Their Eyes Were Watching God is narrated in the third person by an unnamed, omniscient narrator. The narrator speaks in standard English, while the characters speak in black dialect, which is representative of the black community as it progressively adopts the patterns of black vernacular speech. The narrative voice takes on the aspect of oral speech, telling not only Janie's story, but many other stories as well. The story takes place in rural Florida during the 1920s and 1930s, the communities are all black, and in most cases they were established by former slaves.