Zora Neale Hurston and Racial Equality
On September eighteenth, nineteen thirty-seven, Their Eyes Were Watching God, one of the greatest novels of this century, was published. It was met with mixed reviews. The major (white) periodicals found it enjoyable and simple, while black literary circles said it "carries no theme, no message" (Wright,1937). These evaluations are not mutually exclusive, but rather demonstrate the conception of Hurston's work as telling whites what they want to hear and not dealing with racism. While Hurston did receive recognition during her life, she died forgotten and wasn't considered one of America's greatest writers until recently. Why did luminaries such as Richard Wright and Langston Hughes deny her worth? And how do we know they were wrong?
Hurston once told Nick Ford "I have ceased to think in terms of race; I think only in terms of individuals. I am interested in you now not as a Negro man but as a man. I am not interested in the race problem, but I am interested in the problems of individuals, white ones and black ones." Ford's response was "If the Negro is to rise in the estimation of the world, he must be continuously presented in a more favorable light, even in fiction... Negro authors owe such loyalty to their people" (Ford,1936). This response reflects much of her criticisms. There are three important assumptions here: The perception of African-Americans can be improved by writing about racial inequality, Hurston does not do this, and she has accrued some debt to do so.
Literature can probably change the world's thoughts on many things, and racial inequality may be one of them. For this to work, a book needs whites as an audience. But not just any whites- rac...
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...rk: Chelsea House, 1986. 13-14.
* Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. Philadelphia: J.B.Lippincott, 1937. New York: Harper & Row, 1990.
* Hurston, Zora Neale. "What White Publishers Won't Print." I Love Myself When I Am Laughing... Ed. Alice Walker. New York: Feminist Press, 1979. 169-173.
* Locke, Alain. "Their Eyes Were Watching God." Zora Neale Hurston. Ed. Henry Gates. New York: Amistad, 1993. 18.
* Lawrence, Susan V. "Out to Impress an Uncertain China." U.S.News & World Report. 6 Feb. 1995: 50.
* Walker, Alice. "On Refusing to Be Humbled by Second Place in a Contest You Did Not Design: A Tradition by Now." I Love Myself When I Am Laughing... Ed. Alice Walker. New York: Feminist Press, 1979. 1-5.
* Wright, Richard. "Their Eyes Were Watching God." Zora Neale Hurston. Ed. Henry Gates. New York: Amistad, 1993. 16-17.
Appiah, K.A. and Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. eds. Zora Neale Hurston: Critical Perspectives Past and Present. New York: Amistad Press, Inc., 1993.
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937). : Urbana, Ill.: U of Illinois P, 1937.
Ha, Quan. “Utopian and Dystopian Elements in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God.” Rpt. in Themes of Conflict in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Literature of the American South. Ed. Ben Robertson. Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press, 2007. 27-41. Print.
This paper examines the drastic differences in literary themes and styles of Richard Wright and Zora Neale Hurston, two African--American writers from the early 1900's. The portrayals of African-American women by each author are contrasted based on specific examples from their two most prominent novels, Native Son by Wright, and Their Eyes Were Watching God by Hurston. With the intent to explain this divergence, the autobiographies of both authors (Black Boy and Dust Tracks on a Road) are also analyzed. Particular examples from the lives of each author are cited to demonstrate the contrasting lifestyles and experiences that created these disparities, drawing parallels between the authors’ lives and creative endeavors. It becomes apparent that Wright's traumatic experiences involving females and Hurston's identity as a strong, independent and successful Black artist contributed significantly to the ways in which they chose to depict African-American women and what goals they adhered to in reaching and touching a specific audience with the messages contained in their writing.
In conclusion, the deadliest and most devastating U.S. tornado outbreak of the 20th century was the April 3–4, 1974, “Super Tornado Outbreak.” It lasted 16 hours and at least 148 twisters tore up 2,500 miles of Earth through 13 states over a 24-hour period, according to the National Weather Service. The "super outbreak," as meteorologists now call it, left 330 people dead and 5,484 injured. Property losses were placed at $600 million and only ten of the thirteen states that were hit, were declared a disaster area.
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 differences of the voice and themes used with the works “How it Feels to be Colored Me” by Hurston and Hughes’ “The Negro Mother”. The importance of these factors directly correlate to how each author came to find their literary inspiration and voice that attributed to their works.
Zora Neale Hurston kept busy sharpening her oyster knife not to prepare for any violent confrontations with white society but quite the opposite, to extract the raw materials from her own culture and cultivate them into priceless treasures. To Hurston the Negro was always in vogue (Hughes). She didn't wait for the white culture to place its stamp of approval on the subject matter she knew and loved so well. In her well-known essay, "How It Feels to Be Colored Me," Hurston makes reference to society's view of her a the granddaughter of slaves: "It is quite exciting to hold the center of the national stage, with the spectators not knowing whether to laugh or to weep." Hurston must have felt that way about her writing also; she threw it out there and let the audience do with it what they willed. Sometimes we laugh; sometimes we cry. But humor always hovers nearby in all of her writing and serves as the emotional salvation needed to compensate for the often heavy subject matter (Fauset, 166).
...James Robert Saunders, "Womanism as the Key to Understanding Zora Neale Hurston's `Their Eyes Were Watching God' and Alice Walker's `The Color Purple'," in The Hollins Critic, Vol. XXV, No. 4, October, 1988, pp. 1-11. Reproduced by permission.
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. Harper Perennial Modern Classics: Reissue Edition 2013
Hurston, Lora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1990.
This excerpt from Zora Neale Hurston’s book, Their Eyes Were watching God, is an example of her amazing writing. She makes us feel as if we are actually in her book, through her use of the Southern Black vernacular and admirable description. Her characters are realistic and she places special, well thought out sentences to keep us interested. Zora Neale Hurston’s art enables her to write this engaging story about a Southern black woman’s life.
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their eyes were watching God: a novel. New York: Perennial Library, 1937. Print.
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2006. Print.
Tornadoes are one of the deadliest and most unpredictable villains mankind will ever face. There is no rhyme or reason, no rhythm to it’s madness. Tornados are one of the most terrifying natural events that occur, destroying homes and ending lives every year. April 29th, 1995, a calm, muggy, spring night I may never forget. Jason, a buddy I grew up with, just agreed to travel across state with me so we could visit a friend in Lubbock. Jason and I were admiring the beautiful blue bonnets, which traveled for miles like little blue birds flying close to the ground. The warm breeze brushed across the tips of the blue bonnets and allowed them to dance under the perfectly clear blue sky. In the distance, however, we could see darkness. A rumbling sky was quickly approaching.
Racism and inequality with African Americans have been prevalent in the U.S. for a long time. Specifically, during the Harlem Renaissance, this struggle of discrimination had arguably the greatest impact on the writers of this time period. Zora Neale Hurston is just one example of a writer who was affected by this. She was faced with discrimination, a harder lifestyle, and publication issues.