Zora Neale Hurston Essay

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A women who was yet any other ordinary women, Zora Neale Hurston, made a difference throughout the world. Hurston was born January 7, 1891 in Notusulg, Alabama. Shortly after she was born, she moved to a small town called Eatonville, which was the town she explains in the story. Many of the people she knew growing up were similar to the people she characterized in the story of Their Eyes Were Watching God. Eatonville was home to her because the black people could live there as they pleased. Hurston had her work cut out for as she grew up , but eventually broke free from that and became an inspiration to many. Through Hurston 's symbolic life portrayed in the story, she was able to capture the voice of Janie through her words and actions. Hurston used her writing for an example to others, in which she could bring about things that were not present in other books during this time period. "A graduate of Barnard, where she studied under Franz Boas, Zora Neale Hurston published seven books-four novels, two books of folklore, and an autobiography-and more than fifty shorter works between the middle of the Harlem Renaissance and the end of the Korean War, when she was the dominant black woman writer in the United States." (Henry Louis Gates 185-186) Hurston wrote a lot because that is what people wanted to read at this time. Hurston used the type of vernacular she did because this was a way to really make the characters seem real. "Yet in its concern with the project of finding a voice, with language as an instrument of injury and salvation, of selfhood and empowerment, it suggests many of the themes that inspirit Hurston 's oeuvre as a whole." (Henry Louis Gates 187) Her writing depends on the strength of her text because this vernacular was absent in other black fiction and this is what made Hurston stand out from other writers. Growing up in the South, it was easy for Hurston to adapt to her writing because that is what she grew up with. Through her dialect, she was able to capture the beauty and complexity of Janie 's experience. Janie lived a life of ups and downs; she was married three times, and at the end of the story she looses the one she loved the most only to save herself. QUOTE In the book, Janie says to Pheoby, "Yeah, Pheoby, Tea Cake is gone. And dat 's de only reason you see me back here-cause Ah ain 't got nothing to make me happy no more where Ah was at. Down in the Everglades there, down on the muck." This is an example of Janie saying that she was not happy living down in the Everglades and that she was back as a new woman. She was happy with what Tea Cake gave her, and she would not trade it for anything because it defined her as a person. Janie also mentions, "Of course he wasn 't dead. He could never be dead until she herself had finished feeling and thinking." This shows that Janie still had feelings for Tea Cake and that he would always have a special place in her heart. In conclusion to Janie 's love of her life, Percy, …show more content…
"The syncopated beauty of Hurston 's prose, her remarkable gift for comedy, the sheer visceral terror of the book 's climax, all transcend any label that critics have tried to put on this remarkable work." (The Big Read) As a result of this, she has became an inspiration to many writers. She was able to capture glimpses of her life in Their Eyes Were Watching God helping readers to see that Janie found her voice through the way she acted. As each generation reads this story, people will bring about something new in their understanding of it. Today, her works are recognized as masterpieces. Their Eyes Were Watching God was "the finest black novel of its time." (Mary Washington vii) Janie 's words and actions were symbolic to the life of Zora Neale Hurston. Janie was able to gain her own independence and personal freedom, which is what makes her a true heroine in the

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