 We tend to point to the south, but I grew up in the north and there were places there you couldn't go safely either. So that's what I think she meant by this. They had been forced to be something else and somebody else when they were away from the safety of a community like Eatonville. Janie is the main character. Is it modeled on Zora Neale Hurston, do you think? I don't think so.