Zora Neale Hurston Influences

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.

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).

Purpose- Hurston’s purpose is to demonstrate that she is proud of her color. She does not need the bragging rights of having Native American ancestry, nor does she ‘belong to the sobbing school of Negrohood who hold that nature somehow has given them a lowdown dirty deal and whose feelings are all hurt about it.’

Zora Neale Hurston is a remarkable author who reflects her life in most of her novels, short stories, and her essays. She was a writer during the Harlem Renaissance, also known as “the new negro movement”, however; her writings were not given proper recognition at first because they were not of the “norm” for that time period. All of the authors during the Harlem Renaissance were expected to write about race with a political mind set. Hurston was tired of seeing the same writings just different authors so her literary works were very different and were meant to stand out (Trudell). Among all of her abstracts, Sweat was a story of determination and oppression, with religion and strength as the backbone of

Along with others, she demanded equal rights for African American culture in history (Bio.com). Hurston brought joy to the Harlem streets through her writings and folklore. She cared about the cause and wanted people to enjoy what happiness they had left. Hurston infrequently portrayed blacks as victims of white society. She represented them as self-determined beings who are proud of their culture. This demonstrated that Hurston wanted people to see the best in others. She wanted others to know that the downfalls of their lives do not define who they are. Hurston also tried to stand up to white supremacy. The editors then silenced her work, making her voice vanish from the community. Her work was later rediscovered after her death in the 1960’s and ‘70s (Zora Neale Hurston: A Female Perspective). Hurston wanted to speak out against the cultural norms and break the guidelines; she wanted to make a difference. Hurston wanted to stop the way whites treated African Americans. She wanted to help them find peace and equality through her

In Zora Neale Hurston’s essay “How It Feels To Be Colored Me”, her racial identity varies based on her location. Towards the beginning of her life when Zora was in her own community she could be a lighthearted, carefree spirit. However, when she was forced to leave her community, Zora’s identity became linked to her race. In this essay I will demonstrate how Zora’s blackness is both a sanctuary and completely worthless.

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.

Although Zora Neale Hurston and Jamaica Kincaid lived in different times, thematically their writing had similar themes. If they had been contemporaries, they most certainly would have discussed their common experiences as black women who faced financial challenges and the racial divide that they experienced in their daily lives. Without a doubt, their writing was personally cathartic. Although in Kincaid’s writing, she addresses her issues with her mother head on, I have no doubt that Hurston’s stories were also influenced by her early family life.

    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.

Zora Neale Hurston breathes life into “Spunk” by contrasting African American slang with the formal, educated tone of the narrator to emphasize adversity and express culture in the South. Hurston’s most memorable moments in her childhood were a result of “Skillful story-tellers [that] could hold their listeners spellbound for hours, with tales that combined elements of African tradition, the history of slavery, and current events,” (Bily). Oral storytelling was a news source and form of entertainment for those living in poverty. In “Spunk,” it is evident that Hurston’s goal is to combine the setting she grew up in with her fondness for written literature when Elijah Mosley cries, “‘Looka theah, folkses!’… slapping his leg gleefully.

Womanhood is an extremely significant topic discussed in various works of literature. The subject of womanhood and how it is discussed in a work of literature enormously differs between the authors’ personal views of it. Womanhood is an especially important topic in the novels, As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner and Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. The authors’ views of womanhood are shown through the actions of their female characters as well as how they are characterized. In Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the character that most prominently reflects Hurston’s views of womanhood is the protagonist,

She was the only key writer of the Harlem literary movement to carry out a structured study of Afro-American folklore. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, she describes her black identity as a consequent from African heritage. Since her childhood in Eatonville, Hurston was nurtured by vibrant, figurative storytelling. Hurston’s folk pride is very well documented in her portrayal of Eatonville in almost all novels. She observed this little black hamlet as a haven in the race biased US.

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