Summary Of Zora Neale Hurston And Langston Hughes

Zora Neale Hurston, known as one of the most symbolic African American women during the Harlem Renaissance in the 1930’s. Hurston was known as a non fiction writer, anthropologist and folklorist. Hurston’s literature has served as a big eye opener during the Harlem Renaissance, celebrating black dialect and their traditions. Most of her published stories “depict relationships among black residents in her native southern Florida, was largely unconcerned with racial injustices” (Bomarito 89). Hurston was unique when it came to her racial point of views, promoting white racism instead of black racism. Even though her works had been forgotten by the time of her death, now her literature has left a bigger impact to future literature

In the early 1940s an African American writer by the name of Langston Hughes, who flourished during the Harlem Renaissance in New York, had established a character in his short story writings named Jesse B. Semple. Through these short stories he used this character to represent the black man of his times. However the question remains, is Jesse B. Semple an accurate representation of the black man of 1940s? This question can best be answered by looking at the conditions of society during that time period, what the mind set of the black man in that era and comparing it to the representation that Hughes created with Jesse B. Semple.

In the early part of the 20th century writers became more artistic. A modernist approach could be seen in many artist works. The African American writers during this era could be seen as aggressively self-conscious, divided, and vigor. Yet, many were just trying to figure out who they were as a person, and how they fit in the north. The Harlem Renaissance paved a way for these African American writers to emerge. Urban culture became visible, and many writers begin expressing themselves. Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston are two modernists who exposed the beauty of the African American Culture. Therefore, there artistic abilities and cultural experiences supported them in identifying themselves through short stories and poems.

In the early 1940s an African American writer by the name of Langston Hughes, who flourished during the Harlem Renaissance in New York, had established a character in his short story writings named Jesse B. Semple. Through these short stories he used this character to represent the black man of his times. However the question remains, is Jesse B. Semple an accurate representation of the black man of 1940s? This question can best be answered by looking at the conditions of society during that time period, what the mind set of the black man in that era and comparing it to the representation that Hughes created with Jesse B. Semple.

Langston Hughes was an American poet, community worker, author, playwright, newspaper man, and inspiration from Joplin, Missouri. He was a protégé for many African Americans, despite the times he lived in.

Both Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes were great writers but their attitudes towards their personal experience as an African American differed in many ways. These differences can be attributed to various reasons that range from gender to life experience but even though they had different perceptions regarding the African American experience, they both shared one common goal, racial equality through art. To accurately delve into the minds of the writers’ one must first consider authors background such as their childhood experience, education, as well their early adulthood to truly understand how it affected their writing in terms the similarities and

Langston Hughes’ dedication to depicting the bona fide aspects of black life leads him to discuss struggle. One of the most omnipresent themes in black life, at the time of Hughes, is the constant struggle they face every

Zora Neale Hurston’s writings contained the linguistic elements (i.e. syntax (speech patterns), diction (sounds), figures of speech (morphology), and grammar (pronunciation) necessary to create the languages, plots, and settings of rural southern African-Americans during the early nineteenth century. The realism and truthfulness of her stories have often been questioned, but, based on the way the people talked, the living conditions and the gender relationships presented in her stories in relationship to stories written by white writers of the words, pronunciations, and speech patterns of the same race of people during the same time

Langston Hughes is one the most renowned and respected authors of twentieth century America not simply one of the most respected African-American authors, though he is certainly this as well, but one of the most respected authors of the period overall. A large part of the respect and admiration that the man and his work have garnered is due to the richness an complexity of Hughes' writing, both his poetry and his prose and even his non-fictions. In almost all of his texts, Hughes manages at once to develop and explore the many intricacies and interactions of the human condition and specifically of the experience growing up and living as a black individual in a white-dominated and explicitly anti-Black society while at the same time, while at the same time rendering his human characters and their emotions in a simple, straightforward, and immensely accessible fashion. Reading the complexity behind the surface simplicity of his works is at once enjoyable and edifying.

In some of Hurston’s works she acknowledges Eatonville, which was the first all-black community in America that she moved to when she was only three years old (Kimmons, 3). Hurston viewed Eatonville as a place where blacks could ultimately be themselves without having to conform to the norms of a white society (Kimmons, 1). Hurston was protected from the realisms of judgement and disgust towards African Americans; since Eatonville was described to be somewhat safe from lynchings and other violence related to racism. After

“The Harlem Renaissance was a time where the Afro-American came of age; he became self-assertive and racially conscious… he proclaimed himself to be a man and deserving respect. Those Afro-Americans who were part of that time period saw themselves as principals in that moment of transformation from old to new” (Huggins 3). African Americans migrated to the North in great numbers to seek better lives than in the South as the northern economy was booming and industrial jobs were numerous. This movement brought new ideas and talents that shifted the culture forever. Black writers, such as Langston Hughes, used their work to claim a place for themselves and to demand self-respect in society. Poems that Langston Hughes wrote captured the essence of the complexity of a life that mixes joy and frustration of black American life through the incorporation of jazz and blues in order to examine the paradox of being black in mostly white America, the land of the not quite free.

In the fight for equality, people of color often feel isolated and separated from those whose privilege reinforces their oppression. However, there are and always have been white people who see the inequalities that are practiced in society and speak out against them in hopes of reaching equality for all. Langston Hughes used his voice in poetry to express his experience as a black man in the United States during the Civil Rights Movement, and his is a household name. There is no doubt that his words have power. The reader expects to feel his experience and gain empathy and understanding through his poetry. In his poem, “Let America Be America Again,” Hughes presents his experience of American life in a powerful contrast to the experience

Although I enjoyed these essays, and narratives, I mainly connected to the more poetic and melodious works within these sections. Langston Hughes offered some aesthetically pleasing, gritty and profound poetry. I appreciated how he worked to meld the sounds and spontaneity of blues and jazz into his writing which made for some fascinating forms in some of his poems. His poetry as well as the other poetry/lyrics from these sections felt separate from the debates within the other narrative forms and “defies the categories”(105). This I felt was also true concerning the work of the female writers. There work felt separate from the concerns of many of the male writers. Gwendolyn Brooks, Ma Rainey, Zora Neale Hurston, are some of the female writers

Hurston was a talented anthropologist with an excellent grasp of storytelling, her realistic artistical writing and deep love for her community and culture showed with every written word in her literary toolbox. Hurston’s passion for studying human behavior, their beliefs, customs, and humanity has assisted in her unadulterated

Langston Hughes, author of the short story "On the Road" and the poem "Mother to Son," often illustrated in his writing the hardships experienced by the characters--products of African American life in the United States. While Hughes and other young African-American authors wanted to define and celebrate black art and culture, they were also responsible for changing the preconceived notions of most Americans' erroneous ideas of black life (Mabunda