Jacob Sutliff

Midterm Essay

The book, Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, is about an African American woman trying to find herself and become an individual. I believe that is what the American Dream is. This book also has to do with American Literature because of the time frame it was written in. This is an important piece of literature because it shows the hardships that African Americans went through back then.
This piece represents ideas of the period of American Literature because this book is in a time frame when America was being shaped and changed. The book goes back to when African Americans were free, but still had it rough. This made it so they would become strong and be able to stand up for themselves. This book was trying to make it known what they were going through.
This piece represents the American Drean because Janie was just trying to find herself and her individuality. Being an individual is a key part of the American Dream. Individuality is saying that a person wants to be themself and no one can change that. Also being happy is part of the American Dream. All Janie wants is to be happy with a husband who loves her and does not want to change her.
This is an important piece of American Literature because of the author. Zora Neale Hurston wrote this book with parts of her real life in it. So, why is she important to American Literature? Because she is part of it because she wrote about herself. So, this book is part of American Literature, part of the American Dream, and the author is a part of history. I feel that individualism is key in the American Dream. In the period of literature that this was in, it brings across an important idea.