The legends and songs tell many things about a culture and person. The only probably was people did not know the meanings of them or the origin. In 1935, President Roosevelt started Work Project Administration. The purpose was to make jobs during The Great Depression. The WPA mission was to bring people the history of the countries writing, “The WPA guides, or as they were known in the 1930s, the American Guides, were designed less to encourage tourism than to serve as histories”. (Bengal) The project head, Henry Alsberg, wanted writers like Zora Hurston and John Cheever, but Zora Hurston was one of the few with experience. Using 6,000 writers and contributors to bring these legends together. The songs with people sing by the pool, outside church, or at school. Making a quest to conqueror everyone ignorance about the past. Using Mrs. Hurston to find the truth and to lose the haziness about the songs and stories. Multiples journeys to find literature history, which were origins, come from Bahamas, Jamaica, African, and other parts of the World. She had to enduring the journey of equality and bigotry from white and black.
Work Projects Administration was started to collect the literature in American and to create jobs. 6,000 contributors help the WPA with information, recordings, and works. The only was the stigma that followed the WPA. With the New Deal and all the jobs it created, some that of it as a form of welfare. Zora Hurston and John Cheever was some of the big names that help with the WPA, but they perceived it was welfare. Getting a hand out from the government, rather than having a job. In an Article from the Washington Post, it displays her demeanor towards the WPA, “Hurston would tell the niece who shared her Eatonvi...
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...2010. Web. 2 Feb. 2014.
Hurston, Zora N. Mama Don't Want No Peas, No Rice. Zora Neale Hurston. Work Projects Administration, n.d. Florida Memory. WPA. Web. 2 Feb. 2014.
Hurston, Zora N. Oh Mr. Brown. Zora Neale Hurston. Work Projects Administration, n.d. Florida Memory. Work Projects Administration. Web. 2 Feb. 2014.
"Mules and Men: Ways of Seeing." Zora Neale Hurston's Mules and Men and E-Project. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Feb. 2014.
"Some Notes on Zora Neale Hurston and the Lomaxes. Zora Neale Hurston's 1938 Work for the WPA." Florida Memory. American of Cultural Equity, n.d. Web. 2 Feb. 2014.
Zora Neale Hurston. Crow Dance. Rec. 1930. Work Projects Administration, 1930. Florida Memory. Work Projects Administration. Web. 10 Feb. 2014.
"Zora Neale Hurston, the WPA in Florida, and the Cross City Turpentine Camp." Florida Memory. Florida Memory, n.d. Web. 2 Feb. 2014.
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. Harper Perennial Modern Classics: Reissue Edition 2013
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.
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...
Rosenblatt, Roger. “Roger Rosenblatt’s Their Eyes Were Watching God.” Rpt. in Modern Critical Views of Zora Neale Hurston. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House, 1986. 29-33. Print.
Hurston, Zora Neale. Spunk: The Selected Stories of Zora Neale Hurston. Berkeley, CA: Turtle Island Foundation, 1985. Print. 106 pages
Through the use of imagery, diction, and several literary tools Zora Hurston shows love for her culture and color; therefore Hurston contributes to the essay’s theme, of celebrating her African American culture, by conveying her emotions. Hurston’s use of imagery allows readers to easily imagine the things which she so vividly describes, her diction conveys the emotions she felt throughout her experiences, and her use of literary tools captivate readers. The theme of “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” is not sad or dreary, rather it is upbeat and optimistic because Hurston loved who she was.
Zora Neale Hurston is undoubtedly a product of the Harlem Renaissance as well as one of its most extraordinary writers. Zora Neale Hurston was born in Nostasulga, Alabama on January 7th 1891, then moved to Eatonville, Florida which was the first black township to be incorporated in the United States. Zora’s childhood was far from perfect. Her mother died when she was only thirteen. Her father was infidel. She dropped out of school and was bouncing to relatives houses here and there. Zora clashed repeatedly with her new stepmom and eventually moved out. Regardless of the struggles and problems she faced during her life, she is still a prolific and creative writer. In her story “Sweat” one can see how bold she is. She has used the language of Ebonics, her experience, analogy, allusions, symbols, stereotypes, pathetic fallacy, introversion and poetic justice.
Quarterly 40.1 (2001): 79-92. Rpt. In Zora Neale Hurston, ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2008, 181-195.
During times when racial tensions were high, many African American authors and poets began to rise and give consciousness to racial inequality and injustice. Famous poets like Maya Angelou and Langston Hughes began to give a voice to African Americans. For example, in Maya Angelou’s, “Still, I Rise,” she speaks of overcoming her oppressors as a woman and expresses a great amount of self-love and self-worth. In Hughes’s poem, “I, Too,” he states that he is an equal and emphasizes that being black does not degrade your beauty which allows the readers to feel empowered. Angelou and Hughes used similar means to raise awareness and fight for their rights through literature, even though, Maya Angelou’s poem, “Still I Rise,” also states the issue of sexism and Hughes’s poem, “I, Too,” just focuses more on equality.
Racine, Maria J. "African American Review." Voice and Interiority in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God 28.2 (1994): 283-92. Jstor. Black's Women Culture Issue, Summer 1994. Web. Dec. 2013.
Hurston, Z. N. (1995). Their Eyes Were Watching God. In Zora Neale Hurston: Novels and Stories (pp. 173-334). New York: Literary Classics of the United States.
I agree with you where you said that Zora is very optimistic. She is looking for a fun and positive aspect in everything she was doing as “Colored”. Hurston was not bitter by her circumstances unlike other black people, Zora did not mind being colored: In addition, to her the slavery problem ended sixty years before, thus she did not let the racism problems and prejudices enter her being. I like Zora’s views because I think if you give too much importance to a negative issue, you are rather promoting it instead of discouraging it. In my opinion, people should at first focus on what they want such as peace, justice, and equality. Therefore,
1. c.Robert E. Hemenway, in his Zora Neale Hurston: A Literary Biography, University of Illinois Press, 1977, 371 p.
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.
"Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960)." Short Story Criticism. Ed. Thomas J. Schoenberg and Lawrence J. Trudeau. Vol. 80. Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2005. 42-165. Literature Criticism Online. Gale. Austin Community College Libraries. 1 December 2013. http://galenet.galegroup.com.lsproxy.austincc.edu/servlet/LitCrit/txshracd2487/FJ3597850003