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How did Zora Neale Hurston portray a Black woman’s life in Their Eyes Were Watching God?

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Gertrude Stein, 1935 — Modernist literature American writer Gertrude Stein was a self-styled genius who coined the term *Lost Generation* for a younger coterie of her fellow Modernist writers.

In Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), Zora Neale Hurston portrays the life of Janie Crawford as a transformative journey toward self-realization, autonomy, and personal voice.1

Hurston depicts Janie’s evolution through her three marriages, illustrating the complex power dynamics of gender and love. While her first two husbands were domineering and sought to control her identity—such as Joe Starks, who forced her to hide her beauty—her third husband, Tea Cake, offered more warmth but still struggled with patriarchal possessiveness. Hurston rejects the notion that a woman must sacrifice her independence for love, ultimately showing Janie defining herself on her own terms after she kills Tea Cake in self-defense.1

Central to this portrayal is the use of African American dialect and a frame narrative that tracks Janie’s transition from enforced silence to self-expression. By centering the folk experience and Janie’s internal growth, Hurston provides a nuanced look at a Black woman’s life that transcends the era's expectations for protest fiction.12