Black Women’s Identity Construction:a Study Of Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God From The Perspective Of Leisure

Their Eyes Were Watching God is the masterpiece of the 20 th century AfroAmerican feminist novelist Zora Neale Hurston.It tells a story about an African American woman Janie,who develops her identity as an independent black woman after three marriages.In the novel,Hurston vividly describes the daily life of African Americans in the rural South of the United States,especially their leisure life.Leisure means activities freely chosen by people in their free time and a free and pleasant state of mind,and it is well documented to be useful for people’s identity formation.However,few scholars have recognized the element of leisure in the novel and its important role for Janie’s identity construction.Therefore,this thesis explores Janie’s identity development from the perspective of leisure,aiming to provide a new angle to examine and appreciate this novel.The main body of the thesis is unfolded from three aspects.Firstly,the study reveals such a reality that black women’s leisure life is deeply impacted by racism and sexism and becomes a means to reinforce gendered identities and racial oppressions.Born and raised in the backyard of the white,Janie is excluded from the playground by other black kids.In her first two marriages,her right to leisure is also deprived by her two husbands Logan and Joe,who only regard her as a working mule with no right and freedom to enjoy leisure.Under the double oppressions of racism and sexism,Janie loses subjectivity and is unable to construct her identity as an independent black woman.Next,the study explores the efforts made by Janie to resist oppressions through leisure.She escapes from her grandmother’s supervision and deliberately creates leisure time for herself to lie down under the pear tree,which awakens her womanhood self-awareness.In addition,she tries to refuse Logan’s work order and create free time for herself.Facing Joe’s oppressions,she goes from fantasying in silence to counterattacking in public,which releases her repressed emotions,brings her happiness,and shakes the patriarchal system.Lastly,the study analyses Janie’s success in reconstructing an independent black woman’s identity through leisure in her third marriage to Tea Cake.After meeting Tea Cake,Janie is treated with equality and respect.She learns to play checkers and participates in men’s leisure activities.Besides,Janie loves and participates in leisure activities that embody traditional African culture,building her identity on the basis of her ethnic culture.She also realizes that to live a better life in the United States,black people should integrate themselves into other ethnic groups and appreciate their culture.She brings people of different ethnic groups together through Bahaman’s dance,forming a community that is not impacted by the white-black dualism.At last,Janie tells her story to her best friend.Through women’s private talk and friendship,Janie’s story empowers more black women and encourages them to fight for freedom.Under the interlocking oppressions of racism and sexism,Janie is once an appendage to men and lives a life without leisure.By creating leisure and resisting oppressions,she successfully reconstructs her identity as an independent black woman.It is evident from the above analysis that leisure is on one hand an arena of discrimination and oppression.On the other hand,leisure provides black women with opportunities to resist conventional role expectations,challenge social stereotypes,and empower themselves.The findings of the study not only contribute to a better understanding of the identity development of Janie but also the existing research on Their Eyes Were Watching God.Pathways for contemporary women worldwide to resist oppressions and pursue selfhood and references for appreciating and studying other feminist works are also provided.