"Their Eyes Were Watching God" Question 7

What techniques does the author use to engage the audience and make the story effective?  The first thing that came to mind was Janie herself.  Zora Neale Hurston shaped the protagonist very specifically.  She made Janie likable.  I suppose you could say most protagonists are likable, but not all.  Janie, I believe, was specifically shaped into her likable state by the author.  Why, may you ask?  To make you like her!  Duh!  Janie goes to more than her share of predicaments.  Ponder something with me.  Would you have liked reading "Their Eyes Were Watching God"  and watching Janie go through all of her misfortunes if she was a bitter old hag who treated everyone like dirt?  No!  You most likely would have put it down during her first marriage to never give it another thought.  She is not a bitter old hag, however.  She is a kind, caring, and big-hearted women who you want to win.  The author puts her in the place of the underdog, but also makes her a likable person who you cannot bear to see as the underdog.  That's when you stay up all night reading and just praying that Janie will find her one true love.  Zora Neale Hurston also has a very interesting way of putting prose.  She writes with a southern accent in mind, in this books case.  I find that very enjoyable to read.  It helps you to actually visualize the characters conversing in your head with the actual dialogue.  I am one of those people who it KILLS to see a movie before I read the book.  I live to visualize those characters in my head and to create them.  I saw movie trailers for "Twilight" before I had a chance to read them and I still hold a grudge against my friend Jessica because I never got to envision my own Edward Cullen.  Let's be honest, it would have blown Robert Pattinson out of the water.  The point of that little tangent:  I really enjoy when it's easy to visualize my own characters and Zora Neale Hurston's technique of writing with a southern accent in mind makes it that much easier to do that.  

Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God: A Novel. New York: Perennial Library, 1990. Print.