Michael Ray Charles frequently uses black stereotypes as a way of getting viewers to think and talk about oversimplified and often negative conceptions. He has mined traditional images from minstrelsy and the black collectibles market for source material. Although a soft-spoken man, one gets the idea that he is seriously political and wants to be instrumental in bringing about change.

Zora Neale Hurston is also interested in stereotypes. She is well aware of the history of slavery and its aftermath: “…de white man throw down de load and tell de nigger man tuh pick it up.” She also knows the position of black women: “De nigger woman is de mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see.” But Hurston isn’t political. Unlike Michael Ray Charles, she’s not out to change things. Although she is vitally interested in certain components of stereotypical behavior, the reader senses she sees beauty in them, especially in black dialect.

In My Fair Lady the arch British snob Professor Higgins says of the simple flower girl Eliza, “It’s ‘Aooow’ and ‘Garn’ that keep her in her place. Not her wretched clothes and dirty face.” And a little later he goes on, “An Englishman’s way of speaking absolutely classifies him. The moment he talks he makes some other Englishman despise him.” Black English is different from standard English, and it is a basis of frequent negative stereotyping. But you wouldn’t know it by reading Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Trained as an anthropologist, Zora Neale Hurston collected black folk tales and developed a system of spelling black English. To her, black dialect is living language with its own patterns and musical sounds. If it is part of the southern black stereotype, so be it; it’s not negative. Unlike Michael Ray Charles’ political use of stereotypes, one doesn’t get the feeling that Hurston wants blacks to change. In her mind, black speech is beautiful, poetic, and musical, and she captures this in her writing.

The value of teaching Hurston’s Eyes along with the paintings of Michael Ray Charles is that stereotypes may be over simplified conception, but they are not simply bad. In such paintings as 100% A.J., Charles is attempting to change the negative stereotype of Aunt Jemima to a more positive one. Hurston is showing us that what we might causally think of as negative, that is black dialect, is actually positive.

Suggested Activities

1. Begin a dictionary of words and phrases in black dialect as you find them in Hurston’s dialogue. Divide your paper in half and put the black dialect on the left and standard English on the right. Practice speaking the dialect until it becomes poetic and/or musical to your ears.

2. In spite of what Professor Higgins says in My Fair Lady, there is no one correct way to speak the English language. When the words “standard English” are used, they refer to pronunciation as used in conservative London theaters. Differences in pronunciation are common and often reflect geography, education, etc. People on the West Coast tend to say “eether” (spelled “either”); people in the Northeast tend to say “eyether” (spelled “either”). Collect ten words that you know are pronounced differently depending on geography or upbringing or some other influence. Make two columns; in the first spell the work phonetically, and in the second use standard spelling.

3. What words or phrases that you commonly use could other people use to stereotype you? Remember, stereotypes can apply to age groups, religious groups, ethnic groups, any group.

4. Like any other excellent novel, there are many literary approaches that one can follow with Eyes. It contains many arresting metaphors, philosophical issues, well-drawn characters, feminine perspectives, etc. Any of these and more would make excellent research projects.