In New York on September 18, 1937, Zora Neale Hurston's book, Their Eyes Were Watching God, was published. Some critics misunderstood her vision and felt that Hurston's work diluted their efforts to battle racism. Zora Neale Hurston passed away on January 28, 1960 in Fort Pierce, Florida before she could even begin to realize what her literary works would do for the world. About ten years later, a writer named Alice Walker came across Hurston's Mules and Men. She was researching a story on voodoo and the discovery of Hurston's work ultimately led Walker to Their Eyes Were Watching God. Walker traveled to Eatonville, Florida where she pretended to be Hurston's niece. She traveled to the cemetery where Hurston was buried: the Garden of Heavenly
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is a story written about a woman by a woman. It is often looked at from a feminist point of view. It is often thought that Hurston wrote the novel with that intention. In the novel readers see Janie develop into a strong woman through the trials that she endured. Janie worked hard to overcome the oppression of being an African American woman in the early 1900s.
During the early stages of Zora Neale Hurston’s life she lived as a daughter without a caring mom. Since the age of nine her and her mom had a special connection but after her mom died, “Zora wasn’t interested in life at home and at the age of fourteen, packed her bags and traveled with a theatrical group for a whole year in the south”(Parini) . “In 1917, after leaving the troupe in Baltimore, Hurston attended Morgan Academy, now Morgan State University” (Parini). After this she
Zora Neal Hurston’s life had many ups and downs, and some is still a mystery to us (Telgan, 301). Born in Eatonville, Florida, an all African American community, Hurston grew up not feeling the full force of the nations racial problem (Telgan, 301). At the ripe age of 14, she left the nest and started working for white families (Telgan, 301). One of which sent her to Morgan Academy, which led her to study at Barnard College under anthropologist Franz Boas (Telgan, 301). Afterwards, Hurston went to colleges such as Howard University and Columbia University, where she studied to receive a Ph.D. in anthropology (Telgan, 301).
After her works appeared in several major publications such as Opportunity, The New Negro, and Negro World between 1924 and 1925, Hurston moved to New York City. In New York, she met and partnered with prominent members of the Harlem Renaissance, including Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Fannie Hurst, and Carl Van Vechten. With the assistance of Annie Nathan Meyer, Hurston enrolled in Barnard College in 1926 where she studied under legendary anthropologist Franz Boas. Under Boas, Hurston developed the skills and the voice to share the works of the rural folk culture where she had been born and raised, and “with Boas’s assistance, she obtained a research fellowship from the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH) and
Zora Neal Hurston’s Sweat tells the story of a woman, Delia, who is in an abusive relationship with her husband Sykes. At the end of the story she lets him die from a rattlesnake bite in defiance to him after everything he has done to her, including beating her constantly and cheating on her. Delia’s actions at the end of the short story were completely justifiable. For one, the story mentions multiple times that Delia is religious.
Zora Neale Hurston was born January 7, 1891 in Notasulga, Alabama. Her mother died when she was 9 years old and her father remarried soon after her mother’s death which resulted in her being passed from relative to relative and would work as their nanny or housekeeper. Zora attended Columbia University and was an anthropologist and novelist, she was also a leader in the Harlem Renaissance. Zora Neale Hurston wrote 4 novels and had many short stories published and was well known for her piece Their Eyes Were Watching God. Zora passed away on January 28, 1960 in Pierce, Florida due to a stroke because of her hypertensive heart disease.
Connecting Hurston life to the novel While Their Eyes Were Watching God is a work of fiction, it has been considered autobiographical as well. Hurston reveals her personality through the interaction of the author’s, protagonist’s, narrator’s voices and through the narrative events. Hurston’s father has been lodged in many characteristics of Jody Stark. Like Jody, her father moved to a solely black town called Eatonville as in the novel. Her father John Hurston was also noted for “being very ambitious, hard-headed and having a prominent position of carpenter as well being a Baptist preacher and attaining a position of power within the South Florida Baptist Association”.
Zora Neale Hurston starts off by introducing how she a colored women in the article, How it Feels To be Colored Me. The article shows how Zora goes throughout her life as she grows up as a young colored women. Zora explains how she was born and raised in the town of Eatonville, Florida. She brings upon the point on how she belongs to the people of the town and that these people need Zora and her great self personality. This shows how this little town and how it is connected to each person.
For example, the works of famous American writer Zora Neale Hurston were highly influenced by their childhood. According to Micaela Paris and Brenna Mckee (2011) in their article “The Influence of Hurston’s Childhood on her Writing”, they both agree that Hurston’s close relationships and the different events around her served as the perfect scenery to portray in her most notable books. One of her novels “Jonah’s Gourd Vine” (1934) duplicates the fact that her father was a church’s pastor. Three years later she published her most famous novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God” which also mirrors her years living in Eatonville, Florida around her father. In her compositions, she used her own style to embed her personal livings into fictional stories.
Specifically, Zora Neale Hurston celebrated African American culture in a unique way by using authentic African American dialect and raw storytelling. The dialect used in the second paragraph of the story gives ample insight into the racial tension of that era, “Setting up dere looking dem white folks right in de face! They’s gowine lynch you, yet.” Hurston uses her grandmother’s African American dialect to celebrate her culture and to accent the story.
Although I read the book Their Eyes Were Watching God in high school, I do not believe I was prepared to understand the logic behind who the author really was. Watching the film Zora’s Roots before reading any major short story or novel by Hurston can allow readers to gain a better understanding of the meaning behind the writing. Undoubtedly, Hurston was also able to be viewed as the great anthropologist and novelist that she was. I would recommend this film for an English, literature, poetry, or even a creative writing classes.
In this essay, Hurston talks about her daily life struggles of being black, and how even though it was hard sometimes, she always stood tall and proud of who she was. In lines 14-15, she says, ¨The front porch might seem a daring place for the rest of the town, but it was a gallery seat to me,¨. This is describing about how when white people rode through their all black town, most people were intimidated by them, and immediately ran inside. However, Zora stood proud on her front porch, because she knew she was not doing anything wrong, and she knew that she had the right to be standing on her own property, watching others pass by. Hurston turns the negatives in her life to positive statements when she states, “ ¨It is thrilling to think—to know that for any act of mine, I shall get twice as much praise or twice as much blame.
Zora Neale Hurston was a black female, born in 1891. She is the author of a very well known novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. During the Harlem Renaissance, she lived in a town called Eatonville, Florida. Through the novel, Zora Hurston indirectly tells you the story of her youth and early adulthood through various different characters. The reader is able to become familiar with the struggles that she encountered in the South during the Harlem Renaissance, but they are also able to understand that she was able to overcome each one of these obstacles.
Keeling advises the reader to look at Henry Louis Gates reading of Zora Neal Hurston. According to Keeling, “Gates does not focus on Hurston’s explcit subject matter, nor her social politics.
Word choice is a potent power that can be employed to evoke a variety of feelings ranging from light-hearted amusement to pure rage. Zora Neale Hurston’s depictions of African Americans in “Sweat” simply as human being with little reference to racial inequality with white people is what defines Her as a modernist figure. Infusing dialect endemic to African Americans is what “makes it new” and adds dimensions of authenticity to her characters in a way which otherwise could not be achieved. Hurston uses dialect to bolster her attempt at effectively portraying African American day to day life likely for several reason including highlighting feminism as a social issue that should be viewed on par with racial equality, to show other African Americans