Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) tells of Janie Crawford’s alternately joyful and tragic search for love, autonomy, and self-realization in a society and cultural environment where any one of the three was exceedingly difficult for a black woman to achieve. In her essay “How It Feels to Be Colored Me,” Hurston commented that she refused to be a part of “the sobbing school of Negrohood who hold that nature has somehow given them a low down dirty deal,” and she expressed her belief that “bitterness is the underarm odor of wishful weakness . . . the graceless acknowledgement of defeat.” In what ways does Their Eyes Were Watching God exemplify these statements?

Hurston decries the state of almost morbid, passive acceptance of misfortune that seems to run amok in what she calls "Negrohood" at the time—the idea that fate has dealt black people a harsh hand and they can do nothing to change that fact. Her seminal work Their Eyes Were Watching God is a perfect exemplification of this idea, because the main character, Janie, rebels against the bad circumstances in her life and vows to get what she wants.
Initially, the character is raised without a mother and in a very low class and state. She accepts an arranged marriage from her grandmother, but when she is mistreated and does not have love in her marriage, she departs, vowing that she will not settle for mistreatment. Marrying again, she suffers an abusive and loveless marriage, worse than the last, but profits massively from her husband's ambition. Eventually, with a wealthy estate in tow after her husband's passing, she finds the loving relationship she wants, with a man named Tea Cake.
Janie constantly strives to make her life something new, something her mother and grandmother never had, and something she feels like she deserves. She even outright decries the attitude of the black citizens in Florida, saying they are resigned to their lot, while she and her husband make a concerted effort to advance in status and wealth. While it is difficult, she proves that with determination, she—not fate—can decide what her life looks like.