Dust Tracks On A Road By Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston was an accomplished writer and knowledgeable anthropologist during the black cultural renaissance in Harlem, New York. Her memoir, Dust Tracks on a Road, highlights her understanding of friendship, love, religion, and race relations. Hurston prolifically recounts her life, beginning with the town she grew up in, Eatonville, Florida. As she transitions out of her childhood and a brief struggle in early adulthood, Hurston starts to outline the beginnings of her academic achievements. She continues her education and attends Howard University, which reignites her interest in anthropology and fuels her love of literature. Zora Neale Hurston’s ambition, emotional intelligence, and resilience influence her implicit and explicit

Throughout her memoir, she recounts her various relationships and connections. In her childhood, Hurston describes herself as extraverted and eager, and later in her life, she describes herself as private but highly outspoken and social. She had multiple friends in her time, most notably Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Claude McKay, and James Baldwin. She is an averagely sociable person who was not the life of the party but did not shy away from making close and meaningful relationships.

Hurston consistently fluctuates between maximizing and satisficing. In her memoir, Hurston battles between feeling satisfied with her achievements and regretting that she didn't do enough with her life. She states very clearly, “I regret all of my books.”(Hurston, 1985, p. 131). The plain wording in this statement displays the simplicity of her reflection. Hurston talked about how she pushed herself to write the very best books but at the same time spent time just writing. At the end of her autobiography, she spends a great deal of time reflecting on her life and putting all of her motivations in perspective. Hurston explains that she recognizes her ups and downs and wants to focus on a satisfying future. Throughout her life, she has had moments of maximizing and moments of satisficing, all of which she attributes to her

Her high levels of openness to experience, social motivations, and agreeableness led her to form fruitful connections wherever she went. These connections to not only friends but also knowledgeable peers and mentors helped her develop a high amount of achievement motivation. She knew how smart she was and always strived for accomplishments in her field. Without these traits, she would have never had the strength to take her challenges and turn them into opportunities. This also connects to the way she maximizes and satisfies her work and life. Hurston's neuroticism, as well as her conscientiousness, affect the way she views her accomplishments and day-to-day life. She would contradict herself by saying that she has done a lot with her time, planning her future and writing as much as she wanted or could, and then go on to say that she wishes she did more. Her extroversion, alongside her social motivations, made it so she ended her life with countless supporters and friends. Zora Neale Hurston had a determined, eccentric, and brilliant mind that touched all those that had the honor to know