The Study Of The American Black Women's Identity In Their Eyes Were Watching God

Zora Neale Hurston was an important black female writer in Harlem Renaissance of the USA in the 20^th century. Since the 1960s, there appeared a "Hurston Rejuvenation" in western academic circles. Her works are classic ones among the American literature, black literature and women's literature. She is known as "the mother of black women literature", and enters the ranks of classic writers. The author thinks that it is inseparable of her strong sense of female consciousness and national consciousness.Hurston's novels were basically around the lives of ordinary black people in her hometown, southern Florida, with strong local color, written by using civil dialect written. Her works shows the positive aspects of black life and the confirmation to black identity. But because the "protest literature" was popular at that time, her poetic description about the black life was unpopular. Their Eyes Were Watching God is representative of Hurston. Because it was not like the mainstream of black literature in which the strong ethnic conflict and the protest originated from the racial discrimination and oppression appears, then when it was released, it was on the criticism by cold-shouldered, and was buried into the dust years. Until the upsurge of the feminist movement in the 1970s, it was excavated from the dust-laden history. Now it was hailed as the classic literature among the African-American literature, feminist literature, and the United States Literary classic of 20^th century, and the first black feminist literature by western academic circles.Significance of topics: The identity of the heroine, Jenny, has been discussed in a lot of papers. Jenny is regarded as a new black woman, who has self-independent, self-seeking, self-possession. Jenny's image is established due to her experiences of three marriages, her marriage is an indispensable part of the self-seeking way. But the marriages have covered up the facts that Jenny, who is as a black woman, deeply suffers from racial oppression and gender oppression, and have covered up the deep pain owned by the black woman that is not known by others. Jenny's main subject as a black woman is established beyond marriage, she gradually mature in the marriage. The marriage is only the factor that makes Jenny's subject reconstructed, but it is not merely an unique factor that it relies on. The significance lies in revealing Jenny's three married life, studying the painful real life that a black women is suffering from the double stress of race and gender. It revealed black women's "the other" status that they can't get rid off, when they is under the nominal of the legal marriage and the true love.Methods: This paper focused on the family chores in Their Eyes Were Watching God, analysis the status and identity issues of black women who were in racial oppression and gender oppression, and the race and gender issues in the Black groups of the U.S. It study the reasons for the loss of subject, it's performance and the reconstruction of subject using the black feminism and post-colonial feminist theory comprehensively, it also analysis how the author make a bold attempt to reconstruct the subject of the black race through the reconstruction of black woman's subject, combined with the reconstruction of black woman's subject.This paper is divided into three sections.The first section is an outline on the African-American women's issues. Firstly, black women, as a black one, they are facing the factor that racial discrimination is the first difficulty. Secondly, as a woman, sex oppression is another yoke that restrict them. In the black women's life areas, racial discrimination and gender oppression are the most distinctive characteristics, they both deeply affected their confirm of identities. Black women are the most silent, most helpless groups in American society, and walk hard in the "edge of the margin" of the most dangerous social history. The heroine's grandmother Nanny's experience is a historic expression of special status of African-American women.The second section analyzes concretely the causes why black women's identity of "edge of the margin" forms. The main reason is that "racism" and "genderism", they have homogeneity. They make subject "the other". And hegemony, repression and violence are embodied. Racial oppression deepen the gender oppression within the race. Black men can transfer the pain of racial oppression to the more vulnerable group -black women, in order to get the psychological satisfaction and balance.The third section shows the efforts that the black women try to span the "edge of the margin", rewrite the historical identity and reconstruct the subject. Along with the awakening of self-consciousness, the opposed voice of black women "emerged from the surface of history", it shows their courage and strength to resist male hegemony, finally they found an identity which really belong to themselves: a "self of owning the independent. Meanwhile, a road to establishment of a race's subject is also explored. It is that they should destruct the influence under the white mainstream values, adhere to the inherent values of black people, and develop the traditional culture of black people.In the conclusion of the paper, based on general summary, the author give a trial analysis on Hurston's cultural standpoint as a black female writer. She is not a narrow-minded racists, nor is it a narrow feminist. In her works, there is no tension of the ethnic conflict and gender conflict. She devoted to build a harmonious racial culture and gender culture. In order to pay attention to cultural spirit of all mankind, Hurston has made efforts byond her age, and set up a brilliant model for the black woman writers in the later ages.