American folk tales, Mules and Men, was published in 1935. Her second collection, Tell My Horse, published in 1938, also contained descriptions of African American cultural beliefs and rituals brought from Africa. Hurston achieved critical and popular success with her novels Jonah’s Gourd (1934), Their Eyes Were Watching God(1937), and Moses, Man of the Mountain (1939). She also wrote a prizewinning autobiography, Dust Tracks on a Road (1942), as well as short stories and plays. When Hurston died in 1960, all her works were out of print. In the 1970s, African American author Alice Walker revived interest in Hurston, helping to restore her reputation. Background Their Eyes Were Watching God is set in Florida during the 1930s. Although the story is fictional, the town of Eatonville, built and governed by African Americans, is real. At the end of the Civil War, blacks settled near the town of Maitland. In 1882, the black businessman Joseph C. Clarke bought a large tract of land, subdivided it, and sold lots to black families. In 1887, blacks incorporated the area as an independent town called Eatonville, Hurston’s childhood home. Quick Guide As you read Their Eyes Were Watching God, keep…

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