The Emancipation of Janie Crawford Defining Womanism and Self-Identity in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God Monica Mendez A short drive north of Orlando, Florida, lies the small town of Eatonville.1 For the everyday traveler driving through, this town does not strike one as being any different from any other crumbling neighborhood in the outskirts of any major American city. However, if one were to dig a little m ore i nto t he t own’s h istory, t hey w ould discover the significance of this span of land. According to an article by Anne Trubek, Eatonville is important since “it was the first a llblack incorporated town in the United States, and it was the childhood home of Zora Neale Hurston.”2 With a history of a section of America’s population finding identity here, it would make sense that Hurston found her inspiration for many of her stories within the community of this town. One such novel would be Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), the most popular of Hurston’s novels. The reason Eatonville and its idea of identity for African American culture is introduced at the beginning of this essay is to highlight one of the main themes of Their Eyes Were Watching God, the pursuit of self-identity. While Eatonville served as a source for many African Americans to find identity, Hurston’s presentation of the protagonist’s life journey serves as a narrative of an African American woman striving to establish her own identity and define womanhood. This establishment of identity 84
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