In a passage from Seraph on the Swanee, Hurston illustrates impoverished town in west Florida and how the people that live there conduct simple lives by depending and feeding off the swamp. By giving the passage historical context, Hurston clearly shows how rare the town of Sawley is in today’s fast pace lifestyle. Through describing the town Sawley and its people, Hurston displays an appreciation for the simple lifestyle the people of Sawley lead. Hurston highlights the beauty of Sawley and how the lifestyle of the people there may be different, but the town stands as little slice heaven for those who call it home. Through an allegory of the bliss that Adam and Eve experienced in the Garden of Eden.
Name: Lakisha Minnis Instructor: Mr. Compton English 2202-001 Date: April. 24, 2017 Sweat Zora Neale Hurston is a prolific writer famed for numerous award winning plays, novels and short stories. In this paper, I will be elaborating on a character from the novel Sweat. Her novel Sweat was first published in 1926. Sweat is a novel that tells a story about the good, evil, and domestic abusive husband.
In reading Joyce Carol Oates, “Hi Howya Doin”, 2007 and Zora Neale Hurston’s, “Spunk”, 1925, we have noticed similarities and differences between the two stories, which we have analyzed for further discussion. Both stories consist of life that is filled with uncertainty; good and evil are ill defined. In the story, “Hi Howya Doin”, by Joyce Carol Oates, she describes a husky male running along a path filled with a variety of different individuals from all walks of life who want only to be left alone, want no social interaction or discourse and prefer to contemplate in solitude with their miserable existence. In “Spunk”, the author paints a verbal picture of life during the early part of the 20th century, in a rural southern community, where social discourse, social contact and social interaction are extremely important for
Zora Hurston uses vivid imagery, natural diction, and several literary tools in her essay “How It Feels to Be Colored Me”. Hurston’s use of imagery, diction, and literary tools in “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” contributes to, and also compliments, the essay’s theme which is her view on life as a “colored” person. Throughout “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” Hurston carefully incorporates aspects of her African American culture in an effort to recapture her ancestral past. Hurston’s use of imagery, diction, and use of literary tools shape her essay into a piece of Harlem Renaissance work. Imagery in “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” is quite abundant.
The way Hurston develops these themes throughout the novel is by using ‘’…a blossoming pear tree,’’ (Hurston 10) Janie’s long and plentiful hair, and a
Thanks to this disparity between black and white people as well as the use of the African American Vernacular English, Hurston cherishes the black culture. Importantly, Benesch claims that: “if it were not for the abundant use of Black English, which in itself ties the text to a specific cultural background, Their Eyes Were Watching God night easily [...] refer to ubiquitous problems of human existence” (Benesch, 1988: 628). The problem of the relations between the black and the white in the novel is also discussed by Jürgen C. Wolter (2001). He argues that the progression visible in Janie`s character symbolizes the change in thinking about skin color.
Hurston tells the story of Janie, a black woman who because of her grandmother experiences and beliefs was forced to marry into a loveless marriage with Logan Killicks, a hard-working farmer who had 60 acres of land and could provide for Janie. This marriage ended when Janie ran away with Joe Stark, a man that she fell in love with and thought could give her the love absent between her and Logan. But Janie soon realized that her second marriage wouldn’t turn out better than her first. Joe was just as controlling and degrading as Logan. He hardly expressed his love for Janie and spoke to her like an incompetent child.
In utilizing the supernatural within the short story “Spunk,” specifically the character of Joe returning from the dead as a bobcat, Zora Neale Hurston illustrates the strong desire for equality commonly seen in literature written during the Harlem Renaissance. Firstly, it is important to note that while alive, Joe faces quite a bit of negative treatment, especially at the hands of Spunk. For example, Spunk ends up taking Joe’s wife, Lena, from him, walking around the village as “big as life an’ brassy as tacks” (Hurston 949). At this moment, Spunk is far from ashamed to be seen with another man’s wife, basically portraying Joe as incapable of being a decent husband and standing up for himself and his marriage.
This is my first reading of Hurston’s ethnographic work and it has been quite an introduction to a very unique voice and style and methods. My first impression was, admittedly, that of both wonder and irritation. I marveled at the amount of rich material found between the covers. The characters are so fleshed out, the background (such as her hometown) so well imagined that yes, it felt at times I was reading a work of fiction (which Boxwell picks up on later). The expansive cast of supporting characters are so well-portrayed that their interactions threaten to steal the reader’s attention away from the folklore (are they truths?
Annette Kolodny in her essay, “Unearthing Herstory”, explains the concept of engendering landscape and its effects on American society. Kolodny believes the “vocabulary for the experience of the land-as-woman” (611) was a result of the settlers’ fantasies of America nature. She argues that because of the beauty and fertileness of the land led to “an abstraction of the essential femininity of the terrain” (607). Moreover, the inaccuracy of explorers also contributed to this fantasies, for their documents painted a picture of America as a paradise, thus presenting them the false picture (607-608). Therefore, the settlers labeled the New World as a Mother, who brings life source and happiness, or a woman.
While married Janie had to conform to what her husband wanted her to be like, look like, and act like. Janie’s hair is another powerful symbol in the novel. It symbolizes her power and freedom within society. It is what most of the men characters noticed about her right away. Her hair was so beautiful that while being married to Joe Starks, he made her wear it in a hair rag.
Zora Neale Hurston’s writing in Their Eyes Were Watching God, reflects the Harlem Renaissance through Janie 's individuality, and departs from the Harlem Renaissance with the common recurrence of black woman empowerment. In the novel, Hurston reflects the ideas of the Harlem renaissance with the ways in which Janie rebels and goes against norms for women.
The ethnographies of Zora Neale Hurstson's Of Mules and Men and that of the Clifford Geertz's Balinese Cockfight contrast significantly in their writings. They contrast in that they differ in their ethnographic approach, what or who they are observing and their judgements placed on those they are observing. The narrative voice remains the same between the two Anthropologist's writing but seems to be the only thing. Hurstons's Of Mules and Men made great contributions to African American culture as we know if today. She focusses her ethnography on African American folklore of the time in the 1930s.
Historical criticism strives to cognize a literary work by examining the social, cultural, and intellectual context that essentially includes the artist’s biography and milieu. Historical critics are more concerned with guiding readers through the use of identical connotation rather than analyzing the work’s literary significance. (Brizee and Tompkins). The journey of a historical reading begins with the assessment of how the meaning of a text has altered over time. In many cases, when the historical context of a text is not fully comprehended, the work literature cannot be accurately interpreted.
He sets himself apart from woman and nature. ”(1) Griffin explains how women are spiritually associated with nature more than man. Images of nature 's cycles and systems recur throughout the novel.
