Many of Hurston's works were republished in 1995 in a two-volume set. Some previously unpublished material was also released. .
Zora Neale Hurston's most acclaimed work , Their Eyes Were Watching God, has been read, adored, rejected, reviewed, and badgered by many literary critics and uneducated readers alike. The plot centers itself around Janie, a character some critics say is mimicked after Hurston herself, and her journey toward self-discovery. As a victim of circumstance, Janie becomes a victim of her own position. She is raised to uphold the standards of her grandmother's generation; she is taught to be passive and subject to whatever life gives her. But as Janie grows older she begins to realize that the world may not like it, but she has got to follow her desires, not suppress them. The story begins in her childhood, with Janie exalting material possessions and money, two things she has never had an abundance of. Janie marries twice, the second marriage being bigamous. She realizes that she must be self-reliant. She experiences all of these things in a totally Black community, where society is motivated by the most basic human instincts. .
Hurston is one of the greatest writers or anthropologists of the 20th century. She could write about the most ordinary things and calibrate them into a brilliant masterpiece. Hurton's characters become so real and human; she has the power to write fiction that magically comes to life. This Eatonville native uses unique and illuminative dialect to bring her protagonist and company to vitality, in this coming -of- age' American Southern spiritual journey Their Eyes Were Watching God (Written in seven weeks during 1937 while Hurston was in Haiti; published in New York). By doing so, Hurston's stories demonstrate the complexity and depth of the lives of common folks and the richness and detail of their modest culture.
Hurston showed her true opinions on race relations in her autobiography Dust Tracks on the Road when she declared black artists should celebrate the positive aspects of black American Negro-hood.
