Their Eyes Were Watching God: A Literary Progenitor Of African American Feminism And American Civil Rights Movement

Abstract

Taking its lifeline from the contemporary issues, Their Eyes were Watching God (TEWG) echoes the African American women's (AAW) suppression and racial terrorism. Through new historicist considerations, the study aligns the historical facts with the author's life, and then, the aligned matches are judged against the events in the novel. Being part of the very commune, Hurston experiences the said issues directly, which shape the key argument of TEWG. The novel teaches the discriminated African Americans (AAs) and the suppressed AAW the art of democractic fight for their rights bracing the African American Feminism (AAF), and American Civil Rights Movement (ACRM). The movement/s challenge the AAs' second class citizenship, and demand equal rights for every American irrespective of caste, color, creed, sex, etc. Proving a milestone, TEWG through AAF and ACRM achieves what the Declaration of Independence (1776) and Emancipation Proclamation (1863) promise to deliver but fail to implement. Apart from giving a novel air of strength to the emerging women's struggle in Pakistan, the study corresponds to the UN's SDGs No. 5: Gender Equality, No. 10: Reduced Inequality, and No. 16: Peace and Justice Strong Institutions