The Great Depression, Segregation, and the Harlem renaissance were all undeniably important parts of our country’s history, and Zora Neale Hurston was one extraordinary woman who lived through all three. Hurston was a successful author during the peak of her career, and is today considered to be one of the most important African American writers ever, but she had to go through a great deal to get to where she was. Hurston’s effects on the writing community and the world show the struggles she had to go through throughout her life. In 1883, the Jim Crow laws were banning African Americans from public places like hotels, restaurants, and stores. The African American population saw political and social progress slipping backwards, until …show more content…
Around the time she was writing Their Eyes Were Watching God, women still faced not having the same rights and standards as men. The protagonist, Janie, stands up for herself against male dominance, which she faces a lot of. However, while this novel definitely contained a lot of female empowerment, especially considering the time in which it was written, it is not about feminism. Janie is forced to marry a certain man, and she stands up for herself and leaves him. She then ends up married to another man, but then leaves him as well because they do not respect each other, again standing up for herself. Her final husband is the reason why many people say that this novel cannot be considered feminist. Her husband still abuses her, but she finds herself respecting him, which she decides makes them equal (enotes). Hurston showed a lot of female empowerment in her writing, and it helped inspire other black women who were facing the same difficulties as she was during her life. Hurston provided a much needed female voice in a period dominated by …show more content…
When men of that time, such as Langston Hughes or W.E.B. Du Bois, talked and wrote about the “New Negro”, they were actually talking about the “New Negro Man”. Hurston provided an answer to the question “Who was the New Negro Woman?” She represented the women of the time period, with her strong personality and writing. However, Hurston could not represent every African American woman in the Harlem Renaissance, let alone the world. She was more interested in expressing her own individual style and personality, not wanting to be seen as a tragic ex-slave (Shmoop Editorial Team). While Hurston wrote about race and segregation, she did so in a subtle way, making race an underlying motif in her writing rather than a theme, wanting people to focus on her writing rather than her skin color
Considered one of the most important writers of the twentieth century African American literature, Zora Neale Hurston successfully paved the way for future prominent writers. Through dedication and hardships in her life, she is famously recognized as an important person during the 1920s for her writing and role in the Harlem Renaissance. (Zora.com)
It is strange that two of the most prominent artists of the Harlem Renaissance could ever disagree as much as or be as different as Zora Neale Hurston and Richard Wright. Despite the fact that they are the same color and lived during the same time period, they do not have much else in common. On the one hand is Hurston, a female writer who indulges in black art and culture and creates subtle messages throughout her most famous novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. On the other hand is Wright, who is a male writer who demonstrates that whites do not like black people, nor will they ever except for when they are in the condition “…America likes to see the Negro live: between laughter and tears.” Hurston was also a less political writer than
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.
Prescribed question: How does Zora Neale Hurston Portray Folkloric Elements in Their Eyes Were Watching Gods and Jonah’s Gourd Vine?
She uses idealistic examples and real world situations to get the best realistic interpretation on the matter of the harlem renaissance. This novel also is a great way to learn and understand the importance of women's roles and rights during the harlem renaissance era for the black/african american women. All in all, Hurston’s depiction of the harlem renaissance reflects and departs the major topics and does so
Feminism and gender equality is one of the most important issues of society today, and the debate dates back much farther than Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. To analyze Janie’s existence as a feminist or anti-feminist character requires a potential critic to look at her relationships and her reactions to those relationships throughout the novel. Trudier Harris claims that Janie is “questing after a kind of worship.” This statement is accurate only up until a certain point in her life, until Janie’s “quest” becomes her seeking equality with her partner. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie’s main goal pertaining to her romantic relationships undergoes multiple changes from her original goal of a type of worship to a goal to maintain an equal relationship with her husband.
The memoir “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” by Zora Neale Hurston, was first published in 1928, and recounts the situation of racial discrimination and prejudice at the time in the United States. The author was born into an all-black community, but was later sent to a boarding school in Jacksonville, where she experienced “race” for the first time. Hurston not only informs the reader how she managed to stay true to herself and her race, but also inspires the reader to abandon any form of racism in their life. Especially by including Humor, Imagery, and Metaphors, the author makes her message very clear: Everyone is equal.
Comparison of Hurston's life and work is ironic. Though Janie, having passed through dominance and loss, had a 2 story home and money in the bank to come home to, Hurston had none. Hurston's later life was that of the economically disadvantaged-- what Ellison, Wright, and other male black authors penned their novels in protest of. Brilliant, talented, she could not rise above the economic limits imposed on her and thus a talented anthropologist with two Guggenheims ended up buried in an unmarked grave.
Both Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes were great writers but their attitudes towards their personal experience as an African American differed in many ways. These differences can be attributed to various reasons that range from gender to life experience but even though they had different perceptions regarding the African American experience, they both shared one common goal, racial equality through art. To accurately delve into the minds of the writers’ one must first consider authors background such as their childhood experience, education, as well their early adulthood to truly understand how it affected their writing in terms the similarities and
The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement in the 1920s that led to the evolution of African-American culture, expression through art, music, and literary works, and the establishment of African roots in America. Zora Neale Hurston contributed to the Harlem Renaissance with her original and enticing stories. However, Hurston’s works are notorious (specifically How it Feels to Be Colored Me and Their Eyes Were Watching God) because they illustrate the author’s view of black women and demonstrate the differences between their views and from earlier literary works.
	Zora Neale Hurston was an astounding Afro-American author who was recognized not for being the first Afro-American writer, but rather for her ability to bring forth her cultural language and imagery. If not for Zora's pioneering effort as a female black writer, the world of modern literature would have never seen the cultural insights of the African American culture in such a candid way.
Although their ancestors were in agony, they decided to decline that burden and lived on. Hurston was a huge advocate for the Harlem Renaissance, she strongly encouraged to protect the rights of the African Americans. Zora conceived numerous novels that contributed to the Harlem Renaissance; she explored different countries such as Haiti and Jamaica. Zora’s writing
This novel “ Their eyes were watching god” by Zora Hurston to me is a feminist novel. Janie is a forward thinking, powerful, and beautiful female, even though she is the victim again and again janie stands up for herself throughout the novel.Janie was forced to go into marriage with Logan Killicks, janie leaves him when Jody starks comes in the picture, but Janie is searching for her true self, and for her life partner, and she's not going to let any man stop her. She imagined that her life with Joe would be free and easy, and to some extent it is.
Zora Neale Hurston was a novelist who was viewed as a radical because of her personal views, depicted in her writings. During a time where artists moved from traditional dialect in their works and imitation of white writers to explore African American culture and continue their pride in their race, Zora Neale Hurston chased to continue this tradition in her works by combining literature and anthropology. She was a major player during the Harlem Renaissance and in just a short time of beginning her writing career; she had written two books on southern black folklore, many short stories, a novel and written and produced a play of her own. Hurston holds a famed ability to draw from her strong opinions on race relations, her personal experiences as well as stories and events told second-hand to her. Placing these latter elements artistically together in a way to produce her works is what contributes to making Zora Neal Hurston an epic element to the Harlem Renaissance. Hurston uses her novels, Their Eyes Were Watching God, and Mules and Men, which investigated voodoo practices in black communities in Florida and New Orleans, also brought her additional fame to not only directly reflect and demonstrate both her love and life experiences concerning strong opinions on race, class, and gender issues but as an ultimate celebration of self-actualization, which is resonant and echoes throughout her work. In Hurston’s third novel, Moses, Man of the Mountain, she rewrites the biblical