Because it is easy and natural for me to write about novels, I used one I had to read for an African American Lit course two years ago (I’ll never understand why these gifted writers aren’t included in other American literature classes, but that’s another post), to make what I believe to be an essential point about writers and their audiences. If you have not read Their Eyes were Watching God, you should, but I also think that my position will still be evident.
Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes were Watching God, though critically acclaimed, was originally was on the receiving end of a lot of harsh criticism. A fellow African American author, Richard Wright, went as far as to call it a menstrual show for white folks. Wright made this comment when race was an even more sensitive issue than it was in the 1960’s or is today. The fear of and dislike for black people who pandered to white people is more than understandable. As reader of the novel today, however, I find that not many insults could be further from the truth.
Their Eyes were Watching God depicted very nicely the life of African American’s in the 1930’s. What it did more than that, however, is tell the universal and timeless story of woman who really, really wanted to find powerful love and to live a life full of it. She goes through three husbands, lots of abuse, and spiritual journey trying to find it. By the end, she learns that the only things she can do is live for herself and hope that whatever higher power is out there will occasionally show her a little mercy. This plot has been written and rewritten by men and women of all creeds and colors and cannot really be seen as unique to any group of people. I do not mean to say that aren’t pieces of the story that directly address the African American community, because there certainly are. Maybe, despite what readers expect, however that was not Hurston goal. Maybe her objective was simply to tell a story about real life, real people and real feelings. After all, all sorts of women go through the trials and tribulations that her main character, Janie Crawford did. All sorts of men have the controlling nature that Janie’s first husband does and the wandering eye and insecurities of her second. Maybe, the fault lies with individuals like Wright, who expect every African American voice to speak for their entire race.
As I writer, I make no claim that this blog speaks for all disabled woman, all English majors or all 23 year olds. I speak for me.
The gravest disservice we can do to any writer is to assume that we know their point of view. Race is manmade and difficult to discuss. The same can be said about any difference one can name. Wright’s insulting Hurston for the way she deals with it only further divides humankind. At the time, the greatest thing Hurston could do for her community was to illustrate that they struggle with the same issues as Caucasians and that those issues deserve to solved for them also. She was not pandering to whites; she was simply trying to compose a story to which a large audience could relate. She did it! Why is she faulted for that when it is what society asks of every white male writer?
I think even today we don’t look too closely at that question because the answer makes us ashamed of ourselves. Their Eyes Were Watching God tells exactly the story it intends to tell.
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