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Zafar Nurullayev

Ro'yxatga olish sanasi 22 May 2023

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Zora Neale Hurston biography

Sotib olish

DENOV ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND
PEDAGOGICAL INSTITUTE
“_______________________” FACULTY
“_____________________________” DIRECTION
_______ - GROUP STUDENT
_______________________________ OF
PREPARED ON THE SUBJECT
COURSE WORK
THEME: ZORA NEALE HURSTON AND HIS BIOGRAPHY.
PREPARED : ______________
TEACHER:______________
1

THEME:ZORA NEALE HURSTON AND HIS BIOGRAPHY.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………..3
I. CHAPTER.ZORA NEALE HURSTON LIFE PATH. ………...5
1.1.Biography of Zora Neale Hurston. ……………………….5
1.2.Anthropological and folkloric fieldwork ………………….8
II.CHAPTER.LITERARY CAREER. ……………………………..12
2.1.Stages of the emergence of literary creativity…………….12
2.2.Literary analysis……………………………………………22
CONCLUSION………………………………………………………35
LIST OF USED LITERATURE……………………………………36
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INTRODUCTION
Relevance of the course work. Zora Neale Hurston (January 7,1891 –
January 28,1960) was an American author, anthropologist, and filmmaker. She
portrayed racial struggles in the early-1900s American South and published
research on hoodoo. The most popular of her four novels is Their Eyes Were
Watching God, published in 1937.She also wrote more than 50 short stories, plays,
and essays.
Hurston was born in Notasulga, Alabama, and moved with her family to
Eatonville, Florida, in 1894.She later used Eatonville as the setting for many of her
stories. In her early career,Hurston conducted anthropological and ethnographic
research while a student at Barnard College and Columbia University.She had an
interest in African-American and Caribbean folklore, and how these contributed to
the community's identity.
She also wrote fiction about contemporary issues in the Black community and
became a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance. Her short satires, drawing from
the African-American experience and racial division, were published in
anthologies such as The New Negro and Fire!!.After moving back to Florida,
Hurston wrote and published her literary anthology on African-American folklore
in North Florida, Mules and Men (1935), and her first three novels: Jonah's Gourd
Vine (1934); Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937); and Moses, Man of the
Mountain (1939).Also published during this time was Tell My Horse: Voodoo and
Life in Haiti and Jamaica (1938), documenting her research on rituals in Jamaica
and Haiti.
Hurston's works concerned both the African-American experience and her
struggles as an African-American woman. Her novels went relatively unrecognized
by the literary world for decades. In 1975, fifteen years after Hurston's death,
interest in her work was revived after author Alice Walker published an article, "In
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Search of Zora Neale Hurston" (later retitled “Looking for Zora”), in the March
issue of Ms. magazine that year.Then,in 2001, Hurston's manuscript Every Tongue
Got to Confess, a collection of folktales gathered in the 1920s, was published after
being discovered in the Smithsonian archives. Her nonfiction book Barracoon: The
Story of the Last "Black Cargo",about the life of Cudjoe Lewis (Kossola), was
published in 2018.
Object of the course work -Zora Neale Hurston parallel study of the
components of their creativity and their organization of a system of correct
systematic groups.
Subject of course work - Zora Neale Hurston full study and disclosure of the
essence of the content,forms and methods of studying the literature.
Study tasks of the course work :
- Study and analysis of pedagogical and methodological literature on the
topic;
- Analysis of pedagogical and methodological literature on the topic;
- Definition of the role of the theory of Zora Neale Hurston.
- To find new facets of the creativity and literary heritage of the current Zora
Neale Hurston.
Structure of the course work: this course work consists of an
introduction,two chapters and four sections that are part of it, a conclusion and a
list of used literature.
4

I. CHAPTER.ZORA NEALE HURSTON LIFE PATH.
1.1.Biography of Zora Neale Hurston.
Zora Neale Hurston
(January 7,1891 – January 28,1960)
Early life and education:Hurston was the fifth of eight children of John
Hurston and Lucy Ann Hurston (née Potts).All of her four grandparents had been
born into slavery. Her father was a Baptist preacher and sharecropper, who later
became a carpenter, and her mother was a school teacher. She was born in
Notasulga, Alabama, on January 7,1891, where her father grew up and her paternal
grandfather was the preacher of a Baptist church.
When she was three, her family moved to Eatonville, Florida.In 1887, it was
one of the first all-Black towns incorporated in the United States.Hurston said that
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Eatonville was "home" to her,as she was so young when she moved there.
Sometimes she claimed it as her birthplace.A few years later,her father was elected
as mayor of the town in 1897.In 1902 he was called to serve as minister of its
largest church,Macedonia Missionary Baptist.As an adult,Hurston often used
Eatonville as a setting in her stories—it was a place where African Americans
could live as they desired, independent of white society. In 1901, some northern
schoolteachers had visited Eatonville and given Hurston several books that opened
her mind to literature. She later described this personal literary awakening as a
kind of "birth".Hurston lived for the rest of her childhood in Eatonville and
described the experience of growing up there in her 1928 essay, "How It Feels To
Be Colored Me". Eatonville now holds an annual "Zora! Festival" in her
honor.Hurston's mother died in 1904, and her father subsequently married Mattie
Moge in 1905.This was considered scandalous, as it was rumored that he had had
sexual relations with Moge before his first wife's death.Hurston's father and
stepmother sent her to a Baptist boarding school in Jacksonville, Florida. They
eventually stopped paying her tuition and she was dismissed.
Work and study:In 1916, Hurston was employed as a maid by the lead singer
of the Gilbert & Sullivan theatrical company.In 1917, she resumed her formal
education, attending Morgan College, the high school division of Morgan State
University, a historically black college in Baltimore, Maryland. At this time,
apparently to qualify for a free high-school education, the 26-year-old Hurston
began claiming 1901 as her year of birth.She graduated from the high school of
Morgan State University in 1918.
College and slightly after:When she was in college, she was introduced to
viewing life through an anthropological lens away from Eatonville. One of her
main goals was to prove similarities between ethnicities.In 1918, Hurston began
her studies at Howard University, a historically black college in Washington, DC.
She was one of the earliest initiates of Zeta Phi Beta sorority, founded by and for
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black women, and co-founded The Hilltop, the university's student newspaper.She
took courses in Spanish, English, Greek, and public speaking and earned an
associate degree in 1920.In 1921, she wrote a short story, "John Redding Goes to
Sea", which qualified her to become a member of Alain Locke's literary club, The
Stylus.Hurston left Howard in 1924, and in 1925 was offered a scholarship by
Barnard trustee Annie Nathan Meyer to Barnard College of Columbia University, a
women's college, where she was the sole black student.While she was at Barnard,
she conducted ethnographic research with noted anthropologist Franz Boas of
Columbia University, and later studied with him as a graduate student. She also
worked with Ruth Benedict and fellow anthropology student Margaret Mead.
Hurston received her B.A. in anthropology in 1928, when she was.Hurston had met
Charlotte Osgood Mason, a philanthropist and literary patron, who became
interested in her work and career. She had supported other African-American
authors, such as Langston Hughes and Alain Locke, who had recommended
Hurston to her. But she also tried to direct their work. Mason supported Hurston's
travel to the South for research from 1927 to 1932, with a stipend of $200 per
month. In return, she wanted Hurston to give her all the material she collected
about Negro music, folklore, literature, hoodoo, and other forms of culture. At the
same time, Hurston had to try to satisfy Boas as her academic adviser. Boas was a
cultural relativist and wanted to overturn ideas ranking cultures in a hierarchy of
values.After graduating from Barnard, Hurston studied for two years as a graduate
student in anthropology at Columbia University, working further with Boas during
this period.Living in Harlem in the 1920s, Hurston had befriended poets Langston
Hughes and Countee Cullen, among several other writers. Her apartment,
according to some accounts, was a popular spot for social gatherings. Around this
time, Hurston also had a few early literary successes, including placing in short-
story and playwriting contests in Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life, published
by the National Urban League.
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Marriages:In 1927, Hurston married Herbert Sheen, a jazz musician and a
former teacher at Howard; he later became a physician. Their marriage ended in
1931. In 1935, Hurston was involved with Percy Punter, a graduate student at
Columbia University. He inspired the character of Tea Cake in Their Eyes Were
Watching God.In 1939, while Hurston was working for the WPA in Florida, she
married Albert Price.The marriage ended after a few months,but they did not
divorce until 1943.The following year,Hurston married James Howell Pitts of
Cleveland. That marriage,too,lasted less than a year.Hurston twice lived in a
cottage in Eau Gallie, Florida: in 1929 and again in 1951.
Patron support:When foundation grants ended during the Great Depression,
Hurston and her friend Langston Hughes both relied on the patronage of
philanthropist Charlotte Osgood Mason, a white literary patron.During the 1930s,
Hurston was a resident of Westfield, New Jersey, a suburb of New York, where her
friend Hughes was among her neighbors.
Academic institutions:In 1934, Hurston established a school of dramatic arts
"based on pure Negro expression" at Bethune-Cookman University (at the time,
Bethune-Cookman College), a historically black college in Daytona Beach,
Florida.In 1956 Hurston received the Bethune-Cookman College Award for
Education and Human Relations in recognition of her achievements. The English
Department at Bethune-Cookman College remains dedicated to preserving her
cultural legacy.In later life, in addition to continuing her literary career, Hurston
served on the faculty of North Carolina College for Negroes (now North Carolina
Central University) in Durham.
1.2.Anthropological and folkloric fieldwork
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Hurston traveled extensively in the Caribbean and the American South and
immersed herself in local cultural practices to conduct her anthropological
research. Based on her work in the South, sponsored from 1928 to 1932 by
Charlotte Osgood Mason, a wealthy philanthropist, Hurston wrote Mules and Men
in 1935.She was researching lumber camps in north Florida and commented on the
practice of white men in power taking black women as concubines, including
having them bear children. This practice later was referred to as "paramour rights",
based on the men's power under racial segregation and related to practices during
slavery times. The book also includes much folklore. Hurston drew from this
material as well in the fictional treatment she developed for her novels such as
Jonah's Gourd Vine (1934).In 1935, Hurston traveled to Georgia and Florida with
Alan Lomax and Mary Elizabeth Barnicle for research on African American song
traditions and their relationship to slave and African antecedent music. She was
tasked with selecting the geographic areas and contacting the research subjects.
Hurston playing a hountar, or mama drum, 1937
In 1936 and 1937, Hurston traveled to Jamaica and Haiti for research, with
support from the Guggenheim Foundation. She drew from this research for Tell
9

My Horse (1938), a genre-defying book that mixes anthropology, folklore, and
personal narrative.In 1938 and 1939, Hurston worked for the Federal Writer's
Project (FWP), part of the Works Progress Administration.Hired for her experience
as a writer and folklorist, she gathered information to add to Florida's historical and
cultural collection.From October 1947 to February 1948,Hurston lived in
Honduras, in the north coastal town of Puerto Cortés. She had some hopes of
locating either Mayan ruins or vestiges of an as yet undiscovered
civilization.While in Puerto Cortés, she wrote much of Seraph on the Suwanee, set
in Florida. Hurston expressed interest in the polyethnic nature of the population in
the region (many, such as the Miskito Zambu and Garifuna, were of partial African
ancestry and had developed creole cultures).
Hurston in Florida on an anthropological research trip, 1935
During her last decade, Hurston worked as a freelance writer for magazines
and newspapers. In the fall of 1952, she was contacted by Sam Nunn, editor of the
Pittsburgh Courier, to go to Florida to cover the murder trial of Ruby McCollum.
McCollum was charged with murdering the white Dr.C.Leroy Adams, who was
also a politician.McCollum said he had forced her to have sex and bear his
10

child.Hurston recalled what she had seen of white male sexual dominance in the
lumber camps in North Florida, and discussed it with Nunn. They both thought the
case might be about such "paramour rights", and wanted to "expose it to a national
audience".
Upon reaching Live Oak, Hurston was surprised not only by the gag order the
judge in the trial placed on the defense but by her inability to get residents in town
to talk about the case; both blacks and whites were silent. She believed that might
have been related to Dr. Adams' alleged involvement in the gambling operation of
Ruby's husband Sam McCollum. Her articles were published by the newspaper
during the trial. Ruby McCollum was convicted by an all-male, all-white jury, and
sentenced to death. Hurston had a special assignment to write a serialized account,
The Life Story of Ruby McCollum, over three months in 1953 in the
newspaper.Her part was ended abruptly when she and Nunn disagreed about her
pay, and she left.
Unable to pay independently to return for the appeal and second trial, Hurston
contacted journalist William Bradford Huie, with whom she had worked at The
American Mercury, to try to interest him in the case. He covered the appeal and
second trial, and also developed material from a background investigation. Hurston
shared her material with him from the first trial, but he acknowledged her only
briefly in his book, Ruby McCollum: Woman in the Suwannee Jail (1956), which
became a bestseller. Hurston celebrated that:"McCollum's testimony in her own
defense marked the first time that a woman of African-American descent was
allowed to testify as to the paternity of her child by a white man. Hurston firmly
believed that Ruby McCollum's testimony sounded the death toll of 'paramour
rights' in the Segregationist South."
Among other positions, Hurston later worked at the Pan American World
Airways Technical Library at Patrick Air Force Base in 1957. She was fired for
being "too well-educated" for her job.She moved to Fort Pierce, Florida. Taking
11

jobs where she could find them, Hurston worked occasionally as a substitute
teacher. At age 60, Hurston had to fight "to make ends meet" with the help of
public assistance. At one point she worked as a maid on Miami Beach's Rivo Alto
Island.
II.CHAPTER.LITERARY CAREER.
2.1.Stages of the emergence of literary creativity.
1920s: The Harlem Renaissance:When Hurston arrived in New York City in
1925, the Harlem Renaissance was at its zenith, and she soon became one of the
writers at its center. Shortly before she entered Barnard, Hurston's short story
"Spunk" was selected for The New Negro, a landmark anthology of fiction, poetry,
and essays focusing on African and African-American art and literature.In 1926, a
group of young black writers including Hurston, Langston Hughes, and Wallace
Thurman, calling themselves the Niggerati, produced a literary magazine called
Fire!! that featured many of the young artists and writers of the Harlem
Renaissance.In 1927, Hurston traveled to the Deep South to collect African-
American folk tales. She also interviewed Cudjoe Kazzola Lewis, of Africatown,
Alabama, who was the last known survivor of the enslaved Africans carried aboard
Clotilda, an illegal slave ship that had entered the US in 1860, and thus the last
known person to have been transported in the Transatlantic slave trade. The next
year she published the article "Cudjoe's Own Story of the Last African Slaver"
(1928). According to her biographer Robert E. Hemenway, this piece largely
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plagiarized the work of Emma Langdon Roche,an Alabama writer who wrote
about Lewis in a 1914 book. Hurston did add new information about daily life in
Lewis' home village of Bantè.Hurston intended to publish a collection of several
hundred folk tales from her field studies in the South. She wanted to have them be
as close to the original as possible but struggled to balance the expectations of her
academic adviser, Franz Boas, and her patron, Charlotte Osgood Mason. This
manuscript was not published at the time. A copy was later found at the
Smithsonian archives among the papers of anthropologist William Duncan Strong,
a friend of Boas. Hurston's Negro Folk-tales from the Gulf States was published
posthumously in 2001 as Every Tongue Got to Confess.
In 1928, Hurston returned to Alabama with additional resources; she
conducted more interviews with Lewis, took photographs of him and others in the
community, and recorded the only known film footage of him – an African who
had been trafficked to the United States through the slave trade. Based on this
material, she wrote a manuscript, Barracoon, completing it in 1931. Hemenway
described it as "a highly dramatic, semifictionalized narrative intended for the
popular reader."It has also been described as a "testimonial text", more in the style
of other anthropological studies since the late 20th century.After this round of
interviews, Hurston's literary patron, philanthropist Charlotte Osgood Mason,
learned of Lewis and began to send him money for his support.Lewis was also
interviewed by journalists for local and national publications.Hurston's manuscript
Barracoon was eventually published posthumously on May 8, 2018."Barracoon",
or barracks in Spanish, is where captured Africans were temporarily imprisoned
before being shipped abroad.In 1929, Hurston moved to Eau Gallie, Florida, where
she wrote Mules and Men. It was published in 1935.
1930s:By the mid-1930s, Hurston had published several short stories and the
critically acclaimed Mules and Men (1935), a groundbreaking work of "literary
anthropology" documenting African-American folklore from timber camps in
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North Florida. In 1930, she collaborated with Langston Hughes on Mule Bone: A
Comedy of Negro Life, a play that they never staged. Their collaboration caused
their friendship to fall apart.The play was first staged in 1991.Hurston adapted her
anthropological work for the performing arts. Her folk revue, The Great Day,
featured authentic African song and dance, and premiered at the John Golden
Theatre in New York in January 1932.Despite positive reviews, it had only one
performance.The Broadway debut left Hurston in $600 worth of debt. No
producers wanted to move forward with a full run of the show.During the 1930s,
Zora Neale Hurston produced two other musical revues, From Sun to Sun, which
was a revised adaptation of The Great Day, and Singing Steel.Hurston had a strong
belief that folklore should be dramatized.Hurston's first three novels were
published in the 1930s: Jonah's Gourd Vine (1934); Their Eyes Were Watching
God (1937), written during her fieldwork in Haiti and considered her masterwork;
and Moses, Man of the Mountain (1939).In 1937,Hurston was awarded a
Guggenheim Fellowship to conduct ethnographic research in Jamaica and
Haiti.Tell My Horse (1938) documents her account of her fieldwork studying
spiritual and cultural rituals in Jamaica and vodoun in Haiti.
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1940s and 1950s:In the 1940s, Hurston's work was published in such
periodicals as The American Mercury and The Saturday Evening Post. Her last
published novel, Seraph on the Suwanee, notable principally for its focus on white
characters, was published in 1948. It explores images of "white trash" women.
Jackson (2000) argues that Hurston's meditation on abjection, waste, and the
construction of class and gender identities among poor whites reflects the eugenics
discourses of the 1920s.
Neale Hurston in 1938, photographed by Carl Van Vechten
In 1952, Hurston was assigned by the Pittsburgh Courier to cover the small-
town murder trial of Ruby McCollum, the prosperous black wife of the local bolita
racketeer, who had killed a racist white doctor. She also contributed to Ruby
McCollum: Woman in the Suwannee Jail (1956), a book by journalist and civil
rights advocate William Bradford Huie.
Posthumous publications
Hurston's manuscript Every Tongue Got to Confess (2001),a collection of
folktales gathered in the 1920s, was published posthumously after being
15

discovered in Smithsonian archives.In 2008,The Library of America selected
excerpts from Ruby McCollum: Woman in the Suwannee Jail (1956), to which
Hurston had contributed, for inclusion in its two-century retrospective of American
true crime writing.Hurston's nonfiction book Barracoon was published in 2018.A
barracoon is a type of barracks where slaves were imprisoned before being taken
overseas.
Spiritual views
In Chapter XV of Dust Tracks on a Road, entitled "Religion", Hurston
expressed disbelief in and disdain for both theism and religious belief.She
states:Prayer seems to me a cry of weakness, and an attempt to avoid, by trickery,
the rules of the game as laid down.I do not choose to admit weakness.I accept the
challenge of responsibility.Life, as it is, does not frighten me, since I have made
my peace with the universe as I find it, and bow to its laws.However, though
clearly rejecting the Baptist beliefs of her preacher father, her spirituality is a little
more complex than mere atheism. She investigates voodoo, going so far as to
participate in such rituals, and again in her original uncensored notes for her
autobiography shares her admiration for Biblical characters like King David: "He
was a man after God's own heart, and was quite servicable in helping God get rid
of no-count rascals who were cluttering up the place."
Public obscurity
Hurston's work slid into obscurity for decades, for both cultural and political
reasons.The use of African-American dialect,as featured in Hurston's novels,
became less popular.Younger writers felt that it was demeaning to use such dialect,
given the racially charged history of dialect fiction in American literature. Also,
Hurston had made stylistic choices in dialogue influenced by her academic studies.
Thinking like a folklorist, Hurston strove to represent speech patterns of the period,
which she had documented through ethnographic research.Several of Hurston's
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literary contemporaries criticized her use of dialect, saying that it was a caricature
of African-American culture and was rooted in a post-Civil War, white racist
tradition. These writers, associated with the Harlem Renaissance, criticized
Hurston's later work as not advancing the movement. Richard Wright, in his
review of Their Eyes Were Watching God, said:
The sensory sweep of her novel carries no theme, no message, no thought. In
the main, her novel is not addressed to the Negro, but to a white audience whose
chauvinistic tastes she knows how to satisfy. She exploits that phase of Negro life
which is "quaint," the phase which evokes a piteous smile on the lips of the
"superior" race.But since the late 20th century, there has been a revival of interest
in Hurston. Critics have since praised her skillful use of idiomatic speech.
During the 1930s and 1940s, when her work was published, the pre-eminent
African-American author was Richard Wright,a former Communist.Unlike
Hurston, Wright wrote in explicitly political terms. He had become disenchanted
with Communism, but he used the struggle of African Americans for respect and
economic advancement as both the setting and the motivation for his work.Other
popular African-American authors of the time, such as Ralph Ellison, dealt with
the same concerns as Wright albeit in ways more influenced by
Modernism.Hurston, who at times evinced conservative attitudes, was on the other
side of the disputes over the promise of leftist politics for African-Americans.In
1951, for example, Hurston argued that New Deal economic support had created a
harmful dependency by African Americans on the government and that this
dependency ceded too much power to politicians.Despite increasing difficulties,
Hurston maintained her independence and a determined optimism.She wrote in a
1957 letter:
But ... I have made phenomenal growth as a creative artist. ... I am not
materialistic ... If I do happen to die without money, somebody will bury me,
though I do not wish it to be that way.
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Posthumous recognition
Zora Neale Hurston's hometown of Eatonville, Florida, celebrates her life
annually in Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities.It is home to
the Zora Neale Hurston Museum of Fine Arts, and a library named for her opened
in January 2004.
The Zora Neale Hurston House in Fort Pierce has been designated as a
National Historic Landmark. The city celebrates Hurston annually through various
events such as Hattitudes, birthday parties, and the several-day event at the end of
April known as Zora! Festival.
Author Alice Walker sought to identify Hurston's unmarked grave in 1973.
She installed a grave marker inscribed with "A Genius of the South".
Alice Walker published "In Search of Zora Neale Hurston" in the March 1975
issue of Ms. magazine, reviving interest in Hurston's work.
In 1991, Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life, a 1930 play by Langston
Hughes and Hurston, was first staged; it was staged in New York City by the
Lincoln Center Theater.
In 1994, Hurston was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.
In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Zora Neale Hurston on his list of
100 Greatest African Americans.
Barnard College dedicated its 2003 Virginia C. Gildersleeve Conference to
Hurston.'Jumpin' at the Sun':Reassessing the Life and Work of Zora Neale Hurston
focused on her work and influence.Alice Walker's Gildersleeve lecture detailed her
work on discovering and publicizing Hurston's legacy.
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The Zora Neale Hurston Award was established in 2008; it is awarded to an
American Library Association member who has "demonstrated leadership in
promoting African American literature".
Hurston was inducted as a member of the inaugural class of the New York
Writers Hall of Fame in 2010.
The novel Harlem Mosaics (2012) by Whit Frazier depicts the friendship
between Langston Hughes and Hurston and tells the story of how their friendship
fell apart during their collaboration on the 1930 play Mule Bone: A Comedy of
Negro Life.
On January 7,2014, the 123rd anniversary of Hurston's birthday was
commemorated by a Google Doodle.
She was one of twelve inaugural inductees to the Alabama Writers Hall of
Fame on June 8, 2015.
An excerpt from her autobiography Dust Tracks on a Road was recited in the
documentary film August 28:A Day in the Life of a People,directed by Ava
DuVernay, which debuted at the opening of the Smithsonian's National Museum of
African American History and Culture in 2016.
Hurston was honored in a play written and performed by students at Indian
River Charter High School in October 2017, January 2018, and January 2019. The
play was based on letters written between Hurston and Vero Beach entrepreneur,
architect and pioneer, Waldo E. Sexton.
Political views:Hurston was a Republican who aligned herself with the
politics of the Old Right and was a supporter of Booker T. Washington. Although
she once stated her support for the "complete repeal of All Jim Crow Laws", she
was a contrarian on civil rights activism and generally lacked interest in being
19

associated with it.In 1951, she criticized the New Deal and argued that it had
created a harmful dependency by African Americans on the government and that
this dependency ceded too much power to politicians.She criticized communism in
her 1951 essay titled Why the Negro won't Buy Communism and accused
communists of exploiting African-Americans for their own personal gain. In her
1938 review of Richard Wright's short-story collection Uncle Tom's Children, she
criticized his communist beliefs and the Communist Party USA for supporting
"state responsibility for everything and individual responsibility for nothing, not
even feeding one's self". Her views on communism, the New Deal, civil rights, and
other topics contrasted with many of her colleagues in the Harlem Renaissance,
such as Langston Hughes, who was in the 1930s a supporter of the Soviet Union
and praised it in several of his poems.
John McWhorter has called Hurston a conservative, proclaiming her as
"America's favorite black conservative".David T. Beito and Linda Royster Beito
have argued that she can be characterized as a libertarian, comparing her to Rose
Wilder Lane and Isabel Paterson, two female libertarian novelists who were her
contemporaries and are known as the "founding mothers" of American
libertarianism.The libertarian magazine Reason praised her, claiming: "What
Hurston wanted, in both life and literature, was for everyone, of every race, for
better or worse, to be viewed as an individual first."In response to Black writers
criticizing her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God for not exploring racial
themes, she stated: "I am not interested in the race problem, but I am interested in
the problems of individuals, white ones and black ones".She criticized what she
described as "Race Pride and Race Consciousness", describing it as a "thing to be
abhorred", stating:Suppose a Negro does something really magnificent, and I
glory, not in the benefit to mankind, but in the fact that the doer was a Negro. Must
I not also go hang my head in shame when a member of my race does something
execrable? The white race did not go into a laboratory and invent incandescent
light. That was Edison. If you are under the impression that every white man is an
20

Edison, just look around a bit. If you have the idea that every Negro is a [George
Washington] Carver, you had better take off plenty of time to do your
searching.Although her personal quotes show disbelief of religion, Hurston did not
negate spiritual matters as evidenced from her 1942 autobiography Dust Tracks on
a Road:
Prayer seems to be a cry of weakness, and an attempt to avoid, by trickery, the
rules of the game as laid down. I do not choose to admit weakness. I accept the
challenge of responsibility. Life, as it is, does not frighten me, since I have made
my peace with the universe as I find it, and bow to its laws. The ever-sleepless sea
in its bed, crying out "how long?" to Time; million-formed and never motionless
flame; the contemplation of these two aspects alone, affords me sufficient food for
ten spans of my expected lifetime.It seems to me that organized creeds are
collections of words around a wish.I feel no need for such.However,I would not,
by word or deed, attempt to deprive another of the consolation it affords. It is
simply not for me. Somebody else may have my rapturous glance at the
archangels. The springing of the yellow line of the morning out of the misty deep
of dawn is glory enough for me.I know that nothing is destructible; things merely
change forms. When the consciousness we know as life ceases, I know that I shall
still be part and parcel of the world.I was a part before the sun rolled into shape
and burst forth in the glory of change.I was when the earth was hurled out from its
fiery rim.I shall return with the earth to Father Sun and still exist in substance
when the sun has lost its fire and disintegrated into infinity to perhaps become a
part of the whirling rubble of space. Why fear?The stuff of my being is the matter,
ever-changing,ever-moving, but never lost; so what need of denominations and
creeds to deny myself the comfort of all my fellow men?The wide belt of the
universe does not need finger-rings.I am one with the infinite and need no other
assurance.
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In 1952,Hurston supported the presidential campaign of Senator Robert A.
Taft. Like Taft, Hurston was against Franklin D.Roosevelt's New Deal policies.
She also shared his opposition to Roosevelt and Truman's interventionist foreign
policy.In the original draft of her autobiography,Dust Tracks on a Road,Hurston
compared the United States government to a "fence" in stolen goods and a Mafia-
like a protection racket. Hurston thought it ironic that the same "people who claim
that it is a noble thing to die for freedom and democracy… wax frothy if anyone
points out the inconsistency of their morals…We,too,consider machine gun bullets
good laxatives for heathens who get constipated with toxic ideas about a country of
their own." She was scathing about those who sought "freedoms" for those abroad
but denied it to people in their home countries:Roosevelt "can call names across an
ocean" for his Four Freedoms, but he did not have "the courage to speak even
softly at home."When Truman dropped the atomic bombs on Japan she called him
"the Butcher of Asia".Hurston opposed the Supreme Court ruling in the Brown v.
Board of Education case of 1954. She felt that if separate schools were truly equal
(and she believed that they were rapidly becoming so), educating black students in
physical proximity to white students would not result in better education.Also, she
worried about the demise of black schools and black teachers as a way to pass on
the cultural tradition to future generations of African Americans.She voiced this
opposition in a letter, "Court Order Can't Make the Races Mix", that was published
in the Orlando Sentinel in August 1955. Hurston had not reversed her long-time
opposition to segregation. Rather, she feared that the Court's ruling could become a
precedent for an all-powerful federal government to undermine individual liberty
on a broad range of issues in the future.Hurston also opposed preferential treatment
for African-Americans, saying:If I say a whole system must be upset for me to
win, I am saying that I cannot sit in the game and that safer rules must be made to
give me a chance. I repudiate that. If others are in there, deal me a hand and let me
see what I can make of it, even though I know some in there are dealing from the
bottom and cheating like hell in other ways.
22

2.2.Literary analysis.
Seraph on the Suwanee
Seraph on the Suwanee is a 1948 novel by African-American novelist Zora
Neale Hurston. It follows the life of a White woman and the fraught relationship
she has with her husband and family.The novel is noteworthy for its exploration of
"white crackers" in Florida. Despite being her only White novel, Hurston's
intention was to depict the linguistic and cultural similarities between White and
Black people living in the South.However, Seraph on the Suwanee has never been
well received by African-American critics and scholars, who have often treated the
novel as a "contrivance in Hurston's canon".It is Hurston's last published novel,
and is the only novel by Hurston about White characters. It was written after her
publisher rejected two novels about Black characters. She was eventually able to
get the novel published by Scribner's.
Plot:Unlike her other novels Zora Neale Hurston's Seraph on the Suwanee
deviates from the characteristic depiction of African American life by featuring a
23

predominately White cast of characters. The novel follows the life a Southern
White woman named Arvay Henson and her family.The story is told through
alternating points of view, usually between that of Arvay and her husband, Jim
Meserve. The novel begins with a description of the fictional West Floridian town
of Sawley. The town is described as being relatively impoverished and a place
where "work was hard" and "pleasures few." Although the years the stories take
place in are never explicitly stated, it is implied that the first half of the novel
occurs during prohibition.
When Arvay is first introduced, she is twenty-one years old and ages
progressively as the novel continues. Arvay is described as a timid, helpless girl
who "turned from the world" soon after her sister, Lorraine, married Reverend Carl
Middleton, whom she secretly admired. At the time, Arvay had been sixteen and
believed that Lorraine went after Carl to spite her. After this betrayal, Arvay
became increasingly insecure, and chose to dedicate her life to the Bible. Her
dedication to her religion becomes a recurring theme in the novel and a source of
contention between her and her husband. After Carl married Larraine, Arvay
started to believe that no one could ever love her. Her insecurity also extended to
her body. The narrator states that her skinny stature was "not exactly in style in
those parts" and many of the locals often teased her regarding her appearance.
Arvay is insecure about other's perceptions of her, another recurring theme in the
novel as she tries to overcome it. Believing that no one loves her, and that those
who show love to her are feigning, she fakes seizures in an attempt to push
potential suitors away. Thus, she was led to turn her back on the world for
five,claiming that she would become a missionary.
After introducing Arvay, the narrative shifts perspectives and briefly
documents the sudden arrival of Jim Meserve, Arvay's soon-to-be husband, to the
desolate town of Sawley. Jim is described as being a shrewd businessman,
managing to wedge a foot in Sawley's turpentine business soon after his arrival.It is
24

soon revealed that Jim has been courting Arvay, despite her objection. Jim's
behavior towards Arvay is problematic. He holds misogynistic views and teases
Arvay for her ignorance and simplicity. Jim assaults Arvay, which leads them to
elope soon after. Jim takes Arvay to live on his turpentine camp, where she
becomes acquainted with Joe and his family – African American workers under
Jim's employment. Soon after Arvay gives birth to their first son, Earl, the small
family moves to South Florida, settling in Citrabelle. Although Joe initially
struggles to earn money, he manages to put a foot in the citrus business, then
eventually gets into the illegal business of alcohol distillery, where he soon
amasses a fortune. Once Arvay and Jim build their house, their second child,
Angeline Meserve is born.The Meserve's home life continues to be turbulent. Jim
feels as if Arvay is too ignorant to understand how much he struggles for them. At
the same time, Arvay feels a wedge between them as a result of Jim's coldness
towards Earl versus his affection towards Angeline. As a result, their marriage is
fraught with misunderstanding, distrust, and jealousy. The Meserve family live
comfortably; then Joe, his wife, and their children soon arrive and are employed by
Jim to take care of the estate. Soon after, their son, Kenneth "Kenny" Meserve is
born. Though Jim is incredibly fond of Arvay, the birth of their daughter doesn't
mend their relationship completely.A few years later, Jim and Joe manage to amass
a fortune; however, Jim starts to look for a legal source of income. Despite
ongoing strife between him and Arvay and Joe's departure from the estate, Jim
continues to work hard to support his family, getting involved in shrimping.The
Meserve's family strife worsens when the Corregios, a Portuguese-American
family that Jim had become acquainted with through shrimping, came to work on
the property. Earl starts acting more aggressively and spies on the family. Despite
Jim's warnings, Arvay chooses to side with her son.Earl is killed during a standoff
after assaulting the Corregio's eldest daughter. His loss is felt most heavily by
Arvay, with the remainder of the Meserves being apathetic towards his death.The
novel then fast forwards several years to the future. Angeline is now seventeen and
in love with a boy, Hatton. Arvay is concerned about her daughter's infatuation, but
25

Jim believes that Hatton is a capable man and the young pair soon elope without
Arvay's knowledge; it is revealed later in the novel that Jim was there when the
marriage took place.
Hatton proves to be a shrewd businessman, not too dissimilar to Jim. With
Jim's guidance, Hatton begins a lucrative real estate business and he and Angeline
move out. Kenny also finds success studying music at the University of
Florida.Jim starts to spend more days away from home, spending long days out at
sea. With no one at home, Arvay grows listless, and without anyone to care after,
she loses her sense of identity and does not know what to do with herself. After
Jim is nearly killed by a snake and Arvay fails to help him, he vents his
frustrations. Before he leaves her, he gives her an ultimatum: he gives Arvay a year
to "make the first move."Utterly alone at home, she receives a message from her
sister announcing that their mother is sick.Arvay uses this as an opportunity to
leave the house and heads up to Sawley, which, since the time she has been gone,
has modernized. At the same time,Lorraine and Carl have withered.After her
mother dies, Arvay is left the house. Bitter and jealous,Carl confronts her, asking
her for money. However, Arvay manages to stand up for herself and Carl leaves
defeated. He later flees with his wife, and their children, but not before stripping
the Henson's house of all its valuables. Arvay is heartbroken, but she is filled with
a new sense of determination. She burns down the house and returns to Citrabelle.
Upon returning to Citrabelle, Arvay and Jeff, one of Joe's sons, head up to meet
with Jim at a shipping dock. When they meet, Jim warmly greets Arvay and brings
her aboard one of his fishing boats, which he had named Arvay Henson. The pair
reconcile on the boat, sleeping together in the cabin. The novel ends with Arvay
introspecting on her life. She finds comfort in being with Jim, despite his abusive
and manipulative behavior. The book closes with her sleeping next to Jim, sailing
on the ocean.
Characters:
26

Arvay Henson: The younger daughter of Maria and Brock Henson, Arvay is
described as being introverted and odd. She is described as being skinny, a trait
found unattractive by the people of Sawley, with her only source of comfort being
the pages of a Bible. Therefore, she is generally insecure and places much of her
self-worth on the perceptions held by others. She grew up alone in poverty in the
barren town of Sawley in West Florida, before being wedded to Jim Meserve and
moving to the clandestine Citrabelle. Although she is initially hesitant to marry
Jim, and the marriage does indeed turn out to be turbulent, through its trials she
eventually discovers her value as a woman and wife. She discovers her worth as a
mother, giving her children the childhood she never had. Arvay is an unorthodox
feminist, and although believing that she deserves to be on equal terms with her
husband, she finds solace in staying with him despite his harsh treatment of her.
Jim Meserve: Jim Meserve is Arvay's husband. He appears in Sawley out of
the blue one day having traveled throughout the South, and he makes it his mission
to court the timid Arvay. Jim holds some misogynistic views towards women and
believes that Arvay, much like most other women, is ignorant and simple. Despite
this, however, he works hard, moving his family to Citrabelle. He joins the citrus
business, distills alcohol during the prohibition, and later joins the shrimping
business. Despite his problematic behavior towards Arvay, he manages to become
wildly successful and demonstrates a knack for hard work and resilience.
Larraine "Raine" Henson: Larraine is Arvay's older sister and the source of
her sister's antagonism throughout some of the novel. Larraine is described as
being the favorite child of the Hensons, always being treated better by her parents
and by the people of Sawley. Due to her beauty and the attention she receives,
Arvay is initially jealous of her. In the beginning of the novel, she marries Rev.
Carl Middleton, whom Arvay had had feelings for. Later in the novel, Larraine's
jealousy of Arvay's lavish lifestyle further drives them apart.
27

Earl "David" Meserve: Earl is the first and oldest son of the Meserves. He is
born with several defects and intellectual disabilities that make his parents averse
of him. Although Arvay tries her best to raise Earl normally, he is apathetic to his
parents and is somewhat violent. After allegedly trying to shoot his younger
brother, Kenny, he assaults a young woman. He is later shot during a standoff,
after attempting to shoot his father.
James "Kenneth" Meserve: James is the second son of the Meserves.
Throughout the novel, he is referred to as "Kenny." Kenny is a rumbustious young
boy and soon picks up after his mother's love for music. He starts with the piano,
before Joe teaches him how to play guitar with a bottleneck. As the novel
progresses, Kenny demonstrates a talent for music. He joins the band at University
of Florida, eventually playing with a famous band in New York.
Angeline Meserve: Angeline is the he only daughter and youngest child of the
Meserves. As a child, she demonstrates clear preference for Jim over Arvay. As a
child, Angeline enjoys spending time with her brother and the two are depicted as
being close. As a teenager, Angeline feels that she is too young to be with the boy
she loves named Hatton. However, Jim quickly warms up to him. Together,
Angeline and Hatton become successful real estate dealers.
Maria Henson:Maria is the mother of Lairraine and Arvay. Although not a
prominent character in the novel, she is shown as being one of the few characters
who genuinely cares for Arvay. Before her death, she gives Arvay sole possession
of their house in her will.
Brock Henson:Brock Henson is described as being "a cracker from way
back." He works hard, though he cannot provide much for his family.Joe Joe is an
African American and friend of Jim Meserve.The two become acquainted at a
turpentine camp, where Joe works under Jim. They form a deep friendship with
28

one another. Joe eventually follows Jim to Citrabelle, also becoming a successful
distiller before taking up more legal business.
Dessie: Dessie is Joe's wife and friend of Arvay. She acts as the midwife
during the birth of Arvay's children, with herself having several children, also
acquainted with the Meserves.
Alfredo Corregio: Mr. Alfredo is a Portuguese friend and coworker of Jim.
The two men work together in the shrimping business. Soon after they meet,
Alfredo moves his family to live and work on the Meserve's property.
Mrs. Corregio: Felicia is a White women married to Alfredo. Despite the
family being White, Arvay feels a gnawing towards them, especially towards
Felicia for what she thinks is betraying the race. Despite this, Felicia is described
as "handsome woman."
Felicia Corregio:Felicia is the younger daughter of the Corregios and often
played with the Meserve's children.
Lucy Ann:Lucy Ann is the older daughter of the Corregios. She is assaulted
by Earl later in the novel, leading to his chase and subsequent death.
Themes
Feminism and motherhood:
One theme in Seraph on the Suwanee is feminism, albeit an unorthodox
depiction of it. Lillie Howard, a scholar of African American literature, suggests
that Zora Neal Hurston's depiction of misogyny in her final novel is unparalleled to
her previous works. Arvay's subservience to Jim and her epiphany that her purpose
is to be a mother and wife, could suggest that Hurston implies that women should
have the option to chose what kind of life they want. In the novel, Arvay feels lost
29

when her children leave and Jim abandons her, as she never had to fend for herself.
By being happy to serve, Arvay reveals that "people are individuals" and "what is
right for one is not right for another."Hurston also incorporated elements that
celebrated female sexuality. In her foreword for the 1991 Harper Perennial edition
of Seraph, Hazel V.Carby remarks on how blatant and explicit Hurston's depiction
of sexuality is, especially from the perspective of Arvay. Indeed, Carby suggests
that it was Hurston's intention to create an unconventional female protagonist
whose sexual desires were front and center. This is depicted by Arvay's fantasies
about Carl, and how Arvay essentially finds herself to be a slave to her husband
Jim.
Not only is Arvay insecure about her position as Jim's wife, but she feels
insecure and lacking as a mother. Despite believing that "her job was mothering,"
Arvay's relationships are tinged with a sense of inadequacy that bleeds into the
relationships with her family. This is most sorely felt as Earl is constantly
mistreated and shunned by Jim and the remainder of his family, while Arvay feels
it her duty to take his side. Furthermore, she feels insecure when Angeline, her
second child, takes a preference to Jim. This also adds tension to the marriage as
Arvay struggles with feelings of inadequacy. These feelings are not alleviated until
after Arvay's mother dies. Alone without anyone, Arvay burns the house that her
mother left her in a symbolic gesture of starting anew. Arvay destroys the one
thing that anchors her down to Sawley; it is a grandiose statement that depicts her
growth from a girl to a woman. Indeed, Arvay's stay at Sawley challenged her in
ways that she had not been previously. For the first time, Arvay was able to use her
prestige to stand up to Carl when he accosted her for money. With nothing left for
her in Sawley, Arvay takes this as the sign she needs to head back to find Jim.
Furthermore, by the end of the novel the people of Sawley have become more
respectful towards her, a start contrast to the rumors and teasing she had endured as
a young woman. In a moment of epiphany, Arvay realizes that it is Jim who had
30

"put her Larraine ahead of the other girls".It is arguable the relationship she had
formed with Jim, and her children, was what had made her out to be as successful
as she was. Without Jim, she would have been nothing, a slow realization that
dawns upon her during her trip to Sawley after witnessing the state of Carl and her
family.
The intersectionality of race and class:The fact that Seraph on the Suwanee
focuses on White characters differentiates it from the remainder of Hurston's
novels. Indeed, Arvay's life is informed by the fact that she is a White, formerly
impoverished woman. Having grown up in a small White town, she speaks of
"heathens" of other nations that must be introduced to Christ; likewise, her opinion
of African American characters is also clouded with racist prejudice.She even
suspects the Corragios due to the fact that they are part Portuguese.I Arvay is
insecure about her femininity, relationship with Jim, and her Whiteness, which
becomes plainly obvious as she denounces the Corragios while also commenting
on the attractiveness of their daughter. She also suggests that t hey are influencing
Jim and her children. Arvay, therefore, desires to occupy a higher social status by
deriving privilege form her race.Throughout the novel, Arvay begins to appreciate
her increasing social status. Literary scholar Laura Dubek argues that Arvay's
benefits from Black labor; Jim's association with the Colored Town is how he
manages to gain his wealth. Indeed, Joe and Corragio are the ones that aid Jim in
accumulating the Meserve's wealth, though neither of them would be able to
occupy the class that Jim and Arvay do.
Color Struck
Color Struck is a play by Zora Neale Hurston. It was originally published in
1926 in Fire!! magazine. Color Struck won second prize in the contest for best
play. Color Struck was not staged during the Harlem Renaissance.
Plot summary
31

Color Struck opens on a train in 1900, with members of the black community
from Jacksonville, Florida going to a cakewalk competition in St. Augustine.
Hurston specifies that the first scene takes place "inside a 'Jim Crow' railway
coach." With much bustle, John and Emmaline arrive at the train just on time.
Emmaline made John take the last coach, because she felt he was flirting with
Effie, a lighter-skinned black woman.The play's title focuses on colorism, the idea
that people in the black community were judged based on the hue of their skin.
Emma is terrified that John will leave her for a lighter-skinned woman, and is very
jealous; Emma says, "I loves you so hard, John, and jealous love is the only kind I
got."At the dance hall, everyone eats their picnic lunches, and Effie offers John a
piece of pie. He accepts, though he knows it will upset Emma. Emma refuses to
dance the cakewalk with him, even though they are favoured to win the
competition. John instead dances the cakewalk with Effie, and they win the
prize.Twenty years pass, and we rejoin Emma in "a one-room shack in an alley."
Her daughter, who we later learn is named Lou Lillian, is in bed, feverishly ill.
John knocks on the door, and tells her he missed her. He had been married, but his
wife died, and he has come to marry Emma now. Emma is thrilled, but wary. John
looks forward to raising Lou Lillian as his own, and having a family. Lou Lillian is
very sick, and John sends Emma for a doctor. Emma will not go to a "colored
doctor," and eventually goes to bring the white doctor. As she is about to leave, she
comes back and sees John ministering to Lou Lillian. Emma assumes that John is
only being nice to Lou Lillian because she is half-white. In a rage, Emma attacks
John. John leaves, and the doctor arrives. The doctor is too late, and Emma's
daughter is dead. The doctor remonstrates Emma for not having come earlier, an
hour would have made all the difference. As the doctor leaves, Emma is left on
stage in a rocking chair, staring at the door, "A dry sob now and then."
Characters
32

Emmaline (Emma): a color-obsessed and paranoid Black woman with dark
skin
John: a light-brown-skinned man (not a mulatto) who is deeply in love with
Emma
Effie: a mulatto woman who Emma is jealous of
Other: Man, Wesley, Emmaline's Daughter, Effie, Doctor, Railway
Conductor, Dance Master, Dinky, Ada, Joe Clarke, Woman, Another Man, Girl,
Lizz, Clark, Master. Additional Character Info.
Themes and Motifs
Colorism.Throughout the play Emma is overly and self-destructively
preoccupied with skin color. Emma is plagued by colorism—intra-racial racism—
which causes her to be jealous of light-skinned Black people and despise her own
Blackness.
John: "(kisses her). Emma, what makes you always picking a fuss with me
over some yaller girl. What makes you so jealous, nohow? I don’t do nothing."
Scene I
Insecurities/Self-destruction.Emma is constantly worried that John will leave
her for a light-skinned woman. Her insecurities have adverse effects including,
losing John for twenty years and allowing her mulatto daughter to die.
John: "… So this the woman I’ve been wearing over my heart like rose for
twenty years! She so despises her own that she can’t believe any one else could
love it…. Twenty years! Twenty years of adoration, hunger, of worship! (On the
verge tears he…exits quietly…)."
33

Hate/Anger/Animosity.Emma displays anger towards John any time a light-
skinned woman is in their midst.
Emma: "Oh-them yaller wenches! How I hate em! They gets everything they
wants." Scene II
Distorted Vision/Blindness.Emma is unable to see situations as they really
are; she constantly accuses John of being more interested in light-skinned women
and fails to see his sincere love for her. Also, when the doctor comes to the home
in scene IV, Emma reveals she is unable to see well.
John: "Ah don’t make you! You makes yo’self mad, den blame it on me. Ah
keep on tellin’ you Ah don’t love nobody but you. Ah knows heaps uh half-white
girls Ah could get ef Ah wanted to But (he squeezes her hand again) Ah jus’ wants
you! You know what they say! De darker de berry, de sweeter de taste!"
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Their Eyes Were Watching God is a 1937 novel by American writer Zora
Neale Hurston. It is considered a classic of the Harlem Renaissance,and Hurston's
best known work. The novel explores main character Janie Crawford's "ripening
34

from a vibrant, but voiceless, teenage girl into a woman with her finger on the
trigger of her own destiny".
Set in central and southern Florida in the early 20th century, the novel was
initially poorly received. Since the late 20th century, it has been regarded as
influential to both African-American literature and women's literature.TIME
included the novel in its 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels
published since 1923.
Plot synopsis:Janie Crawford, an African-American woman in her forties,
recounts her life starting with her sexual awakening, which she compares to a
blossoming pear tree kissed by bees in spring. Around this time, Janie allows a
local boy, Johnny Taylor, to kiss her, which Janie's grandmother, Nanny,
witnesses.
As a young enslaved woman, Nanny was raped by her white enslaver, then
gave birth to a mixed-race daughter she named Leafy. Though Nanny wanted a
better life for her daughter and even escaped her jealous mistress after the
American Civil War, Leafy was later raped by her school teacher and became
pregnant with Janie. Shortly after Janie's birth, Leafy began to drink and stay out at
night, eventually running away and leaving Janie with Nanny.
Nanny, having transferred her hopes for stability and opportunity from Leafy
to Janie, arranges for Janie to marry Logan Killicks, an older farmer looking for a
wife.However, Killicks doesn't love Janie and wants only a domestic helper rather
than a lover or partner; he thinks she doesn't do enough around the farm and
considers her ungrateful. When Janie speaks to Nanny about her desire for love,
Nanny, too, accuses Janie of being spoiled and, soon afterwards, dies.Unhappy,
disillusioned, and lonely, Janie leaves Killicks and runs off with Jody (Joe) Starks,
a glib man who takes her to the all-black community of Eatonville, Florida. Starks
arranges to buy more land, establishes a general store, and is soon elected mayor of
35

the town. However, Janie soon realizes that Starks wants her as a trophy wife to
reinforce his powerful position in town and to run the store, even forbidding her
from taking part in the town's social life. During their twenty-year marriage, he
treats her as his property, criticizing her, controlling her, and physically abusing
her. Finally, when Starks's kidney begins to fail, Janie says that he never knew her
because he would not let her be free.
After Starks dies, Janie becomes financially independent through his estate.
Though she is beset with suitors, including men of means, she turns them all down
until she meets a young drifter and gambler named Vergible Woods, known as
"Tea Cake". He plays the guitar for her and initially treats her with kindness and
respect. Janie is hesitant because she is older and wealthy, but she eventually falls
in love with him and decides to run away with him to Jacksonville to marry. They
move to Belle Glade, in the northern part of the Everglades region ("the muck"),
where they find work planting and harvesting beans. While their relationship is
volatile and sometimes violent, Janie finally has the marriage with love that she
wanted. Her image of the pear tree blossom is revived. Suddenly, the area is hit by
the great 1928 Okeechobee hurricane.Tea Cake is bitten by a rabid dog while
saving Janie from drowning and becomes increasingly jealous and unpredictable.
When he tries to shoot Janie with his pistol, she fatally shoots him with a rifle in
self-defense and is charged with murder.At the trial, Tea Cake's black male friends
show up to oppose her, but a group of local white women arrive to support Janie.
After the all-white jury acquits Janie, she gives Tea Cake a lavish funeral. Tea
Cake's friends forgive her, asking her to remain in the Everglades.However, she
decides to return to Eatonville.As she expected, the residents gossip about her
when she returns to town.The story ends where it started,as Janie finishes
recounting her life to Pheoby.
CONCLUSION
36

I tried to cover the life,work and literature of zora neale Hurston in my course
work today.Based on the above,I will complete my course work with a brief
summary.Zora Neale Hurston, (born January 7, 1891,Notasulga,Alabama, U.S.—
died January 28,1960,Fort Pierce, Florida),American folklorist and writer
associated with the Harlem Renaissance who celebrated the African American
culture of the rural South.Although Hurston claimed to be born in 1901 in
Eatonville, Florida, she was, in fact,10 years older and had moved with her family
to Eatonville only as a small child. There, in the first incorporated all-black town in
the country, she attended school until age 13.After the death of her mother (1904),
Hurston’s home life became increasingly difficult, and at 16 she joined a traveling
theatrical company, ending up in New York City during the Harlem Renaissance.
She attended Howard University from 1921 to 1924 and in 1925 won a scholarship
to Barnard College,where she studied anthropology under Franz Boas.She
graduated from Barnard in 1928 and for two years pursued graduate studies in
anthropology at Columbia University. She also conducted field studies in folklore
among African Americans in the South.Her trips were funded by folklorist.
In 1930 Hurston collaborated with Hughes on a play (never finished) titled
Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life in Three Acts (published posthumously
1991). In 1934 she published her first novel, Jonah’s Gourd Vine, which was well
received by critics for its portrayal of African American life uncluttered by stock
figures or sentimentality. Mules and Men, a study of folkways among the African
American population of Florida, followed in 1935. Their Eyes Were Watching God
(1937), a novel, Tell My Horse (1938), a blend of travel writing and anthropology
based on her investigations of voodoo in Haiti, and Moses, Man of the Mountain
(1939), a novel, firmly established her as a major author.
LIST OF USED LITERATURE
1. Boyd,Valeria (2003).Wrapped in Rainbows:The Life of Zora Neale
Hurston . New York: Scribner. ISBN 978-0-684-84230-1.
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