What Role Does Sexuality Play In Zora Neale Hurston's Life?

Sexuality played a major role in Zora Neale Hurston’s life and stories. Hurston married a man named Hubert Sheen, but their love did not last. The end of their marriage took affected Hurston, but it did not stop her from what she wanted to do in life. Ayana Karanja, a literary critic, wrote about how the relationship especially affected her work, as she said
In Their Eyes she sketches a picture of her lost relationship with lines clear enough to reveal the pain and joy that she experienced in love. Whether to offer her whole life to the man she loved, or sacrifice the writing that she was so deeply committed to was the decision she painfully confronted (“New Moon: The Child of the Moon”51).
Though it was rough, Hurston managed to go back to

She did research as a folklorist/anthropologist and her marriage did not stop her from doing so. Her marital experiences with love reflected into Janie’s love life as Janie had two marriages and a relationship in the novel. Janie was written to define that drive to do more in life, and live her life. Hurston created a character who reflected that passion she had into her character. Karanja describes how this connection is made between the two characters: “[b]ecause of her passion for both –the man and the work-like Janie, she would ultimately suffer the weight of either decision. Her work was her life, and to give it up seemed unbearable” (“New Moon: The Child Woman” 51). The impact of the marriage and how Hurston came back from them presented the notion of strong females as she was able to move pass her marriage and continue to move foreword. This moving foreword notion presented itself in Janie’s character as well. When it comes to her sexuality and defying the stereotype of how woman should be, Janie uses herself as a weapon in the novel. A literary critic named, Wu Hognzhui, writes about Janie’s way of confronting the battle between her and Joe. He says that “[d]eep inside, she never really