Zora Neal Hurston was one of the most outstanding writers in the 20th century and was praised as “the mother of black woman literature”.Her masterpiece，Their Eyes Were Watching God，was regarded as the classic among the American literature，black literature and women’s literature.Lots of approaches and methods are applied to interpret this great piece of arts；however，most of them have concerned it from the perspective of women’s consciousness，the right of speech，black woman image，black literary tradition，the feature of Negroes，black folklore，and its symbolic meaning.Hurston’s expansion to the traditional initiation story as an important theme has long escaped critic’s attention.Therefore，by studying the origin and development of the initiation story，the author of this thesis will prove Hurston’s expansion from the perspectives of the characterization and themes in Their Eyes Were Watching God.This thesis is composed of the following four chapters.In the first chapter，Hurston’s life and her masterpiece Their Eyes Were Watching God are introduced，and the scholarship in this field will be reviewed.The second and the third chapters are key parts of this thesis.The second chapter mainly analyzes the expansion of the text from the perspective of characterization.By comparison between male and female protagonists in traditional Initiation story and the peculiar female images in Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God，we could get a conclusion about what kind of female protagonists Hurston has created and in what way it is different from traditional initiation characters.Then in the third chapter，the author of this thesis will further explore how Hurston broadens the initiation story from its theme.It’s Hurston who first notes the issues of miscegenation，concerning their anxiety over racial identity and their attitude toward the culture of the white and black.Moreover，by describing the culture blending and harmony in the novel，Hurston finally introduces a new way for mixed-blood to solve their embarrassing state.The final chapter serves as conclusion，which summarizes the analysis of Hurston’s expansion in two aspects mentioned above and shows further concern for the tragic fate of Mixed-blood’s and the methods of solving these problems.