Zora Neale Hurston's Values If you were a part of a huge, exponentially growing community and you wanted to express your true feelings about it, would you do it? Well, that’s what Zora Neale Hurston did when she created one of her most popular novels, Their Eyes Were Watching God during the Harlem Renaissance in 1937. Zora Neale Hurston is a Black American author, anthropologist, and documentary filmmaker who portrayed racial struggles in the Harlem Renaissance. When writing her famous novel Zora Neale Hurston makes a message out of Janie's life experiences on how she departs from the Harlem Renaissance value of community and reflects the value of self-expression in her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. The Value of Community is proven to …show more content…
This caused The New Black Movement to come together and support Louis Armstrong’s work to relate to other communities that enjoyed Jazz during the 1930’s time period to help build an even bigger community while also building a stronger bond with members already in the community. By building a stronger community, The New Black Movement gains more attention to be put towards their cause and more people will be able to see their traditions in creativity such as their way of singing, writing, and painting which shows how they are expressing their communities ideas of what the New Black Movement community is about and why it’s important to them. The importance being so that they can fight back against inequality and discrimination towards Black people in America and break stereotypes that come from white people. Zora Neale Hurston uses Janie’s life experiences to depart from the value of community in their eyes watching …show more content…
Hurston 50: As a result of Joe’s controlling demeanor, she is excluded from a major tradition in the town of Eatonville by Joe, who is the upper class mayor of his community that still refers to his own people in his community he runs as trashy. Through her example, Zora Neale Hurston uses Janie’s experience with Joe as a way to depart from the value of community by showing that just because someone is in the same community as someone else, it does not mean that people still cannot turn against their own people and see each other in a negative way despite all being under the same belief system. Zora Neale Hurston makes it clear that even if the New Black Movement is the same community, not everyone within the community will think of other people in a positive way like how others shame Zora Neale Hurston from the Black male side of the Harlem Renaissance for giving a negative image to Black people by appealing to white people by matching certain stereotypes about Black people when making her voice heard for the interests of white people and for other white publishers trying to preserve the heritage of Black people as a
In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston which is set in the 1930’s explores the life of an African American women from the south, that trying to find herself. The protagonist of this novel is Janie Crawford. In the novel, Janie is going on a journey to find who she really is and to find spiritual enlightenment. To help shape Janie character in this novel Hurston is influence by the philosophical view from the Romanticism, and Realism movement in addition she is influence by the social events that were happing in the Modernism period.
Through her use of southern black language Zora Neale Hurston illustrates how to live and learn from life’s experiences. Janie, the main character in Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, is a woman who defies what people expect of her and lives her life searching to become a better person. Not easily satisfied with material gain, Janie quickly jumps into a search to find true happiness and love in life. She finally achieves what she has searched for with her third marriage.
Zora Neale Hurston grew up in Eatonville, Florida also known as “Negro Town” (Hurston, 1960, p.1). Not because of the town was full of blacks, but because the town charter, mayor, and council. Her home town was not the first Negro community, but the first to be incorporated. Around Zora becoming she experienced many hangings and riots. Not only did Zora experience t...
In Zora Neale Hurston’s powerful feminist novel, “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” she tells the story of Janie Stark and her journey into becoming a powerful black woman during the time when those words were not spoken together. Hurston uses Janie as an archetype for what we should all aspire to be, because in Hurston’s eyes, and the eyes of many others, Janie is the only character in the novel that gets it right. The thing about Janie that set her apart from everyone else, the reason that she got it right, was not because she was just born that way, but it was because she used all of the trials and hardships in her life to her advantage. She never crumbled or quit, but she continued to move on and use her life experiences to help mold to her
Their Eyes Were Watching God is a novel that presents a happy ending through the moral development of Janie, the protagonist. The novel divulges Janie’s reflection on her life’s adventures, by narrating the novel in flashback form. Her story is disclosed to Janie’s best friend Phoebe who comes to learn the motive for Janie’s return to Eatonville. By writing the novel in this style they witness Janie’s childhood, marriages, and present life, to observe Janie’s growth into a dynamic character and achievement of her quest to discover identity and spirit.
In Zora Neale Hurston’s romantic novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, two settings are contrasted to reinforce the author’s theme of a search for true love. The setting of Eatonville, Florida, where main character Janie experiences life as the mayor’s wife, is contrasted with the Florida Everglades, where Janie lives with Tea Cake in a much more relaxed atmosphere.
Zora Neale Hurston an early twentieth century Afro-American feminist author, was raised in a predominately black community which gave her an unique perspective on race relations, evident in her novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. Hurston drew on her on experiences as a feminist Afro-American female to create a story about the magical transformation of Janie, from a young unconfident girl to a thriving woman. Janie experiences many things that make her a compelling character who takes readers along as her companion, on her voyage to discover the mysteries and rewards life has to offer.
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
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.
The Harlem Renaissance was all about freedom of expression and the search for one's identity. Zora Neale Hurston’s, Their Eyes Were Watching God, shows these goals through the main character Janie and her neighbors. Janie freely expressed what she wanted and searched for her identity with her different husbands. Even though Janie was criticized by everyone except her friends, she continued to pursue. She lost everything, but ultimately found her identity. Hurston's writing is both a reflection and a departure from the idea of the Harlem Renaissance.
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
How does Zora Neale Hurston’s race affect her approach to life? America has a long history of discriminating certain groups of people, particularly people of color. African-Americans were treated as slaves and was not seen as equal. Although slavery remained a history and was ultimately legally abolished, race still plays a big role in determining superiority today. Author of How it feels to be colored me, Zora Neale Hurston, describes her journey of racial recognition outside her world that reshaped her conception of racial identity that resulted in the prideful embrace of her African American heritage.
“She saw a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight,” (11). The novel, Their Eyes Were Watching, God by Zora Neale Hurston, tells a story of a woman, Janie Crawford’s quest to find her true identity that takes her on a journey and back in which she finally comes to learn who she is. These lessons of love and life that Janie comes to attain about herself are endowed from the relationships she has with Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, and Tea Cake.
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.