Alice Walker’s discovery of Womanist Zora Neale Hurston: Janie in Their Eyes were Watching God

Abstract

The paper will touch on Walker’s quest for Zora Neale Hurston, learning about her grave to coming across her grave and most importantly her most notable work Their Eyes Were Watching God. The thesis will focus on Hurston’s text as a womanist one with reference to Alice Walker’s Womanist prose collection In Search of Our Mothers’ Lost Gardens and will look at Hurston’s representation of black culture, traditions, communities and people through the protagonist Janie’s surroundings. Added to that, Hurston’s normalization of female sexuality, intellect along with her right of choice in case of her partners, quest for self hood, love and freedom even for a woman of colour through the portrayal of Janie would be emphasized. Consequently, the metaphorical meanings of ‘Pear Tree’, ‘Road’, ‘Horizon’, etc. along with Janie’s growth from a girl to a woman through her experiences with her three husbands, her evolving way of living and thinking will all be looked at. Only the cumulative view of all these things can make us reach a better understanding of the Womanist protagonist, the text and the author herself to fill certain gaps in existing written materials and ponder about possibilities of further research.