More handpicked essays just for you.
Harlem renaissance impact
The importance of the Harlem Renaissance
Cultural impacts of the Harlem Renaissance
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Zora Neale Hurston is a female African American writer whom is well known for her contributions to the Harlem Renaissance era of American literature. She unfortunately did not gain much recognition during her lifetime due to her most famous works being released during the Great Depression when it was not as popular (Hurston). Nonetheless, she is still well known for her writing style and beliefs. Hurston was also known for not agreeing with many male writers of the Harlem community especially Langston Hughes. She did not believe that her writing needed to boost the African American community, but that it was already raised whereas Langston believed his writing needed to give life back to it (Hurston). In Zora Hurston’s short story, “The Six Gilded Bits,” appearance versus reality …show more content…
seemed to be a major theme of this story, which is shown through her symbolism, imagery, and shifts in point of view that prove everything is not what it seems to be on the surface. Beginning with the very title of her story, Zora Hurston presents idea of deception of reality within “The Gilded Six Bits,” which gives the reader an idea of lesser coins being covered in gold (Hurston).
This is to make the coins seem more valuable than what they are which could also be said for many other elements contributing to this theme. By starting with this, she symbolized deception through the gilded six bits hinting to what will later be revealed throughout the story (Hurston). When the gilded six bits is introduced the reader is unaware because it is Otis D. Slemmons “ten-dollar gold piece on his watch chain” (Hurston). Hurston leads the reader to see this by showing how Joe had believed that Slemmons was a wealthy African American man whom he wanted to be wealthy like, but soon would find that he was a fraud when Slemmons is caught having sex with Maggie May (Hurston). Through this betrayal, Joe obtains the gold piece when he hits Slemmons and after standing in numbness he looks to notice that the coin is gilded (Hurston). Slemmons had been faking his wealth the whole time which contributes to the elements in Hurston’s work not being what they were originally made out to
be. To add to the theme of appearance versus reality, Hurston’s use of vivid imagery when explaining the neighborhood Joe and Missie May lived made the place seem pure by stating, “The fence and the house were whitewashed. The porch and steps scrubbed white” (Hurston). Typically, white is used as a symbolic meaning to represent purity, which is not what is lurking within the depths of this story. Maggie May and Joe’s marriage is not as pure as it is described to be in the beginning and it speaks to the Hurston’s idea of things not being exactly what they seem (Hurston). When Maggie Mays betrayal is reveled, it proves this idea and makes the reader question how strong their love and commitment is. It also leads the reader to question if Maggie Mays love is true or gilded like Slemmons and his coin.
The Gilded Six-Bits tells the story of a black family dealing with social restrictions and expectations during the 1930s. The story begins with a picturesque snapshot of a newlywed couple in Eatonsville, the first black integrated community in the United States. Zora Hurston in The Gilded Six Bits demonstrates gender stereotypes through a newlywed couple’s dialogue in the early 1900s. The quintessential women in American society was still the bosomy beautiful homemaker with a penchant for cooking and cleaning. The husband was usually placed on a pedestal as the breadwinner and had the more power in the household and in their marriage. The typical woman during the 1930s was expected to cook, clean, and take care of the household chores.
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.
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 Wright. When she did write politically, she was very subtle about stating her beliefs.
Zora Neale was an early 20th century American novelist, short story writer, folklorist, and anthropologist. In her best known novel Their eyes were watching God, Hurston integrated her own first-hand knowledge of African American oral culture into her characters dialogue and the novels descriptive passages. By combing folklore, folk language and traditional literary techniques; Hurston created a truly unique literary voice and viewpoint. Zora Neale Hurston's underlying theme of self-expression and search for one’s independence was truly revolutionary for its time. She explored marginal issues ahead of her time using the oral tradition to explore contentious debates. In this essay I will explore Hurston narrative in her depiction of biblical imagery, oppression of African women and her use of colloquial dialect.
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.
The Gilded Six-Bits was written during the Great Depression and takes place during the same era. Blacks were still segregated in the 1930’s. The author, Zora Neale Hurston is black. The story’s main characters are all black and live in an exclusively black community. The two main characters still manage to find happiness, even though they are poverty-stricken and racially downcast. Much of their perspective and behavior can be attributed to their positions in society.
When handling a controversial subject, it is important to recognize the opinion of everyone, not just of oneself. If an author does not recognize, at least to some degree, the opinion of everyone in their audience, they risk losing the interest of readers whose opinions are different. African American writers must consider how it feels to be an African American to their audience; they must understand that there is no such thing as one identity for an entire race.
Zora Neale Hurston was a novelist, folklorist, and anthropologist. Zora plays an important role for the Harlem Renaissance. Zora Neale Hurston is considered one of the titans of twentieth-century African American literature. Despite that she would later fall into disgrace because of her firm views of civil rights, her lyrical writing which praise southern black culture has influenced generations of black American literary figures. Hurston’s work also had an impact on later black American authors such as Ralph Ellison, Alice Walker, and Toni Morrison.
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.
“The Gilded Six Bits,” by Zora Neale Hurston is about a happily married couple, Missy May and Joe Banks, who discovers that something is missing from their life when sly Slemmons comes to town. The story exhibits how capitalistic-patriarchy dominates and eventually distorts Joe and Missy May’s marriage.
In conclusion, Hurston was a modernist writer who dealt with societal themes of racism, and social and racial identity. She steps away from the folk-oriented style of writing other African American authors, such as Langston Hughes, and she addresses modern topics and issues that relate to her people. She embraces pride in her color and who she is. She does not hate the label of “colored” that has been placed upon her. She embraces who she is and by example, she teaches others to love themselves and the color of their skin. She is very modern. She is everybody’s Zora.
Alice Walker and Zora Neale Hurston are similar to having the same concept about black women to have a voice. Both are political, controversial, and talented experiencing negative and positive reviews in their own communities. These two influential African-American female authors describe the southern hospitality roots. Hurston was an influential writer in the Harlem Renaissance, who died from mysterious death in the sixties. Walker who is an activist and author in the early seventies confronts sexually progression in the south through the Great Depression period (Howard 200). Their theories point out feminism of encountering survival through fiction stories. As a result, Walker embraced the values of Hurston’s work that allowed a larger
“Spunk,” by Zora Neale Hurston, is a short story about a man who appears masculine and fearless claiming another man’s wife, but the tables turn by the end of the story. The short story begins with Spunk, the main character, walking off with Lena Kanty. Joe Kanty knows about the affair, but is too timid to confront Spunk.
“The Gilded Six-Bits,” by Zora Neale Hurston is an amazingly, articulated, short story. In that the characters in this story share a great bond between each other. Additionally, it could be said that they also have very good character descriptions as well. This story follows the life of Missie May, her husband Joe, and the wannabe rich guy Mister Otis D. Slemmons. Now then, on to the main point, in how these three main characters are related to each other, how they are described, and the different types of characters these three are.
The coin is used throughout the story as a symbol to make Missie May remember what she did to Joe. When she examines the coin, however, she realizes that it is only a gilded half dollar painted to look like a golden coin. This makes the coin even more symbolic as the mistake that Missie May made, she not only fell for a crook, but she fell for the fake money that led her to sleep with Otis. This symbol also supports the idea of being satisfied with what you have. If Missie May was okay with what she had she wouldn’t have wanted that gold coin which turned out to be fake. Hurston writes, “She took it into her hands with trembling and saw first thing that it was no gold piece” (Hurston). She then started to realize why Otis would never let anyone touch his