JB
Hurston's novel, There Eyes Were Watching God, is filled with colorful language that paints a rustic picture to the reader. A unique blend was achieved by using regionalist slang, without compromising the integrity of the work itself. It is, however, quite easy to recognize that the book contains two conspicuously different idioms. Changes between Hurston's flowing and elegant narration, to the unpolished jargon that makes the book so unique, are noticeably abrupt. Two distinct languages clash dramatically within the novel, yet are perfect complement to each other when one examines the book from an external standpoint.
Hurston clearly intended for the reader to distinguish between the diction in her narration, and the colloquial dialect used throughout the majority of the novel. Using the two types of language was justified because it gave readers a sense of how African-American people spoke in the fledgling city of Eatonville, while still maintaining the elegance of a well thought-out novel.
Portrait of Zora Neale Hurston: Eatonville, Florid...
The story is told though comic-book style panels w...
Town Hall in Historic Eatonville, Florida, the fir...While providing the reader richly vivid narration in a clear form, she was able to eloquently convey all of the beauty she intended for the novel to have. Conversely, by including the coarse of the local population, she achieved a heightened sense of realism. By meshing these two exceedingly different dialects Hurston was able to give her work a profoundly individual aura.
Most effectively, the "dual-tongues" were used to give the reader an unusual overall effect. Each language type had a specialized purpose, and had unique overall effects. The diction Hurston used to narrate the story gave the reader a colorful descriptions of the robust Floridian landscape. Often the narration was used to describe scenes of action to the reader, opposed to the characters describing the incidents in their own provincial manner. An incredibly important use of the narration was to describe...