Zora Neale Hurston Analysis

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 fall of 1919, Zora Neale Hurston became a freshman at Howard University. Hurston studied intermittently at Howard for the next five years; the institution she would proudly call “The capstone of the Negro education in the world.” Hurston enjoyed college life even though she was a decade older than other freshmen. With

Zora Neale Hurston’s use of language in her short story Spunk allows the reader to become part of the community in which this story takes place. The story is told from the point of view of the characters, and Hurston writes the dialogue in their broken English dialect. Although the language is somewhat difficult to understand initially, it adds to the mystique of the story. Spunk is a story about a man that steals another man’s wife, kills the woman’s husband and then he ends up dying from an accident at the saw mill. Spunk believed that it was Lena’s husband, Joe Kanty, who shoved him into the circular saw, and the people in the village agreed that Joe Kanty had come back to get revenge. The language used by the characters helps to

“Two things everybody's got tuh do fuh theyselves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin' fuh theyselves.” (Hurston 226) The book Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is told from Janie’s point of view and she is telling her story to her friend Pheoby. She grows throughout three marriages and the hardships she faces. She learns what she wants from life and how to become an independent individual. Throughout the story of Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie is on a quest for self-fulfillment and individuality. This is shown through the changes she endures in her relationships and can cause the readers to take control of their own lives.

Zora Neale Hurston was born and raised in Eatonville, Florida which was the first all-black town in the United States to be incorporated and self-governed. Due to Hurston growing up in an all-black community, she was protected from racism. She states that the only white people she knew were the ones passing through the town going to or coming from Orlando. When she moved from the town of Eatonville to Jacksonville, she was introduced to a different lifestyle where she was

The short story, “Spunk”, written in 1920 by famous author, Zora Neale Hurston of Eatonville, FL, contains many characters but there’s only one that I find to be very amazing, Mr. Joe Kanty. A member of the Harlem Renaissance, author and folklorist, Zora Neale Hurston, constructed many of her works like: “The Gilded Six-Bits”, “Spunk”, and “Their Eyes were watching God,” during the Civil Rights movement to help fuel the setting and purpose of her stories. In the short story, “Spunk”, Mr. Joe’s characters’ transitions or changes to help portray the hero and bravery him. Three character traits that determine Joe’s behavior or inner self throughout the story relates from him being loving and fearful to him becoming revengeful.

Zora Neale Hurston was born on January 7, 1891 to a family of sharecroppers in the tiny town of Notasulga, Alabama. She was the 5th out of 8 children. She moved to Eatonville, Florida as an infant and spent most of her childhood there. Eatonville was the country's first black township. At the age of thirteen, Hurston's mother died. She had a hard time coping with this loss. At the age of 16, Zora Neale Hurston started working at a travelling circus. She also worked as a maid in a white household. She was arrested in 1949 after the 10 year old son of her neighbor accused her of molesting him. These accusations ruined her reputation and she moved back to Florida in 1950 and worked as a cleaner. She died at the age of 69 in January 28, 1960. She

In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, written by Zora Neale Hurston, the story opens with an intriguing extended metaphor: “Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight…” In this quote, Zora Neale Hurston describes how far off a man’s dream can be. Within the first few paragraphs, we meet our main character, Janie Crawford as she’s walking back into town. Multiple people are looking on from the porch, wondering where Janie has been.

Zora Neale Hurston was an all-around successful and a phenomenal human being. None the less, that did not encumber on her journey to success. Whether it was her brilliant works in writing, being a folklorist or contributing to the field of anthropology, she had accomplished so much within her lifetime. Influenced by the occurring events and the independence of her community, Zora Neale Hurston became one of the most celebrated figures of the Harlem Renaissance where she published her most famous pieces of literature.

In the short story “Drenched in Light” by Zora Neale Hurston, the author appeals to a broad audience by disguising ethnology and an underlying theme of gender, race, and oppression with an ambiguous tale of a young black girl and the appreciation she receives from white people. Often writing to a double audience, Hurston had a keen ability to appeal to white and black readers in a clever way. “[Hurston] knew her white folks well and performed her minstrel shows tongue in cheek” (Meisenhelder 2). Originally published in The Opportunity in 1924, “Drenched in Light” was Hurston’s first story to a national audience.

In this novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston, we learn that the author’s style of writing has to deal with imagery and metaphors throughout the book to describe Janie’s life. The author’s main idea of the book, is that Janie learns about and experiences love, life, and happiness as well as hate, anger, and jealousy throughout the act of marriages with three different husbands, and discovers who she really is as a woman.

Zora Neale Hurston was so proud to be from the black community that she mentioned it in her writings; she even changed it to her birthplace. Eatonville, Florida, had a massive impact on Zora’s life. It shaped her life and writing style. Hurston explains: "Anyway, the force from somewhere in Space which commands you to write in the first place, gives you no choice. You take up the pen when you are told, and write what is commanded. There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside you."

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.

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

A voyage and return story is one of the seven basic plots in literature where the protagonist encounters new experiences throughout their long journey and eventually returns home with greater knowledge than they had before, as they have learned new life lessons along the way. Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, is an example of this type of basic plot. Throughout her life, Janie Crawford lives in three different towns with three different husbands, who all provide her with unique epiphanies on the subject of being a woman in the early 1900s. During these three various points of time in Janie’s life, the horizon in the distance is metaphorically used in the text to represent the hope that she always holds on to. Quite literally, her trio of husbands widen her horizons over time, as she learns the deeper truth about marriage, independence, and happiness.