When first published in 1937, Hurston's novel about a black woman's journey to independence was denounced by male critics. However, the triumphant return of Their Eyes Were Watching God in 1978 enlightened the minds of readers and became one of the most acclaimed works of African-American literature. Hurston's novel details the struggle of protagonist Janie Crawford who remains subject to her male counterparts for much of her life but ultimately thrives as she learns to appreciate her independence. Their Eyes Were Watching God opens with Janie's return to Eatonville as the young protagonist is eager to share her travel stories with her closest childhood friend Pheoby. As seen through Janie's interactions with Pheoby, storytelling is a more ornate cultural activity throughout the novel and remains important to both the black community and Janie herself. Throughout the novel Janie occasionally speaks in her own voice, but the majority is narrated in the third-person voice, controlled by Zora Neale Hurston herself. Therefore, Hurston adapted the novel to alternate between the narrator's voice and Janie's dialect so that readers can immerse themselves in Janie's life and those of the other characters. By deviating from the conventions of Standard English and establishing the divide between the Southern African American dialect and the individual style of the narrator, Hurston gives the black community a voice that was previously nonexistent and allows Janie to tell the story through her eyes, engaging in traditional act of storytelling through direct characterization of Pheoby and the porch scene popularized. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay At the time Hurston crafted her Bildungsroman, African-American culture viewed the act of storytelling as an escape valve used to escape persecution and create their own idealistic world, which is paralleled in the details of the novel regarding Janie and Pheoby's relationship with the people sitting on the porch both on and off the porch. The novel begins with the wholesome image of the porch overflowing with citizens conversing particularly critically, as Hurston explains: All the people saw her coming because it was dusk. The sun had set, but he had left his footprints in the sky. it was time to sit on the porches along the street. It was a time to listen to things and talk. These subjects had been comfortable with no tongue, no ears, and no eyes all day. Mules and other brutes had occupied their hides. But now, the sun and the boss was gone, so the skins looked powerful and human. They became masters of minor sounds and things. They passed the nations through their mouth. They sat in judgment. (Hurston 1) Here, Hurston opens the novel with the soothing image of “sunset” (line 1) which suggests the beginning of a revelation, in this case, Janie's journey. However, this journey is not without its flaws as Hurston's use of degrading diction shows the reader that African Americans are seen as "lessers" (line 9) lacking in trust during the day when the "boss" ( line 7) is active and instead only feel comfortable with the white man's instant departure. The use of visual imagery in describing the subjects as "tongueless, earless, and eyeless" (line 5) further exemplifies the comfort citizens feel within the porch environment as they are able to develop a feeling of control over normally uncontrollable circumstances through the act of gossiping. These people on the veranda feel confident in themselvesthemselves when conversing about other citizens, but ultimately represent the division that is the social structure of the time, known to have caused a major break in individuality as they attempt to gain Janie's attention from her community. Those present at the porch wish to gain knowledge about Janie's story. However, Janie politely refuses to be associated with them, reflecting her dominant independence which Hurston contrasts with that of the community's conventionality, offering an outlet of exploration for Janie's individual development in the rest of the novel. Throughout the text, Hurston displays mastery of the black Southern dialect, making the novel unique through the incorporation of different grammatical notations, vocabulary words, and a recognizable tone. Hurston writes, “let me talk to my wife a minute and I'll go see the man” (Hurston 37) and through this direct institution of dialogue and an obscure grammatical structure the reader is able to digest the Deep South dialect. By conversing through informal dialogue, Hurston develops the character's personality and allows the reader to understand the character's internal motivations. In this case, the use of dialogue shows a slight frustration in the character's mind. “Lemme” (line 1) is an informal diction and therefore is not comparable to saying “let me” or “I must” in a literary text but rather decreases the urgency of the situation and places a command in a mild way. In the same sense, the narrator's voice provides a stark contrast to the character's mixed dialogue: the idea was funny to them and they wanted to laugh. They tried to hold it back, but enough incredulous laughter exploded from their eyes and leaked out of the corners of their mouths to inform anyone of their thoughts. So Joe abruptly walked away. Most of them went ahead to show him the way and be there when his bluff was called. (Hurston 37) The dialogue between the characters uses low diction to reflect an informal conversational tone while the narrator uses high diction to narrate the story giving the reader optimal knowledge of the situation. While the spoken dialogue uses diction such as “mah” (line 1) and “goin” (line 1), the narrator incorporates higher level words such as “incredulous” (line 2) and “suddenly” (line 5). Hurston intentionally uses this division in dialect to establish the tone of sympathetic statement, paralleling Janie's journey to self-realization. For African American women finding their own voice has not always been easy and through the inspiration of Hurston herself, black authors have begun to freely write indirect speech, which involves the fusion of the voice of the narrator and the protagonist while maintaining the same black vernacular maintained everywhere. The narrator's direct speech is illustrated in the novel as, "Janie hung on the newel post thinking so long that she almost went to sleep there" (Hurston 101) while the character's direct speech is seen through, "I bet she's living with some woman or another and takes me for a fool. I'm glad Ah managed to catch him in time” (Hurston 102 However, the free indirect speech is seen through the blending of the narrative voice as follows: “In the cool of the afternoon the demon from hell sent specially to the lovers reached Janie's ear. (Hurston 103). As seen through textual examples, direct speech is done in the Black vernacular while indirect speech is in Standard English following grammatical and stylistic conventions. Free indirect discourse involves the integration of allowing Janie and the narrator to gain an authentic voice while at the same time allowing Hurston to express herself as an author and provide a literary voice to black members of the community who.