On the first page of the text, Hurston writes, “Mules and other brutes had occupied their skins,” as a description of the people who’ve been forced to labor all day. This description can be related to a characterization of black women as “de mule uh de world” that is made later by the main character’s grandmother.
Their Eyes Were Watching God: 1
Invisible Man: 2
At the start of the novel, the protagonist is “considered an example of desirable conduct” and he delivers a speech on the day of his graduation from high school that emphasizes the idea that “humility was the secret.” This speech and this behavior can be associated with Booker T. Washington, who is regarded as encouraging black people to accept their inferior status in American society in order to gain the right to do menial work and physical labor for white people.