This thesis examines the changes in fairytales and folklore overtime and across borders. Folklore and fairytales have been around for centuries and similar stories appear in multiple countries. These familiar tales have not remained the same as time has gone by. The alterations that occur are the result of many factors. The current culture, the story's ending, and the intended audience can all effect [sic] the content of fairytales and folklore.

Zora Neale Hurston is a renowned author, folklorist, anthropologist, and a leader of the Harlem Renaissance. Hurston infused Southern vernacular and poetic expression to produce an unprecedented narrative voice.... I argue that Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God is a modern folktale intended to expose and reconstruct the repetitive paradigms of racial and gender ... inequality while creating a new consciousness of egalitarianism.