Their Eyes Were Watching God Dialect Analysis

In Hurston's literary work, Their Eyes Were Watching God, she employs the use of southern dialect in her characters dialogue. Hurston uses the dialect to convey the personality of her characters while adding to the feeling of a story that is being told. The dialect helps the reader feel like the novel has come to life before them and they mentally attribute different surrounding backgrounds to Hurston's characters, while taking in the meanings and significance behind Janie's life story of love and experiences. Additionally, Hurston uses dialect to capture the beauty of the instruments of nature in her book and express artistic images to her readers while conveying symbolism simultaneously.
Hurston's choice of using southern dialect contributes
Although the dialect sounds uneducated, Hurston's crafty use of it, along with other intellectual words that convey beauty, creates an artistic image for the reader. Hurston specifically does this as she uses the dialect in Janie's speech about what she sees happening to the mule that is being treated cruelly by the men outside the store. Her words create a sad but heartfelt picture of the mule which portrays it as a poor soul suffering from the darkness of its surroundings. This creates an artistic depiction of the mule that opens the interpretation up to symbolism between the treatment of the mule and Janie's relationship with Joe Starks.
Overall, Hurston used southern dialect to pour forth more meaning into not only her words, but the words of her characters as well. In doing this, she gave them a clearer identity to the readers, portrayed key relationships, and created emotions that can easily be seen throughout the novel. The crafty use of intellectual vocabulary intermixed with the stereotyped speech presents a witty contrast to the readers showing them the depth of what Hurston means beyond the words of the novel, which created artistic images for the reader in relation to her use of nature and its