There are at least a couple of different texts in which Zora Neale Hurston describes Eatonville, Florida, a town where she grew up but also one in which she set her best-known novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. In the novel, Janie moves to Eatonville with her second husband. It's different from where she grew up because it is an all-black town. Her husband, Joe Starks, is also the mayor. This meant that the focus in this part of the novel is not as much on interracial tensions. Rather, we see the struggles Janie faces as she is placed apart from the community (by her husband) as the mayor's wife. Nonetheless, Hurston's description of the town tells us that its people value community and humor. They pass the time by sitting on their porches and talking and by telling entertaining anecdotes at the town store. The people can be somewhat judgmental, though, as they snicker about Janie, especially when she returns to town after working in the Everglades, wearing overalls.

In "How It Feels to be Colored Me," Hurston talks about her own childhood experience in Eatonville. She describes only seeing white people on the road passing by town. She was not really aware of racial tensions as a child because she lived in Eatonville. It was only later, when she went to school outside of her hometown that she felt different from other people. In the essay, though, Hurston reiterates that she is confident in who she is regardless of the environment. It is possible that her upbringing in Eatonville is what gave her that self-assurance.