In regard to Hurston’s story “The Back Room” I don’t think she was presenting a theme of women needing to get married…maybe a realization of you don’t what you have till it’s gone. It seems that Lilya didn’t want to settle but at the same time wasn’t very gentile or straightforward with her suitors either. Personally I found her to be somewhat off-putting but tragic in her obsession with youth that continues to pass her by. With everyone going on about their lives around her while she lives in a sort of fantasy world made me think that perhaps Hurston was subtlety commenting on the upper crust of Harlem living life to the upmost in the dark and smoky clubs of Harlem but outside the freedom and harmony inside didn’t exist on the outside.
