In The New Masses, By Zora Neale Hurston

In the New Masses, an article written by Richard Wright, explores and compares two novels that revolve around the life of African Americans. One of the novels being Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston which Wright says it was a kind of minstrel show. Richard Wright’s critique of Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God proposes that Hurston’s interpretation of African-American life in the 1930’s was falsely portrayed. I, myself have to agree with Richard Wright’s criticism. In his article, he says, “Miss Hurston voluntarily continues in her novel the tradition which was forced upon the Negro in the theatre, that is, the minstrel technique that makes the "white folks" laugh. Her characters eat and laugh and cry and work and kill; they swing like a pendulum eternally in that safe and narrow orbit in which America likes to see the Negro live: between laughter and tears.” During the time Hurston published her book, many African American societies were heavily segregated and discriminated and having people fight and argue against the prejudiced gave the African American societies hope and courage. Hurston's book did the opposite. Instead of fighting for her freedom from

A prejudiced society that laughs at the life of African Americans which Wright also mentioned in his article. “...the minstrel technique that makes the "white folks" laugh.” Wright also mentions, “In the main, her novel is not addressed to the Negro, but to a white audience whose chauvinistic tastes she knows how to satisfy. She