Zora Neale Hurston The New Negro Analysis

In Claire Crabtree’s journal article, “The Confluence of Folklore, Feminism and Black Self-Determination in Zora Neal Hurston’s ‘Their Eyes Were Watching God’”, it addresses the large role that folklore plays regarding Janie’s growth as a character. Moreover, it states how the influence of Folklore culture shaped Janie’s experiences as a Black woman in the South. Initially, Crabtree described the integration of folk material and how it developed Janie’s journey of identity. Folklore culture affected Janie’s perception in relationships, career aspirations, and her limited role as a woman. Nevertheless, Crabtree explains how folklore is merged to the themes of feminism and Black self-determination. Moreover, she discusses how the style of narration and the novel’s unique storytelling frame amplifies the authentic aspect of the text. She

Zora Neale Hurston’s “Their Eyes Were Watching God” confronts many social issues of its time. Though not evidently political, the identification of gender race and social class is paramount in the novel. Women’s rights and roles in the house and society as well as femininity are elemental. Hurston’s work is a response to social questions. Whether the assessment be of her own or of fictitious origins.

Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God further demonstrates the author’s perspective of colored women. The main

Zora Neale Hurston was an influential African-American novelist who emerged during the Harlem Renaissance. (Tow 1) During the Harlem Renaissance Hurston’s novel "Their Eyes Were Watching God, was written in southern dialect so that the African American audience can relate, mainly because Hurston could only write about what she knew. “In the case of Hurston, dialect, as a regional vernacular, can and does contain subject, experience emotion and revelation.” (Jones 4) when Hurston's novel first was released many people didn't not accept the writing for what it really was. “When Their Eyes Were Watching God first appeared in 1937, it was well-received by white critics as an intimate portrait of southern blacks, but African-American reviewers rejected the novel. (Telgen, Hile 1) In this modern day the novel is well accepted and has been called "a classic of black literature, one of the best novels of the period" (Howard 7) In "Their Eyes Were Watching God", Janie takes on a journey in search of her own identity where each of her three husbands plays an important role in her discovery of who she is.

Hurston’s essay about being black in the early 20th century is an explanation of who she is. She does not believe her color defines her, but does see the contrasts of black and white cultures. Neither the color of our skin, or differences in our cultures warrant prejudice. Just because someone belittles or passes judgment on you does not mean you are what they say. People can rise above any unjust criticism that exists and be a better person for it.

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.

Society has always thought of racism as a war given to the lowly African American from the supposedly high class white man, but no one thought there would be prejudice within a hierarchical class system inside the black community. However within that class system, history has shown that darker colored women are at the deep trenches of the totem pole. In the novel, “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” African American women are put under harm and control exposing the racism and sexism with their community. Through the life of Janie Crawford, Zora Neale Hurston portrays the concept of a woman finding her independence in a black, hierarchical, and racist society.

It is impossible for anyone to survive a horrible event in their life without a relationship to have to keep them alive. The connection and emotional bond between the person suffering and the other is sometimes all they need to survive. On the other hand, not having anyone to believe in can make death appear easier than life allowing the person to give up instead of fighting for survival. In The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill, Aminata Diallo survives her course through slavery by remembering her family and the friends that she makes. Aminata is taught by her mother, Sira to deliver babies in the villages of her homeland. This skill proves to be very valuable to Aminata as it helps her deliver her friends babies and create a source of

Hurston illustrated that how blacks provided American culture with “its only genuine folk tradition”. She was “the only key writer of the Harlem literary movement to carry out a organized study of Afro-American folklore”. In Their Eyes Were Watching God (first published in 1937), she describes her black identity as a consequent from African heritage. Since her early life in Eatonville, Hurston was nurtured by colorful, figurative storytelling. Hurston’s folk pride is very well documented in her portrayal of Eatonville in almost all her novels. She observed this little black hamlet as a haven in the race biased US. Her characters experience tranquility and prosperity only at

During this time in a movement known as the Great Migration, thousands of African-Americans also known as Negros left their homes in the South and moved North toward the beach line of big cities in search of employment and a new beginning. As Locke stated, “the wash and rush of this human tide on the beach line of Northern city centers is to be explained primarily in terms of a new vision of opportunity, of social and economic freedom, of a spirit to seize, even in the face of an extortionate and heavy toll, a chance for the improvement of conditions. With each successive wave of it, the movement of the Negro becomes more and more a mass movement toward the larger

This journal kicks it off by speaking one how many books have leading or misleading titles including “Their eyes were watching god”. This title to seem stems from the overarching theme of the “religious transcendence of white oppression. Specifically a new form of humanity, one that is no longer based on master slave dialect, but the writer of this journal believes otherwise”. They believed that “demonstrates just how dependent on the master-slave dialectic and the principle of authority the Everglades folk community really is for Hurston, and that this just sets

“Sometimes, I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can one deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It’s beyond me.” In this quote by Zora Neale Hurston, she is stating that she is against hatred in a humorous way. The way it is structured, people look at this problem in different aspects. Zora was very much a part of the Harlem Renaissance which began in 1925 and ended in the 1950s. It was a cultural, social, and artistic explosion. It is described as an explosion because it was after World War I and everyone was just so eager to share their ideas. Hurston was in a time where women, especially colored women, had trouble with their identity but fortunately for them Hurston was someone they could look up to.

Zora Hurston is an african american writer who writes about what life was like during the harlem reniasssance. In the short “How it Feels To Be Colored Me” Zora is writig about her life and what it was like during the Harlem Renaissance. Zora starts the short story off by telling the reader that she is the negro in the United States whose grandfather was not an Indian Chief, which shows she is different from any other person. Throughout the story Zora explains that when she was 13 she had to move away form the only place she knew. Zora moved so that she could attend a school in Jacksonville. She explains how there is always that one person who reminds her that she is a granddaughter

Nowadays, discrimination is everywhere, especially the racial discrimination. This idea is discussed in How It Feels to Be Colored Me by Zora Hurston. She mainly talks about a positive attitude about how to find inner happiness. Despite facing racism many times, Hurston looks to teach other girls to be themselves and not represented by their color. At thirteen, she was sent to school in Jacksonville. She was no longer Zora, but a little colored girl. Nevertheless, she did not find this tragic, unlike others who thought being colored was a curse. She considered slavery to be in the past and felt that she has been well on the way to become an American out of a potential slave. Blacks went from Africa to civilization at the cost of Slavery and

Gloria Naylor’s novels provide a close portrait of everyday black folk and reveal the richness of the black culture and inherent strengths of the black community whose lives are sometimes reduced merely to the struggle for survival. Naylor has included African belief systems and rituals still central to Afro-American life and has used folklore to explore the web of complexities within her culture through nature. It records the progress of black folk culture in depth through the illustrations of Willow Springs and its residents in one of her most representative world Mama Day. Her characters George, Cocoa and Mama Day present a larger social framework based on the between Eurocentric culture and Afro-American folk culture. The southern land