Hurston breaks several of the themes of the Harlem Renaissance. One in particular is to make other Americans aware of the African-American experience. Richard Write states, "Their eyes, as a novel, exploits those quaint aspects of Negro life that satisfied the tastes of a white audience. It did for literature what the minstrel show did for theater, that is, made white folks laugh"(1). Write, as a critic, fulfills his duty to critique literature truthfully. In Hurston's novel she rarely states anything about the reality of the South at that time.

Life for Janie is real light and not very tedious. She goes through life with no major conflicts that portray black traditional life. Her problem only includes her troubles with her various husbands. Other than that she does not confront any real known problems that blacks had at that time. '"Don't need tuh ast me where Ah been all dis time, 'cause it's mah all day job tuh tell yuh"'(115). In this particular passage, Tea Cake is very nice to Janie after coming home to a hard days work. His tone and diction is very mellow. The rest of the book is like this quote as well, where Tea Cake and Janie do not have any harsh conflicts, or they do not have any conflicts with the other people of the town. "She handed over the cigarettes and took the money. He broke the pack and thrust one between his full, purple lips"(91). In this excerpt Janie treats Tea Cake with respect and dignity, something that was not commonly done back in Janie's time, and Tea Cake gives that respect and dignity back to Janie. A woman of Janie's time could not have been or given respect when she has a lot more to worry about than giving respect to an another black man. But Janie has to give that same respect to any white person in reality. Yet in the book Janie treats blacks and whites as equals; a rare thing at that time. Another passage that shows the reader that Hurston refuses to state the truth about life is, '"But Nanny, Ah wants to want him sometimes. Ah don't want him to do all de wanting"'(22). In this quote Hurston tries to tell the reader that Janie can love and cherish someone, and someone can treasure and love Janie back. Janie has a lot more to worry about than loving somebody. She has to learn the value of her life. Most blacks of Janie's time get treated badly. Janie is a very lucky person. She is on the top of the world she does not go through the harsh environment that her fellow brothers and sisters go through.

'"Brothers and sisters, sinc

Some common words found in the essay are:
Harlem Renaissance, Tea Cake, Richard Write, Cake Ah, Woods'179 Janie, Life Janie, God Janie, Janie Janie, Jodie Janie, Mis' Starks, harlem renaissance, racial oppression, tea cake, watching god, eyes watching, protest racial, eyes watching god, protest racial oppression, black people, americans aware african-american, white people, cake respect, book hurston, themes harlem renaissance, aware african-american experience,
Approximate Word count = 1322
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)