The attempts of black feminists to accommodate the often-conflicting imperatives of individual transformation, feminine bonding, and racial communalism have had a powerful effect on the reinterpretation of Hurston's "Their Eyes Were Watching God". The novel is seen as a vehicle of feminist protest through its condemnation of the restrictiveness of bourgeois marriage and through its exploration of intraracial sexism and male violence. It is seen as a quest through which the heroine, Janie Killicks Starks Woods, achieves a sense of identity as a self-fulfilled woman and, through her own self-realization, becomes a leader of women and of her community. Although Their Eyes Were Watching God provides a most effective examination of the stultification of feminine talent and energy within traditional middle-class life, it ultimately belittles the suffering of the majority of black women whose working-class existences are dominated by hard labor and financial instability. While Hurston has been categorized as a writer of 'folk realism,' her suggestions above from 'What Publishers Won't Print' illustrates a desire to see more African American fiction which portrays a broad spectrum of the black community, especially professional middle-class black men and women (Jones,156). Furthermore, Janie's struggle for identity and self-direction remains stymied. She never defines herself outside the scope of her marital or romantic involvements and, despite her sincere relationship with her friend Pheoby, fails to achieve a communal identification with the black women around her or with the black community as a whole. As the novel ends, Janie chooses isolation and contemplation, not solidarity and action. 10 pgs, bibliography lists 9 sources.
