The Harlem Renaissance By Zora Neale Hurston

When Janie is about sixteen her grandmother finds her in the act of kissing a boy, and afraid for Janie, she arranges for Janie to be married to Logan Killicks, who is an older man with vast property to his name. Nanny, as Janie calls her, is unable to wrap her mind around the idea of marrying for love and mocks Janie saying, "So you don't want to marry off decent like, do yuh? You just wants to hug and kiss and feel around with first one man and then another, huh?" (Their Eyes Are Watching God, 13). Her grandmothers’ gift of life is different from the life that Janie wants to live. She tells Janie, “De nigger woman is de mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see.'” (Their Eyes Are Watching God, 11). Nanny doesn’t believe that trying to find love and make a better life for you will succeed, she tells Janie that marrying and older man with land to his name will bring security, and she shouldn’t want more than that. Because of this Janie agrees and goes along with the plan. She is depicted as very compliant and rarely speaks her mind, even saying “But Ah hates disagreement and confusion, so Ah better not talk. It makes it hard tuh git along” (Their Eyes Were Watching God, 90).

The Harlem Renaissance was a literary, artistic, cultural, and intellectual movement that bein in the 19920s to 1930s. The movement brought up big issues in the live of African Americans throught many different arts. The writers of the Harlem Renaissance talked about African American culture and how it should be celebrated, embraced the beauty of their race, and wanted to end racial injustice.

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

     The Harlem Renaissance was a time of racism, injustice, and importance. Somewhere in between the 1920s and 1930s an African American movement occurred in Harlem, New York City. The Harlem Renaissance exalted the unique culture of African-Americans and redefined African-American expression. It was the result of Blacks migrating in the North, mostly Chicago and New York. There were many significant figures, both male and female, that had taken part in the Harlem Renaissance. Ida B. Wells and Langston Hughes exemplify the like and work of this movement.

First, The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement throughout the 1920’s and 1930’s. The purpose of the Harlem Renaissance was that it created a new black cultural identity (Beth Rowen and Borgna Bower 2007).Next, this era was a time for people to find their identity in music, writing, plays, and much more.This was also a way for African - Americans to find their identity as individuals. This is where the African - American authors came to get their names known. The purpose of the Harlem Renaissance was to help the African- American culture find their identity as an individual instead of being labeled by other people’s opinions ( Rowen and Borgna , 2007 ). Because of all of the opportunities that Harlem presented, Zora Neale Hurston was able to leave a legacy during this era . Between 1920 and 1930: 750, 000 African- Americans migrated from the South to the North because of all the job opportunities and

The Harlem Renaissance was cultural, social and movement that took place in the 1930’s. During this time white America started to recognize the contributions of African American’s. Many great works came out of the Harlem Renaissance. Such as Langston Hughes, Duke Ellington, W.E.B Du Bois. Zora Neale Hurston was one of the many authors that contributed to the Harlem Renaissance. Zora Neale Hurston an African American author, whose work emerged during the Harlem Renaissance. Zora Neale Hurston as a revolutionary, who made a difference throughout her life and through her work. Zora Neale Hurston contributed to the Harlem Renaissance by writing several works of literature, contributing to the acceptance of African Americans, and by helping to preserve folklore and African American culture.

Janie was raised by her grandmother who she calls Nanny that had previously lived the life as a slave. The young sixteen year old girl was brought to us as a product of

This departure from her horizon creates a series of relationships with selfish men who treat Janie like an object and suppress her voice; the more fed up Janie becomes with her situation, the more she begins to recover her speech. Her first months of marriage to Logan are unsatisfactory for one reason: she does not love him. Nanny forces her to wait for these feelings to come, but Janie only realizes that marriage does not

All through the novel Janie travels through valuable life experiences allowing her to grow as a woman. Janie at first has a difficult time understanding her needs rather than wants, but as she continues to experience new situations she realizes she values respect. Janie’s first two marriages turned out to be tragic mistakes, but with each marriage Janie gained something valuable. When Janie is disrespected in her second marriage with Joe Starks, he publicly humiliates her, disrespecting her as a wife and woman. This experience forced Janie to come out of her comfort zone and stand up for herself.

     The plan for Janie’s future begins with her lack of having real parents. Hurston builds up a foundation for Janie that is bound to fall like a Roman Empire. Janie’s grandmother, whom she refers to as “Nanny” takes the position as Janie’s guardian. The problem begins here for Janie because her Nanny not only spoils her, but also makes life choices for her. Nanny is old, and she only wants the best for her grandchild, for she knows that the world is a cruel place. Nanny makes the mistake of not allowing Janie to learn anything on her own. When Janie was sixteen years old, Nanny wanted to see her get married. Although Janie argued at first, Nanny insisted that Janie get married. “’Yeah, Janie, youse got yo’ womanhood on yuh… Ah wants to see you married right away.’” (Page 12). Janie was not given a choice in this decision. Her Nanny even had a suitor picked out for her. Janie told herself that she would try to make the best of the situation and attempt to find love in her marriage to Logan Killicks. But, as time went by, Janie realized that she still did not have any feelings of what she had considered to be love in her husband.

As the beginning of life starts all children have some caretaker. Janie is a teenage girl and like any is young and naive. In this case for Janie her Nanny looks after her as a loving family member, but this love does not exactly communicate correctly between them. Nanny clearly wants Janie to have a better life, as she explains with her past in slavery. The aspirations she wishes to have is put towards Janie. But the ideals conflict as Nanny’s outlook of love battles Janie's teenage aspirations. Only later does Janie understand of why

Imagine some “Big Time” singer asking you if you wanted some cold hard quick cash. What would you say? Mark Purvis said yes to some quick cash. This book, Harlem Summer, is written by Walter Dean Myers. This book is about Mark Purvis’ journey of trying to pay back Dutch Schultz, who is a big time gangster who likes to kill people when he has a chance. . Mark goes from a little sax player to being caught up in illegally selling alcohol, to almost being shot! Mark Purvis is living in the time period of the Harlem Renaissance where the New Negro is a new concept; throughout the book Mark says he wants to be a New Negro, but the changes his mind often.

Nella Larsen was one of the few female American writers that were part of the Harlem Renaissance. Due to her success in both her novels Quicksand and Passing she was the first African American woman to receive the Guggenheim award in 1930. The novels took place in the late 1920’s; it focuses on the lives of African American women and their struggle of acceptance in society. In finding their own identity through race, class, and gender these two novels Quicksand and Passing show the struggles and misguiding of how African American women faced during the Harlem Renaissance.

“The opportunity for passing during the colonial and pre-Civil War eras most often resulted from the mating of slave owner and slave followed by additional whitening and inbreeding of mulatto offspring who were then able to slip virtually unnoticed into the dominant society” (“The Passing of Passing”). “Passing” is a concept that has many connotations within the black community, which include a range of meanings such as preservation, assimilation and deception in the black community. During the period of American slavery and those that followed, passing began as a method of survival, but some would argue that it became a means of convenience. The ideas of double-consciousness and racial duality were common themes in literature during the

During the Harlem Renaissance many African American were coming out of the shadow and started a cultural movement. They migrated to the north throughout 1915 to 1918. They moved up north for the urban industrial centers like Harlem, Chicago, St. Louis, and Detroit which was known as the great migration for the African American community was now getting noticed by the white man. This was a breakthrough for the African American they moved to find better jobs to carve out better lives for their families but they didn 't move for higher paying jo/bs they moved to get away from the segregation, Sharecropping, and racial common violence in the south. The white man began to notice the african american because there were so many