The Mistreatment of Women in the Works of Zora Neale Hurston

The Mistreatment of Women in the Works of Zora Neale Hurston

Society is suffering from a number of serious social problems related to women, and to the interaction between the two sexes. Male domination and patriarchy have been under challenge by feminists and the women's movement. The economic, social and political subjection of women around the world, the violence brought against women and their confinement has been brought to the forefront in recent years.

Zora Neale Hurston's stories speak out against the uncivil and unjust treatment of women especially in their marriages. Hurston's stories reveal the disturbing situation for women about mistreatment abuse in the 1930s, when speaking out was unheard of. This was the time period for the setting of Hurston's stories, and her stories reflect violence against women that occurred during that era.

"Zora Neale Hurston's works are brilliant glimpses into the mind of a woman who lived life for what it was, who wanted nothing more then to have"...a busy life, a just mind and timely death." "She lived as she wrote, to the fullest, she wasn't just a writer, but also an anthropologist who brought to the light the folklore, and culture of nations that before there had been little study of. She brought new, exciting views of the world through her poetic words, and is a shining example of what it is to be a woman. Intelligent, driven, and confidant" (Walker 8).

At only thirteen years old Hurston was thrown out of her father's house because her stepmother didn't approve of her or her siblings. At an early age Huston knew about struggling and making a way for herself (Ford 7-9). In Zora Neale Hurston's autobiography she said, "There is something about poverty that smells like death. Dead dreams dropping off the heart like leaves in a dry season and rotting around the feet, impulses smothered too long in the fetid air of underground caves. The soul lived in a sickly air. People can be slave ships in shoes (Hurston 37).

Hurston was mistreated as a child, and in her story "Drenched in Light" it reveals some of her background of child abandonment. She also focused on women's rights and fights in marriages.