Anyone read and disciss Nora Zeal Hursonts novel "Their eyes were watching God"? If so i need some help.?

Question

The question i must answer is this:

As Henry Louis Gates Jr. writes in the afterword to most modern editions of the book, Their Eyes Were Watching God is primarily concerned “with the project of finding a voice, with language as an instrument of injury and salvation, of selfhood and empowerment.”

Discuss Hurston’s use of dialect and point of view in establishing this

theme.

I know there are three types of dialect used in hear:

Direct discourse

indirect discourse and

free indirect discourse

but i dont know what the point of view is and how everything ties together. Can anyone who has studied this book indept in class explain this as much as possibe. thanks.

Answer 1

Oh, man.  I know this novel really well because I've taught it in junior American Lit for 7 years, but I don't quite understand the question...

Maybe you could discuss the way the language is used based on the omniscient narrator's tone and use of standard English and compare it to the dialect used by the characters.  One thing that always strikes me about the novel and Hurston's language is the way that the dialect is just as descriptive, beautiful, interesting, funny, heartrending as standard English, if not more so.  Maybe you could argue that the dialect use is empowering because it takes this so-called "low" language and moves it to the center and makes it into something poetic and artistic.

Something to think about:  My students (a fairly diverse, but mostly white group) without fail complain about the dialect and why should they have to read "ebonics" etc, etc....  Of course at the heart of it is lazy excuse making, but there is also a fear of misunderstanding, and also some degree of racism and sexism... And when they do this, I always point out that Shakespeare does not write in standard English either, and yet we would never devalue his work so how do they get off devaluing this work just because the language is different than their own.  I also try to show how their own language could be considered funny or silly to others outside of their own peer group.

Anyway, I digress.  As for your question, I think I might focus on how the characters' dialect is empowering and also speech in general is empowering.  We always trace the motif of speech in the book.  The ones who can speak and speak freely have the power in the book.