Discussion Questions: Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God 1. As a writer who was also an anthropologist and a folklorist, Zora Neale Hurston studied African-American heritage, traditions, and dialects, all of which are reflected in Their Eyes Were Watching God. If you are unaccustomed to reading vernacular dialect, it may seem confusing at first, but as you continue to read, the language should become more familiar. Record two passages/sentences from the first chapter of the novel that illustrate Hurston’s use of dialect. Include parenthetical citations. “Yes indeed. You know if you pass some people and don’t speak tuh suit ‘em dey got tuh go way back in yo’ life and see whut you ever done.” (Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston was born in Notasulga Alabama on, January 7, 1891. When she was a little girl her family moved to the now iconic town of Eatonville Florida. She was fifth child of eight of John Hurston and Lucy Ann Hurston. Eatonville was one of the first all-black towns to be established in the United States. Zora’s interest in literature was piqued when a couple of northern teachers, came to Eatonville and gave her books of folklore and fantasy. After her mother died, her father and new stepmother sent her to a boarding school. In 1918 Hurston began her undergraduate studies at Howard...
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937). : Urbana, Ill.: U of Illinois P, 1937.
Ethnic group is a settled mannerism for many people during their lives. Both Zora Neale Hurston, author of “How It Feels to Be Colored Me; and Brent Staples, author of “Just Walk On By: A Black Man Ponders His Power to Alter Public Space,” realize that their life will be influenced when they are black; however, they take it in pace and don’t reside on it. They grew up in different places which make their form differently; however, in the end, It does not matter to them as they both find ways to match the different sexes and still have productivity in their lives.. Hurston was raised in Eatonville, Florida, a quiet black town with only white passer-by from time-to-time, while Staples grew up in Chester, Pennsylvania, surrounded by gang activity from the beginning. Both Hurston and Staples share similar and contrasting views about the effect of the color of their
Hurston, Zora N. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1937. Print.
It is a great pity that with writers with an attitude towards race such as Hurston there is still such a negative attitude towards racial and cultural differences all over the
Whenever young Hurston engaged in dialogue with her black peers, they would talk to her in ebonics and she could only respond in a formal register (27). This contrast in use of language automatically connotates that her black peers as less intelligent, polite, and proper which she covertly implies is blackness. Whereas she antithetically appears more intelligent and fit with virtue through her use of proper English which she assigns to whiteness. By the same token, Hurston not “stumbling and spelling words out” like her classmates while reading outloud to Miss Johnstone and Miss Hurd further differentiates her from connotations carried with colored people and also implicates that the inner whiteness intrinsic to her is what essentially makes her more important than her pigmented equals (35). By not partaking in the hard cussing of her environment and maintaining proper English in a community absent of it, Hurston is metaphorically shouting that she “stand[s] apart” from black-hood and marks her for success
With all that being said I think it’s obvious that Zora Neale Hurston folklore with fiction in her books because of her background. That includes where she grew up, who she grew up with, and also how she was raised. Even though that was the main influence she loved to write about her personal experiences. She would travel places and write about them. She would write about all of their traditions. She would combine their food, music and culture and put it all in a book. This made her one of the best artist and also led her to win awards such as Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards.
In section one of Hurston’s essay, we come across the innocence of a young Hurston,
African American literature has evolved a tremendous amount over the centuries. The core themes have continued to grow with the African Americans and their fight for equality. A core theme throughout the works of African Americans has been freedom, and I believe this theme has evolved from wanting freedom, to getting freedom (yet still being segregated), to fighting for their freedom, to finally acting free and coming into their own. This progression would also be used to describe the evolution of the theme of equality as well. The African Americans wanted their equality, they fought for it, and soon began to write of themselves as true equals. These themes of freedom and equality, whether it be of African Americans in general, or even African
...tivist who spoke out against racial discrimination and called on African Americans to stand up against lynching, killing, and other violence. Zora Neale Hurston was another writer of the Harlem Renaissance. Her novel, “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, reflect the experiences of African American women.
"Wading through waist high weeds, Alice Walker stumbled upon a sunken rectangular patch of ground", under it lay the forgotten literary genius of the South: Zora Neale Hurston (Boyd 2). Zora Neale Hurston, was an African-American novelist, folklorist, and anthropologist during the 1920s in Harlem, New York. The 1920s, also known as The Harlem Renaissance, African-Americans were able to express and represent their culture in its entirety, which until then had been pushed aside by the Whites. During this era Hurston not only embraced her culture, but provided women with a model on how to effectively contribute to it themselves. She showed them what it was like to be a woman writer and speak up for what she believed in regardless of the racial
"Zora Neale Hurston is Born." history.com. A&E Television Networks, 7 Jan. 2016. Web. 12 Jan.
In “Queens, 1963”, the speaker narrates to her audience her observations that she has collected from living in her neighborhood located in Queens, New York in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement. The narrator is a thirteen-year-old female immigrant who moved from the Dominican Republic to America with her family. As she reflects on her past year of living in America, she reveals a superb understanding of the reasons why the people in her neighborhood act the way they do towards other neighbors. In “Queens, 1963” by Julia Alvarez, the poet utilizes diction, figurative language, and irony to effectively display to the readers that segregation is a strong part of the American melting pot.
Appiah, K.A. and Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. eds. Zora Neale Hurston: Critical Perspectives Past and Present. New York: Amistad Press, Inc., 1993.
Hurston’s “How it Feels to be Colored Me” the presence of conflicting views in their