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Research paper on zora neale hurston
The life of zora neale hurston
The life of zora neale hurston
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At first glance most people only see the coloring of another's skin, but some chosen few are able to look beyond this predesigned outlook and see simply people. In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, and short essay, How It Feels To Be colored Me, she discusses what it mean to discover one's color. Hurston does this through her characters in her novel, stating her views on race in her short essay, and by accepting her differences. Hurston was a revolutionary author, and saw the world in a way that was far beyond her time. Many of Hurston’s thoughts about the world can be seen through her character Janie. Similar to how Hurston grew up, Janie did not see herself as black, and was unaware of her racial identity. It takes a picture being taken of her and her master's children to realize that she was different. “Ah couldn’t recognize dat dark chile as me… ‘Aw, aw! Ah’m colored!’” Janie never saw herself as different from the …show more content…
“A white person is set down in our midst, but the contrast is just as sharp for me.” Hurston may be able to look beyond the color of individuals, but she still recognized people's differences. She recounts a time where her and a white individuals were at a restaurant together. As the band played Hurston responds vigorously to the music by dancing along with the piece. When it ends she claims to “creep back slowly into the veer we call civilization” while the white individual who was with her has remained “sitting motionless in his seat, smoking calmly.” Hurston accepts everyones differences and celebrates her own throughout her life. She uses a brown bag analogy to alluded to the connection that everyone has, regardless of color. “Pour out the contents, and there is discovered a jumble of small, things priceless and worthless.” Hurston recognized that everyone had a part to play, despite their
What is one’s idea of the perfect marriage? In Zora Neal Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie has a total of three marriages and her best marriage was to Tea Cake. Janie’s worst and longest marriage was to Joe Starks where she lost her dream and was never happy. The key to a strong marriage is equality between each other because in Janie’s marriage to Joe she was not treated equally, lost apart of herself and was emotionally abused, but her and Tea Cake's marriage was based on equality and she was able to fully be herself.
Numerous themes are highlighted in Their Eyes Were Watching God, a switch of racism where the tables turn and Caucasian vs. Native American in the screenplay instead of the original African American vs. Native American set up in the novel. Making the white man superior to blacks, the narrator presents an oppression filled atmosphere whose constituents apotheosize the white man by praising him like a “ God. “ “Humph! Y’all let her worry yuh. You ain’t like me. Ah ain’t got her to study ‘bout. If she ain’t got manners enough to stop and let folks know how she been makin’ out, let her g’wan!” (Hurston 3). The novel shows a darker side to the black community, shining light on the vivid jealousy, racism based on skin color, and a striving desire to tear down their prosperous peers.
In this book, Hurston writes in the dielect of the black community of the time. Many of the words are slang. Hurston begins the story with Janie telling it, but then it becomes a third person narrative throughout most of the story.
Zora Neale Hurston once said, “Happiness is nothing but everyday living seen through a veil.” In post-slavery African American society, this statement was unusual, as society was focused on materialistic values. The “veil” Hurston mentions is a lens used to sift through one’s beliefs; to help one understand that what they have is more important than what they don’t. Hurston alludes the veil in her novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, in the form of a fish-net, saying “She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. Pulled it in from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulders" (193). Just like the veil, the “fish-net” allows one to sift through one’s beliefs, deciding what is important and what is not. Essentially, Hurston
In conclusion, these three aspects clearly show how Ta-Nehisi Coates and Zora Neale Hurston address race and civil rights issues in different ways. While Hurston feels above the ignorance of society and recognizes herself as woman rather than a person of color, Coates recognizes the nation’s immense issues and the ambience to speak up against them. Both authors, in
“How It Feels to Be Colored Me,” explores the life of Zora Neal Hurston from her autobiographical point of view. The essay explores Zora’s unique outlook on the social and cultural nuances that affect the relationship between blacks and whites in the time period of the 1920s and 1930s.
In ‘How it feels to be colored me’ Neale Hurston opens up to her pride and identity as an African-American. Hurston uses a wide variety of imagery, diction using figurative language freely with metaphors. Her tone is bordering controversial using local lingo.
At some point in any person’s life he or she will be the victim or victimizer of stereotyping. This all too familiar aspect of society is one of the most unfortunate occurrences in life. For many, the harsh generalizations that stereotypes are based on crush the spirit of free will. Yet there are some brave people who choose to counter these stereotypes and live life as they choose, despite what judgments may come. In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the main character, Janie—an African American woman of the 1930’s, struggles with accepting the stereotypes that affect her life. She tries to fit in with them at the cost of her happiness and self-expression. Through her revelations and life changes that defy these stereotypes the audience discovers just how damaging and self-defeating stereotypes can be. Stereotypes can lead to loss of cultural pride and loss of self-expression because they are often based on racist and or sexist generalizations, people feel obligated to fit in with stereotypes, and people lose a sense of independence when they try to follow a stereotype.
In the essay “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” Zora Neale Hurston describes her life growing up in Florida and her racial identity as time goes on. Unlike many, she disassociates herself with “the sobbing school of Negrohood” that requires her to incessantly lay claim to past and present injustices and “whose feelings are all hurt by it”. Although she acknowledges times when she feels her racial difference, Hurston portray herself as “tragically colored.” Essentially, with her insistence that she is unhurt by the people treat her differently, Hurston’s narrative implies she is happier moving forward than complaining. Ironically, Hurston is empowered by her race and the double standard it imposes stating, “it is thrilling [that for every action,] I shall get twice as much praise or twice as much blame.”. Moreover, with her insistence that we are all equal under “The Great Stuffer of Bags,” she accepts every double standard and hardship as good. Hurston’s narrative of self empowerment moves and entertains the reader, while still drawing attention unjust treatment Hurston
But soon she is off, true to her free-minded self. It is interesting to note that Hurston does not dwell on the socio-economic situations (i.e., slavery, poverty) that bring about the two rapes, as another black author (perhaps Richard Wright?) might have done. Hurston instead focuses on Janie’s very real, very necessary search for self-fulfillment. This kind of focus was not common in Black literature at the time of the writing (early 1930’s), and Hurston drew much criticism for what was seen as a refusal to address the social, economic and political issues that preoccupied her contemporaries such as Wright and Ralph Ellison. However, it can be argued that what Hurston was attempting, a portrayal of a culturally “self-sufficient” black community, was just as necessary for a full realization of Black consciousness as was the “protest” literature of the Harlem Renaissance.
from a poor,controlled teenage bride to a strong,proud,independent woman. Janie learns to understand her African American cultural roots and rises above the limitations society places on her because of her heritage. Zora Neale Hurston masterfully uses Janie, the protagonist of the novel, to relay important timeless messages to the reader. One of the most important messages of the novel is the quest for identity and autonomy is easy.
Their Eyes Were Watching God is a bildungsroman, a coming of age story, that revolves around the trek of Janie Crawford’s search for identity and spiritual enlightenment. Her tiring quest takes her through various locations in Florida, from urban Eatonville to the rural Everglades (the muck); however, let it be noted that the representation of African Americans was a motif that greatly influenced Janie’s perception of reality. The historical context behind Zora Neale Hurston’s piece of literature originates from racism felt towards African Americans in the early 1900’s. Let it be noted that during the late 19th century deep Southern United States was torn by rising social tensions between whites and blacks following the Reconstruction era-
In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie starts off as a young woman just embarking on her journey into adulthood. She quickly discovers her sexuality and her desire for affection while lying under a blossoming pear tree. When she acts upon her curiosity and is caught kissing a young man in the yard by her conservative Grandmother, Nanny, she is hastily married off. Nanny teaches Janie that black women are “de mule uh de world” (Hurston 14) and that being married off will save her from a troubled life. As the story continues Janie enters and escapes multiple marriages that lead her to discover her independence and her desire to be free and loved. Through her subservient relationships and marriages, Janie faces
Both essays, How It Feels to Be Colored Me by Zora Neale Hurston and Of The Coming of John by W.E.B Du Bois, are two renowned essays that were written during a time of great discrimination against African Americans in the United States. Despite these two essays having different plots and a different set of characters, their experiences are quite similar in many ways. How It Feels to Be Colored Me has to do with the author’s experience as an African American in 20th century America. Zora Hurston was raised in an all black community in Florida, but then left her home at thirteen and moved into Jacksonville. At her new home, she then realized that this new city is a lot more diverse and it was at this time that she began to “feel her race.” At
In “How It Feels to Be Colored Me,” Hurston breaks from the tradition of her time by rejecting the idea that the African American people should be ashamed or saddened by the color of their skin. She tells other African Americans that they should embrace their color and be proud of who they are. She writes, “[A socialite]…has nothing on me. The cosmic Zora emerges,” and “I am the eternal feminine with its string of beads” (942-943). Whether she feels “colored” or not, she knows she is beautiful and of value. But Hurston writes about a time when she did not always know that she was considered colored.