Zora Neal Hurston integrates folklore with fiction in her works. Zora Neale Hurston was an author during the time of the Harlem Renaissance who won Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards. She wrote a number of books but “Their Eyes Were watching God” was by far her most successful book that she has written. “Their Eyes Were watching God’” was published in 1937 had fifty-two editions and had a rating of 109,737. This was not only the most successful book that she had written but it was also one of the most popular books of her time. That may have been her most successful book she wrote but it is the same as all of her other fiction books with uses folklore in them witch is because of her background. It all started with “Jonah's Gourd Vine” …show more content…
Notasulga is a town in Alabama with a population of 916. If you’ve ever been in a small the south more important a town in Alabama you know they are very traditional. Her family moved to Eatonville, Florida, one of the first all-black towns in the United States witch was very traditional. She he was the fifth out of eight kids and her parents were John Hurston and Lucy Ann Hurston. Her father John Huston was a Baptist preacher and her mother Lucy Ann Huston was a school teacher. In my opinion this was the main reason she was very educated, religious and folklore. In addition she was very interested in other people, other counties’, and other communities’ folklore witch she also displayed in her work. In her book “Tell My Horse” she writes about accounts of the weird mysteries and horrors of voodoo in Haiti and Jamaica. This is a picture of ceremonies and customs and superstitions because it is based on Hurston's personal experiences in Haiti and Jamaica. Times Book Review said, "Strikingly dramatic, yet simple and unrestrained an unusual and intensely interesting book richly packed with strange information."
Next Zora Neale Hurston wrote “Dust Tracks on a Road” published in1942 this book is actually an autobiography that explains her child hood. Therefore she talks about how she was how she is the daughter of the Mayor
Zora Neale Hurston was born January 7, 1891 in Notasulga, Alabama and later moved to Eatonville, Florida. She lived a happy childhood in her 8-room house and 7 siblings. As a child, she was raised in an all black community, therefore was never exposed to discrimination. Black achievement flourished in her town, including her father and mother. Zora’s father, John Hurston, formulated laws. Zora’s mother Lucy Ann Hurston aided in churches as a director of the christian curricula. However, following the death of her mother in 1904, Zora’s life shifted. Her father quickly remarried, resulting in a difficult relationship in which he no longer had the time or money for his children. (Gradesaver)
Zora Neale Hurston was born in Notasulga, Alabama on January 7, 1891. Her father, John Hurston, was a minister and he had several years as a mayor for that town. Her mother, Lucy Hurston, seemed to only have her family as any worries. Her childhood seemed to be perfect, it was free from racism and poverty (Zora 1). Although, everything changed when her mother passed away and his father remarried and soon was sent to boarding school. She was then expelled a while after her father stopped paying for tuition so she worked in a theatrical company as a maid (Zora 1). Quitting that job, at
Zora Neale Hurston was born in 1901. She was raised in Eatonville, Florida. Hurston went to Howard University and progressed on to Barnard College. Hurston’s work reflected the use of African American legends in her short stories. Hurston was a vital figure who composed stories and played during the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s and 1930s. She was committed to telling the stories of many cultures to allocate their social legacy with deference and love with an end goal to beat the unrefined stereotyping of her period. In 1925 during the Harlem Renaissance, Hurston wrote a story called “Spunk”. In the story “Spunk”, Hurston used the literary terms like character, setting, and conflict that catches the reader’s attention and made
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
Zora Neale Hurston was a phenomenal woman. At the height of her success she was known as the “Queen of the Harlem Renaissance.” She came to overcome obstacles that were placed in front of her. Hurston rose from poverty to fame and lost it all at the time of her death. Zora had an unusual life; she was a child that was forced to grow up to fast. But despite Zora Neale Hurston’s unsettled life, she managed to surmount every obstacle to become one of the most profound authors of the century.
Many authors use a specific style of writing that sets them apart from other authors. The author uses African American dialect to go with that time in the novel. The main character tries to find true love. During the process, she has many obstacles to hurdle over. She compares herself to a bee and flower and lives by nature. In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston uses motifs to foreshadow events in the future.
Some time passed, she turned up in Baltimore where she lied about her age to finish high school. After which she enrolled in Howard University in 1920 where earned an associate’s degree. She then transferred to Barnard College and after graduating in 1928, she started coursework for a PHD in Anthropology at Columbia University. Some years later, she moved to Harlem deep in the middle of the Harlem Renaissance, where she became a fixture in its thriving art scene along with friends, Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen who she was known to be acquainted with. She wrote several short stories and plays, such as “Mules and Men”, “The Great Day”, “From Sun to Sun” and “Mule Bone”. She also a few novels, two highly regarded works of anthropology and an autobiography titled, “Dust Tracks on a Road”, which has had some controversy on whether some parts of her life’s story in truly accurate. One example would be that she claimed to have written “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, in seven weeks “under internal pressure” while on a Guggenheim fellowship to Haiti to study the folklore. Hurston struggled through the last years of her life, as she continued to write but
Zora Neale Hurston, a novelist, folklorist, and Ethnographical Anthropologist was born in 1891 in Notasulga, Alabama but raised in Eatonville, Florida. Eatonville was one of the first all-black communities in the United States of America. Hurston had the benefit of being brought up in a thriving society that fostered prestige and education. Hurston became immersed
Zora Neale Hurston breathes life into “Spunk” by contrasting African American slang with the formal, educated tone of the narrator to emphasize adversity and express culture in the South. Hurston’s most memorable moments in her childhood were a result of “Skillful story-tellers [that] could hold their listeners spellbound for hours, with tales that combined elements of African tradition, the history of slavery, and current events,” (Bily). Oral storytelling was a news source and form of entertainment for those living in poverty. In “Spunk,” it is evident that Hurston’s goal is to combine the setting she grew up in with her fondness for written literature when Elijah Mosley cries, “‘Looka theah, folkses!’… slapping his leg gleefully.
Hurston’s life can be divided into a few sections, first being her childhood in Eatonville, From the age of three until thirteen, Hurston spent her time climbing cypress trees down by Lake Lotus, playing and singing with her siblings and the other kids from the community, sitting on the front porch of Joe Clark’s general store listening to the adults tell tall tales (or lies as she would say), and attending her local school house. She had fond memories of her childhood and would often romanticize it. In her book, Mules and Men, She would describe her hometown as "a city of five lakes, three croquet courts, three hundred brown skins, three hundred good swimmers, plenty guavas, two schools, and no jailhouse." (Hurston, 4). In a way it was her “Mulberry”, the perfect southern community where everybody knows your name and living was easy. Because Eatonville was
Zora Neale Hurston was an African-American folklorist, novelist and anthropologist. She was born in 1891 and lived in the first all-black town in the United States, Eatonville, Florida. Her 1937 novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God and played a vital role in the literacy movement the Harlem Renaissance is what she is best known for. Zora Neale Hurston depicts racism in her writings and has contributed greatly to African-American literature. Her work became more popular posthumously.
Zora Neale Hurston was born on January 7, 1891 in Alabama. She is known to be one of the most influential novelist of the twentieth century in African America literature. Hurston is described to be a very opinionated woman that stood for what she believed in; which reflected in some of her works. In addition to her many titles such as, being an anthropologist and short story writer, she was closely related and heavily focused on the Harlem Renaissance. Zora Neale Hurston and her political opinions placed her at odds with important figures during that time which I wholeheartedly believe played a part in the undeniable attraction that most people have towards her works. Being that Hurston was such a unique writer, to understand the ethics and themes of her and how she contributed to African American literature comes with an understanding of the background and childhood she had.
The short story “Spunk” by Zora Heale Hurston was written during the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s and 1930s, where a cultural, social, and artistic burst took place in Harlem, NY significant for African Americans at the time. While Hurston’s work was widely ignored during the Harlem Renaissance, she was rediscovered in the 1970s through the women’s movement. Hurston’s style of writing is unique to her as her background in anthropology is reflected her works through hints of African American folklore. This can be seen in “Spunk” where her combination of folklore and raw southern dialect captures the reality of life in the South. The story describes a love triangle between Joe, Spunk, and Lena that others in town are interested in. While Lena and Joe are married, Lena and Spunk parade their affair around the town, allowing townsfolk like Elijah Mosley and Walter Thomas to gossip and rumor about the love triangle.
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
Katharine Berry and Zora Neale Hurston are two outlandish storytelling authors. Although, the two authors create myths, each women writes about completely different stories. Individually they write about how something came to be using the creativity in their minds. Both through storytelling. Though, they are in the same genre of writing, each has a distinct style which gives the readers, the chance to open up their imagination, with all of it’s creativity, cleverness and unlikeness.