Zora Neale Hurston's use of southern dialect has often been criticized for stereotyping the entire black population of the south. Many critics state that Hurston's makes the black population out to be uneducated when many were quite the opposite. Hurston's dialect was simply to make the novel much more realistic by respectfully showing the culture of the southern blacks. Although her language may have seen offensive, it is essential in defending against racism.
The dialect in Their Eyes Were Watching God was described by Hurston on page 10 as "soft, easy phrases." Many of the vowel sounds are softened in each word. For example, "I" becomes "ah" and "th" turns into "f." Also, subject-verb agreement is often jumbled up, and irregular verbs are incorrectly made past with an "ed." With this kind of unsophisticated speech, it would be easy to place the dialect in a negative light, especially when used with the southern blacks. This dialect opened the door for many negative critics preaching how the dialect had a negative effect in the plight to end racism.
Richard Wright states that Hurston's dialect is "simplistic" and that her only purpose in using it was to "make the white folks laugh". Richard Wright later goes on to insist that Hurston uses this bumbling, uneducated speech in portraying the black characters to please her white readers. In actuality, the author was not writing in a black dialect, but a southern one. Janie, Tea Cake, and even his white guards after the hurricane all speak in a similar dialect. However, as a child, Hurston explained that Janie grew up with white children. Since she grew up speaking a white dialect, there should not have been a difference between black and white speech. If there was, ...
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...hes a division between the races that later turns out to be artificial by proving that one's race does not define his identity. The dialect was also very entertaining to the reader; it allowed Hurston's audience to more closely connect with the story's authentic language.
Works Cited
Hurston, Zora N. "Reading: "The Characteristics of Negro Expression"" Harlem Renaissance Rutgers ENG 368. 15 Apr. 2014 .
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their eyes were watching God. New York: Perennial Library, 1990.
Locke, Alain. "Wright Reviews Hurston." Wright Reviews Hurston. 14 Apr. 2014 .
Wright, Richard. "Wright Reviews Hurston." Wright Reviews Hurston. 14 Apr. 2014 .
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
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.
...orld about the interpretation of “Black English”, but flaws in the execution of her publication could prevent her audience from grasping her claim. Her biggest problem is the pathos that oozes from the paper. Whether it is the use of outside comments or hybrid dialogue, the pathos could block the minds of literary scholars. The ethos that Smitherman tries to achieve through quotations and research does not work when the quotes are pathos-charged and are from irrelevant time period. The support to her claim that “Black English” should remain strictly to Black culture doesn’t make a lot of sense. It is illogical to think that the only solution is to stop correcting for the grammar of “Black English” and still keep it only amongst African Americans. Smitherman’s claim for better treatment of “Black English would be perceived far better without the strong use of pathos.
What I feel is truly remarkable about this author is that despite all the scrutiny and anguish that she faces like most of her race at the time she does not take a negative attitude towards white people and she actually chooses to ignore the general racial segregation. Her charming wit and sense of humor despite all the hardship is what attracts the reader. Hurston does not let her social disadvantages stop her from trying to achieve her aspirations and dreams. She does not see being colored as a disadvantage, but accepts it as a challenge to excel and be unique.
In this book a number of dialects are used, to wit: the Missouri negro dialect; the extremest form of the backwoods Southwestern dialect; the ordinary “Pike County” dialect; and four modified varieties of this last. The shadings have not been done in a haphazard fashion, or by guesswork; but painstakingly, and with the trustworthy guidance and support of personal familiarity with these several forms of speech. I make this explanation for the reason that without it many readers would suppose that all these characters were trying to talk alike and not succeeding. (Twain 2)
In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, the attitude towards black people can be seen as quite sympathetic from those who defend Tom Robinson and yet at the same time it was condescending. Throughout the entirety of the text, many examples display this theory. Although it is not actually stated how the attitude towards black people in the text is meant to be intended. Many people debate that although the characters in the novel were sympathetic; they were also still condescending on many occasions. The attitude was condescending in the way that there was an expectation that the “white people” needed to help them. A sympathetic approach is then also shown in that some characters of the text were willing to assist against racism. It is unclear whether Lee intended the novel to be sympathetic or condescending and this can be seen through many themes and
In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, she utilizes an array of symbolism such as color, the store, and her husbands to solidify the overall theme of independence and individuality. Their Eyes Were Watching God is considered by many a classic American Feminist piece that emphasizes how life was for African Americans post slave era in the early 1900s. One source summarizes the story as, 1 ”a woman's quest for fulfillment and liberation in a society where women are objects to be used for physical work and pleasure.” Which is why the overall theme is concurrent to independence and self.
Jones, Sharon. Rereading the Harlem Renaissance: Race, Class, and Gender in the Fiction of Jessie Fauset, Zora Neale Hurston, and Dorothy West. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2002.
Hurston uses the power of language and different narrative techniques to show Janie's transition throughout the novel. It is important to notice that in Janie's journey from object to subject, the narration of the novel shifts from third person to a mixture of first and third person; thus, the shift shows the awareness of self within Janie. Language becomes an instrument of injury and salvation and of selfhood and empowerment. The use of powerful language is exemplified well in the text when Janie is asked to say a few words as the new Mrs. Mayor. Joe, her second husband, quickly cuts in and says, "Thank yuh fuh yo' compliments, but mah wife don't know nothin' 'bout no speech-makin'. Ah never married her for not...
Mrs. Hurston uses Southern Black dialect through out the book. This is appropriate because all of the dialog is between Blacks who grew up in the deep South. Some authors that write in a dialect totally confuse their readers. However, Mrs. Hurston’s writing does not confuse us at all. One particular example of this is on page 102. Tea Cake starts off saying, "‘Hello, Mis’ Janie, Ah hope Ah woke you up.’ ‘Yo sho did, Tea Cake. Come in and rest yo’ hat. Whut you doin’ out so soon dis mornin’?’" Janie replied. This dialog is easily to understand. The reader really gets the feeling of the speech because reading it is just like listening to it. Mrs. Neale also knows where to stop writing in dialect. All of the narration and description in the book are in plain English: she does not confuse us by putting narration in dialect, only the speech of characters is in dialect. This part of Zora Neale Hurston’s art adds to the story without confusing the reader.
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 novel TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee has numerous accounts of racism and prejudice throughout the entire piece. The novel is set in the 1930's, a time when racism was very prevalent. Although bigotry and segregation were pointed in majority towards blacks, other accounts towards whites were also heard of, though not as commonly. There are acts that are so discreet that you almost don't catch them, but along with those, there are blatant acts of bigotry that would never occur in our time. Lee addresses many of these feelings in her novel.
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.
These repeated words show the reader that the narrator identifying himself as a “colored” man is sincerely shameful and desires to abandon his colored race. In addition, the word choice of debating, shame, forsake, and inferiority in the context conveys a feeling of negative categorization to the reader while the narrator is talking about the African American race. This projects the narrator’s idea, which is carried throughout the novel, that being a “colored” man in society is looked down upon and shameful. In the beginning of the novel when the narrator is conversing with his mother for his true identity, there is a sense of shame as the narrator says, “ She must have felt that I was examining her, for she hid her face in my hair…” (8). Also when the narrators mother talks about his white father, a positive sense of categorization is delivered as the mother says, “ No, I am not white you- your father is one of the greatest men in the country- the best blood of the south is in you” (8). These two quotes early in the novel connect to the narrator’s general idea that being an African American in society is categorized as shameful and negative while being white is classified as the “best” and “great.” This idea is relevant to the social issue of racial
In southern place of Rural Georgia there were racial issues. Walker discuss stereotypes that Celie went through as the daughter of a successful store owner, which ran by a white man Celie did not have no right to. The black characters and community were stereotyped through their lives to have human rights (Walker 88-89). Walker engages the struggle between blacks and whites social class, blacks were poor and the whites were rich. This captures the deep roots of the south discrimination against blacks. African-American women went through misery, and pain of racism to be discriminated by the color of their skin. Another major racist issue Hurston represent in “The Color Purple” is when Sofia tells the mayors wife saying “hell no” about her children working for her, Sofia was beaten for striking back to a white man (Walker 87). Racism and discrimination in the black culture did not have basic rights as the whites instead they suffered from being mistreated to losing moral