The Use of Fragmentation and Modernist Themes in the Emergence of the New Negro

Alessandra Intili L-SAW 2006

The heroine of Zora Neale Hurston's critically acclaimed novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, is the ideal embodiment of the "New Negro", the generation of men and women who bridged the African American's fight for freedom to the African American's fight for equality. The post-slavery African Americans were compelled to collect bits of family history, sold and strewn across the nation, in order to piece together and solidify their own identity. As a whole, the African American race of the late 19^th and 20^th century held on their shoulders the ominous task of coming to terms with their fragmented past and recreating their unified place in American society. Through the fragmentation and reunification of Janie, Hurston conveys the hardships endured by the New Negro. In addition, Hurston utilizes the modernist aesthetics of fragmentation and alienation to explore the emergence of the New Negro upon Janie's subsequent journey back to completeness.

At a very young age, her grandmother instilled within Janie the slave generation's ideals of freedom and happiness. With reference to her grandmother, Janie says, "She was borned in slavery time when ...black folks didn't sit down anytime dey felt lak it. So sittin' on porches lak de white madam looked lak uh mighty fine thing tuh her. Dat's whut she wanted...[didn't] keer whut it cost. She didn't have time tuh think whut tuh do after you got up on de stool uh do nothin'. De object wuz tuh git dere". An extraordinary amount of pressure is placed on Janie to reach the aspirations deemed priceless by a fading generation of former slaves. Those aspirations of sitting on a "high chair" to "do nuthin" became insignificant the moment that slavery was demolished. African Americans born in the era after slavery were not satisfied with freedom doing nothing; they wanted freedom to really live. And yet, Janie "got up on de high stool like [her grandmother] told [her]... and done nearly languished tuh death up dere" (114).

It is while she is up this stool-after she was beaten by her "portly white man" of a husband, Joe-that Janie's person fragments under the pressure of living her grandmother's dream while trying to find her own. In her moment of fracture, Janie "stood there until she felt something fall off the shelf inside her. Then she went inside there to see what it was. She saw that [Jody] never was the flesh and blood figure of her dreams. She was saving up feelings for some man she had never seen. She had an inside and an outside now and suddenly she knew how not to mix them" (72). This is the defining moment in which Janie realizes that the dreams of her race's past are not her own; she is yet to live enough to find out what her own dreams are. She is ready to separate her sense of obligation to the past from her sense of obligation to her own well being and happiness. It is obvious that she must fragment her two obligations to ensure the survival of her own will-her will crawls "inside" to be protected, while the obligation to her past remains on the "outside". "She...put on a fresh dress and head kerchief and went to the store before Jody had time to send for her. That was a bow to the outside of things" (72).

Both the fragmentation and modernist themes of Hurston's novel become quite evident in a passage where Janie "sat and watched the shadow of herself going about tending store and prostrating itself before Jody, while all the time she herself sat under a shady tree with the wind blowing through her hair and clothes...near about making summertime out of lonesomeness" (77). Here, Hurston uses a theme of modernism in which different perceptions and new points of view are merged together to become an innovative and fresh form of something well known or familiar. This younger, naïve entity of Janie, in which the soul of the adult fragmented Janie resides, is watching her counterpart, described as a "shadow", go about performing the daily tasks. The shadow and the naïve girl both live distinctly but are encompassed within the single character of Janie. The fundamental characteristic of alienation is incorporated within this obvious expression of modernism by Hurston's use of the word "lonesomeness".

With respect to Janie's fragmentation, the term "shadow" has an interesting connotation. A shadow does not even reside on or in the body, but is projected onto the surrounding environment of the person to whom it belongs. It is completely unreflective of and disengaged from the person whose form it reflects (in this case, the real Janie that is content under her tree). While a shadow can portray the profile, the actions and the whereabouts of the person to whom it belongs, a shadow cannot convey the emotions or defining features of the face of its owner. Additionally, while referring to the shadow, which is known to be an entity of Janie, Hurston uses the pronoun "itself" rather than "herself", stripping the shadowing even of its gender. Since the reader is familiar with the extent of pleasure that Janie finds in sexuality, the description of an entity of Janie that is genderless and cannot experience sexual pleasure is obviously very detached from the character that the reader is familiar with. This fraction of Janie is given no personal attribute but its human form. This is the "Janie" that lives on the outside-completely fragmented from the true entity of Janie that the reader is familiar with- displaying a submissive, emotionally non-responsive person to Joe, obeying his will and keeping the peace.

Hurston further reinforces Janie's fragmentation through free and indirect discourse. The opening frame of Hurston's novel is a conversation between Janie and her neighbor Pheobe. The reader is led into Janie's history by Janie herself in the first person narrative. However, in a scene after the reader witnesses Janie's fragmentation, the narrator states that "[Janie] went straight to her bosom friend, Pheoby Watson, and told her about it" (82). This reintroduction to Pheobe disorients the reader, relocates him or her from a confidante stance in the midst of Janie and Pheobe's intimate conversation to the stance of an outsider following along at a removed distance from the characters. It seems that even the narrator, who used to freely assume the voice of Janie, can no longer become intimate with the character's thoughts due to her fragmentation.

The most creative and thorough display of Janie's fragmentation is expressed in the scene of Jody's funeral. By now, Janie has become familiar with her fragmentation and the existence of her two distinct entities. Janie no longer watches the unresponsive self from afar while residing with the other entity like a person watches their shadow on a wall. She has grown comfortable with this side of herself; now, she wears her protective entity like clothing-a façade that covers and protects her true being. On the day of the funeral, the narrator states that Janie "starched and ironed her face and came set in the funeral behind her veil" (89). Janie's feeling of security when wearing her public identity is evidenced when the narrator states that "it was like a wall of stone and steel". This wall/entity has become the perfect barrier that permits Janie's soul-the real Janie-to flourish inside. "She did not reach outside for anything, nor did the things of death reach inside to disturb her calm" (89). The division between the two forms is exceptionally evident through Hurston's description of the wall between them as "stone and steel" giving the sense of total impermeability. Janie's inability to reach out of her cocoon, and the inability of the environment around the "outside Janie" to seep into the "inside Janie's" calm also reinforces the complete division of the two entities. The division is further emphasized by the polar opposite emotions displayed by each entity. The reader is told that there is "weeping and wailing outside" but that "inside the expensive black folds were resurrection and life"(89). It is quite possible that these "black folds" refer to the layers of protection of her outer entity. Finally, the narrator conveys to the reader that Janie "sent her face to Joe's funeral, and herself went rollicking with the springtime across the world", suggesting that during the funeral the beings were so disconnected that, at times, they were not even mentally present within the same being.

Within the passage cited above, Hurston uses an interesting variation of sentence lengths in the midst of her descriptions of the fragmented heroine. The longer more descriptive sentences that describe Janie's state of being are separated by a series of short, powerful single word sentences. The words "Darkness", "Eternity", "Finish" , "End" and "Deep hole" drive a feeling of dark finality. This very passage ends, however, with one of Janie's entities rollicking with springtime. Upon a closer look at the words emphasizes in the single word sentences, the words "Nevermore" and "Dissolution" stand out as an implication in a direction other than a foreboding finality. When "Nevermore" is interpreted as implying "never again", Hurston may be implying that Janie will never again have to hide inside a detached shell of herself now that Jody is dead. Additionally, the term "dissolution" can be interpreted as a foreshadowing to the ending of the division between the two entities, melding her into one being. Now that the cause of her fragmentation has been removed, Janie can begin to terminate the separation that exists within her. Janie has lived her life for other's that have come before her for forty years. Now she is finally free to abandon her responsibility to others and concentrate on living her life on her own terms. In living on her own terms, there is no need for an outside shell that will bow to others. Hurston is implying the beginning of reunification for her heroine.

Hurston facilitates Janie's reunification by once again using the technique of free and indirect discourse. As discussed previously, both the reader and the narrator lost the ability to become intimate with the thoughts and emotions of Janie after the fragmentation of her person into separate entities. After a time of being able to live her life freely, the narrator regains the ability to connect with the main character and, in doing so, reacquaints the reader with her as well through free and indirect discourse. As Janie waits for Tea Cake to arrive home her emotions overflow and, for the first time since her fragmentation, seep through to the outside. As Janie's emotions reconnect, the narrator is re-establishing deeper connections with the character. It is during her emotional reconnection that narrator is again able assume the voice of Janie: "The thing made itself into pictures and hung around Janie's bedside all night long. Anyhow, she wasn't going back to Eatonville to be laughed at and pitied...But oh God, don't let Tea Cake be off somewhere hurt and Ah not know nothing about it. And God, please suh, don't let him love nobody else but me. Maybe Ah'm is uh fool, Lawd, lak dey say, but Lawd, Ah been so lonesome...Ah done waited uh long time" (120). Hurston's creative use of syntax and diction to portray the infusion of the narrator with Janie's inner thoughts is extraordinary. Hurston begins the paragraph in the voice of the narrator as a completely separate existence from the character. This is displayed through the narrator's referral to Janie by her name as well the pronoun "she". Additionally, the language of the narrator as she speaks to the reader as a separate existence is grammatically correct and eloquent. As the character becomes more emotional and therefore unified within herself, the narrator is brought into Janie, and begins to speak to the reader from within Janie, assuming the first narrative. This infusion is evidenced not only by the shift from "she" to a personal pronoun, but by the dialect change from proper English to that of traditional African American accent with words such as "Lawd", "Ah" "dey" and "uh". The narrator's grammar also deteriorates from its correctness to the level of a less educated, "characteristically black" use of language rules. This obvious infusion of the narrator is crucial to the understanding of what is taking place within the person of Janie. Her fragmented entities are beginning to lose their division. The heat of her love for Tea Cake and desire to fulfill her own dreams is melding her two pieces together. The result is the ability for the reader, through the infusion of the narrator back into Janie's mind, to become reincorporated into the intimate thoughts of the characters. Hurston conveys to the reader that the reunification is complete just a few scenes after the use of free and indirect discourse, when the narrator states that Janie felt a "self-crushing love", and "so her soul crawled out from its hiding place" (128). The emergence of her soul is not only the result of Janie's two fragments reuniting together as one, but the acceptance of this merged being by Janie's soul. By the act of acceptance by the soul, Hurston conveys to the reader that the person that has emerged from the combination of entities will have new, more self-concerted priorities, be confident of her own dreams and be determined to demand the freedom to live life without restraint.

The character of Janie introduced to the readers exemplifies the bridge between the fight against slavery in the generations before her and the fight for equality in future generations. Janie was literally walked upon by everyone else on their journey to fulfill their own aspirations, and she crumbled under the pressure. Through the modern aesthetics of fragmentation and reunification Hurston conveys a stronger, more unified character that emerges from the broken bridge. Janie exemplifies the "New Negro" of her own generation, determined to never bend under the weight of tradition and resolved to truly and freely live.