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 Neal Hurston was criticized by other African American writers for her use of dialect and folk speech. Richard Wright was one of her harshest critics and likened Hurston’s technique “to that of a minstrel show designed to appease a white audience” (www.pbs.org).Given the time frame, the Harlem Renaissance, it is understandable that Zora Neale Hurston may be criticized. The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement which redefined how America, and the world, viewed African Americans, so her folk speech could be seen as perpetuating main stream society’s view of African Americans as ignorant and incapable of speaking in complete sentences. However, others, such as philosopher and critic Alain Locke, praised her. He considered Hurston’s “gift for poetic phrase and rare dialect, a welcome replacement for so much faulty local color fiction about Negroes” (www.pbs.org).

Zora Neale Hurston is unequivocally open about her race and identity in “How It Feels to Be Colored Me.” As Hurston shares her life story, the reader is exposed to Hurston’s self-realization journey about how she “became colored.” Hurston utilizes her autobiographical short story as a vehicle to describe the “very day she became colored.” Race is particularly vital in Zora Neale Hurston’s essay, “How it Feels to Be Colored Me” as she deals with the social construct of race, racism, and sustaining one’s cultural identity.

Almost every man in the world can be seen as good or bad in some way, shape, or form. The novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, written by Zora Neale Hurston, has many examples of how bystanders judge a man on his actions. The book is about a woman named Janie who is on her journey to find true love and just like everyone else, she has a few problems along the way. Throughout the novel, Janie is with three different men. Two of the men she enjoys her life with, but only one of them she loves dearly. The man she falls in love with is Tea Cake. Tea Cake is seen as a bad person by the townspeople because they think he is with her for the wrong reasons. Janie is the only one that knows the real truth and recognizes that Tea Cake is just a normal

On January 7, 1891, Zora Neale Hurston was born in the tiny town of Notasulga, Alabama. She was the fifth of eight children in the Hurston household. Her father John was a carpenter, sharecropper, and a Baptist preacher; and her mother Lucy, a former schoolteacher. Within a year of Zora's birth, the family moved to Eatonville, Florida; a town, which held historical significance as the first, incorporated Black municipality in the United States.

Zora Neale Hurston was born on January 7, 1891 in Notasulga, Alabama. Her parents were both slaves but became a Baptist preacher and schoolteacher after being free. As a toddler, she relocated with her family to Eatonville, Florida, which was one of the first incorporated black municipalities. Her main hometown of Eatonville later on became a focal point and setting in her works as she stated that African-Americans could follow their own roots rather than be washed away in a white society. When her mother passed away in 1904, father John Hurston remarried. She had been sent off to a boarding school where her tuition had not been paid off by them, and eventually got expelled.

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 born on January 7, 1891 in Notasulga, Alabama. Hurston moved with her family to Eatonville, Florida when she was still a toddler. Hurston is the fifth of eight children, to John Hurston, a carpenter and Baptist preacher, and Lucy Potts Hurston, a former school teacher. September 191 to June 1918 Hurston attends Morgan Academy in Baltimore, completing her high school requirements. In the summer of 1918 she works as a waitress in a nightclub and a manicurist in a black owned barbershop that only serves whites. In 1918 to 1919 Hurston attends howard Prep School in Washington, D.C. She later attended Howard University and receives an associate degree in 1920. Hurston Published her first story in 1921 called “John Redding

Janie chooses to tell her story only to her best friend Pheoby because Pheoby represents the average, everyday person. Pheoby cannot do the adventurous things that Janie does because of the responsibilities for her marriage. The last chapter of the novel is where Janie's story ends. Pheoby tells Janie, “‘ ah done growed ten feet higher jus’ listenin’ tuh you, Janie. Ah ain’t satisfied wid mahself no mo’ ’” (Hurston 192). Pheoby tells Janie that she is now inspired to be more adventurous with her life. Since Pheoby represents an everyday person, Hurston wants to show that everyone can grow after reading the novel.

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 point of view a story is told in has a significant impact on how the reader perceives the story, the plot, and the characters. “Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston, 1978, and “Pigeons at Daybreak” by Anita Desai, 1926, are both narrated in third person limited omniscient. Although both stories are narrated from the same point of view and both follow the protagonist of the story, the stories portray the main characters as complete opposites. While Delia, the protagonist in “Sweat”, invokes empathy from the reader, she ultimately is strong and independent. Mr. Basu, the protagonist in “Pigeons at Daybreak”, invokes frustration and pity from the reader as he is begging for sympathy from his wife.

In Their Eyes Were Watching God written by Zora Neale Hurston, The protagonist Janie Crawford tells her story to Pheoby. In which, Janie grandmother Nanny tries to describe her ambition for her daughter and Janie and how she wants the best for Janie and her future. Janie finds what love actually is through experiences in her four most important relationships, along with that she was able to overcome the way she was silenced, her potential to take control of her fate, and the capability to learn from past experiences. Hurston provides us with Janie, who seeks self-worth in the eyes of men. However, the character ultimately achieves salvation after realizing her own power and salvation.

Zora Neale Hurston was one of the greatest authors in the Harlem Renaissance era, and it saddened me to discover that she died before seizing the benefits of her literary work of arts. Ms. Hurston was often criticized for her substantial use of southern country dialect and folk dialogue; she was a master at creating realistic African-American works of fiction. Hurston’s style of narrative is divided into direct and indirect dialogue. In her writing, she would employ a third-person narrative voice that was vastly intelligent with scholarly techniques such as formal grammar, rich vocabulary, vivid imagery, and allegories to define her settings, locations, and portrayals. Contrariwise, in the same piece, she would display a narrative voice in first-person and third-person using slang language, informal grammar, and irregular speech patterns. Through Hurston’s fictitious creations it enables us to appreciate how significant linguistic choices are used to enrich the production of contemporary literature and how different dualistic styles of narrative can work together in depicting the narration within that story.