An Existentialist Study Of Their Eyes Were Watching God

Zora Neal Hurston is one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century during the period of the Harlem Renaissance. She was not noticed in her lifetime. Her works were rediscovered by Alice Walker, a prominent African-American writer. In 1973, Alice Walker gave her the honor of "A Genius of the South."Among all her works, Their Eyes Were Watching God is the most famous one. Alice Walker said that "there is no book more important to me than this one". It was rewarded as "the most widely known and the most privileged text in African-American literature canon". It was also regarded as "a brilliant novel about a woman's search for her authentic self and for real love". Studies on Their Eyes Were Watching God are mainly focused on the aspects of feminism, black feminism, womanism, the black culture and language, and the autobiography of Hurston.The present study focused on the existential status of the black in Their Eyes Were Watching God. According to Existentialism, since each individual comes into the world, he/she has to experience the primal anxiety, bad faith, the disordered society, the distorted humanity, the existence of other, and the fear for death when he/she is leaving the world. In the whole process, one is searching for his/her authentic essence that is what kind of life he/she wants and what kind of person he/she wants to become. Then the individual may decide how to shape his essence. Some choose to rely on God, wishing that God could help them. Some choose bad faith. Some are distorted by the society. Some choose to act and achieve their essence through various free choices. Through listing how the protagonists encountered the absurdity of the world and the alienation of existence and shaped their essence, this thesis shows that only through free choices could individuals shape their authentic essence, and achieve happiness.