Zora Neale Hurston's Critics

When Zora Neale Hurston wrote The Eyes Were Watching God in 1937 she did not get as good as reviews as she does now. These harsh critics were surprisingly mainly black people. They thought that her book didn’t show the harsh reality of what being a black in the south was really like. Most of the blacks who read it thought that she was making their lives easier and better then what they really where and people should not hear this, they should be hearing all of the terrible times, struggles and punishments they had to go through just because of their skin color. Richard Wright, a prominent black writer and intellect of the 30's, said "Their Eyes was theme less and meaningless; he thought that by portraying her people as quaint, Hurston had exploited them."

Personally I agree with parts of those statements that people made about the book, but then I disagree with others. When Wright says that the book was theme less and meaning less, he couldn’t be more wrong. To me this shows exactly what black people of that time were thinking and some of the harsh cruelties that  they went through. It also gives it in a women perspective which, in that time, did not mean anything to men so, it is very interesting to see how far women have come. There are some parts that I do agree with though. Even though I obviously was not there I have learned about blacks being treated much worse then the way they are presented in Hurston's book.  At times it seems like an accurate representation of what it was like but then at others you are kind of left thinking that maybe there should have been more disrespect to the black people to make the story more realistic.


Their Eyes Were Watching God Background | GradeSaver." Study Guides & Essay Editing | GradeSaver. Web. 14 Apr. 2011. <http://www.gradesaver.com/their-eyes-were-watching-god/study-guide/about/>.