African American Author: Zora Neale Hurston - Research Paper Example

? African American Zora Neale Hurston The African American Zora Neale Hurston (1891- 1960) was an exception during a period when black woman did not possess any literary career of their own. She used to travel throughout the American South and West Indians to study folklore. She was curious about the local myths, legends and conventional practices in those places and penned them in her own works. She was an important collector of folklore in the United States. Zora was born in the time when a strong sense of racial discrimination was prevalent in the America society. But the author never suffered from inadequacy complex for her race. She was able to realize the richness of black culture by residing in Eatonville in Florida. The author faced many criticisms for her works, “concerning changes in race, class and gender in America, events that would ultimately have an impact.” (Jones, 13) Zora’s focus on portraying black especially women was very different from her contemporaries, “Zora Neale Hurston’s decision to define black nationalist consciousness differently from the social protest to her contemporary, Richard Wright – who presents violence between blacks and whites as a central focus and who centers black men’s experiences in a racist society- created much controversy”. (Lester, 3) Zora’s use of Folklore in a form of tale and elevating the condition of black women in her works reflects her positive attitude towards the condition of the black population of the United States. A Brief Biography Zora Neale Hurston was born in Notasulga, Alabama on January 7, 1891. Her father’s name was Reverend John who was a carpenter, a sharecropper and a Baptist preacher and her mother’s name was Lucy Hurston who was a school teacher by profession. Zora was the fifth of eight children in the Hurston family. After the birth of Zora, her entire family moved to Eatonville, Florida. Eatonville was the first town comprised of black population in the United States. Zora’s mother died when she was just nine years old. After demine of Lucy Hurston, Zora’s father soon remarried. With the passage of time Zora’s relationship with her step mother drastically deteriorated. Zora was sent to Jacksonville to attend school. During her premature stage, Zora became a wardrobe girl in a theatre company called Gilbert and Sullivan that was touring the South. In the year 1917, in Baltimore, Zora got herself enrolled in Morgan Academy. After completing her graduation Zora went to Howard University to finish her work course between 1919 and 1924. She took transfer to Barnard College with a help of a scholarship and completed her B.A in the year 1928. In Columbia University, she studied Anthropology and folklore from the year 1928 to 1932 under the guidance of Franz Boas who was a famous anthropologist of that time. Zora was honored with a Guggenheim Fellowship in the year 1936. With the help of this scholarship, she traveled to Haiti and British West Indies, to gather folklore. Hurston tried her hands on several jobs from manicurist to secretary. She also tried writing for Paramount and Warner Brothers Studio. She was also a librarian at the Library of Congress. Zora taught drama at North Carolina College for Negros. Hurston’s literary career began when she was a student of Howard. Her first short story was published in college fictional magazine called Stylus. In the year 1925, Zora was awarded first prize for ‘Spunk’ in the Opportunity literary contest. This award brought Hurston to the attention of the young black writers who were the members of the group called Harlem Renaissance. In the year 1939, she earned her doctorate degree from Morgan College. Zora was honored with Annisfield Award for writing an autobiography on ‘Dust Tracks on the Road’ in the year 1943. The book was very successful, “filled with evasion, posturing, all kinds of self- concealment, though it is ostensibly an autobiography.”(Hurston, Walker, 27). In the same year, she was rewarded by alumni award by Howard University. Though Hurston worked on several jobs, she faced great financial crises. Zora married Herbert Sheen who used to study with her in Howard but the marriage was short lived. Hurston’s literary career reached its zenith during the early 1930s and early 1940 period of time. Most famous work of Hurston was a novel named Their Eyes Were Watching God published in 1937. Zora was a renowned folklorist and her two works called ‘Mules and Men’ (1935) and Tell My Horse (1939) was based on the depiction of her own character. Zora wrote three novels called Jonah’s Gourd Vine (1934), Moses, Man of the Mountain (1939) and Seraph on the Suwanee (1948). Zora also wrote several short stories, articles and plays like ‘Fast and Furious’ (1931), ‘The First One’ (1927), ‘Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro life in Three Acts (1931) and ‘Polk County’ (1944). Hurston was famous for the use of supernatural elements in her works. Her works was widely recognized and appreciated by the white literary scholars of New York. She was mostly famous because she originated from rural background with rich folk culture, “Hurston came to know that her parents and their neighbors perpetuated a rich oral literature without self- consciousness.” (Bloom, 18).This was the main role of the renaissance scholars to focus on the richness of black culture. But simultaneously Zora faced lot of criticism from the Black Arts Movement. Hurston named her enemies ‘niggerati’ for being narrow minded who criticized on Zora’s racial politics. In the mid 1940s, Hurston was arrested with a false accusation of molesting a ten years old boy. Though Zora was released from the false charges, but the stigma that scarred her image remained permanently. At the end of 1940, she went back to Florida to work as a maid in Riva Alto. Hurston suffered from grave financial problem and her condition was transferred to poverty. In the year 1960, she died of fatal stoke and was buried at unblemished grave in Fort Pierce in Florida. Her works Hurston’s works reflect the richness of black culture with the form of tales and humorous stories related to the Eatonville world that she had experienced when she was a child. ‘Mules and Men’ published in 1935, was “the first popular book about Afro- American folklore ever written by a black scholar; Mules and Men so compellingly displays the rich imaginative life in a black folk community that Alan Lomax has called it ‘the most engaging, genuine and skillfully written book in the field of folklore.” (Hemenway, 6) Hurston’s most famous novel was Their Eyes Were Watching God published in the year 1937. This novel focuses on a young African American girl called Janie Crawford who is the protagonist of the novel searching for her individuality and fulfillment. Janie describes her experiences about the whites that she has acquired through her many marriages. After the death of Janie’s husband Tea Cake she returned back to her home town. Janie relays the story of her life to her friend Pheoby. The protagonist said she never saw her parents and was raised by her grandmother who used to work as a governess for the white children in the Washburn family. Janie was married off very early in her life by her grandmother to Logan Killicks. Janie finds it difficult to love her husband. The work depicts the psychological turmoil of Janie to accept the marriage that was forced on her by her grandmother and her helplessness to forcefully love her husband whom she could not accept or love from heart. After few months of Janie’s marriage, nanny expires. Very soon Janie loses all interest in her husband and marries Joe Starks. Janie and her second husband settle in Eatonville. Joe buys huge acres of land and enhances his property. Very soon he became an influential person in the town and the people elected him the mayor of the town. This influential position of Joe gradually deteriorated his relationship with his wife. Janie and Joe started fighting on trivial things making the relationship worse. Janie lived a claustrophobic life with Joe for eleven years. With the passage of time Joe’s health deteriorated and he becomes invalid and immobile permanently. After the death of Joe, Janie laments the loss of Joe publicly but rejoices from within because now she is free from the evil and torturous life that was enforced on her by Joe. This novel portrays the male domination on a black woman, the resultant psychological turmoil and her resistance to live a life of freedom and dignity. Janie rises above the conventional female of her time and does not play the docile role of a dependant wife. Very soon Janie encounters Tea Cake and gradually falls in love with him. People initially criticized her for marrying Tea Cake but Janie loved her husband dearly because he provided Janie with immense liberty. Relationship of Janie and Tea Cake goes through lots of troubles and turmoil’s but still survived. People envied their love for each other. Tea Cake was gnawed by a dog and suffered from rabies. Tea Cake due to his illness turned into a wild dog and Janie killed her to save herself from the wrath of her husband. Janie was accused of murdering her husband but later she was released by the jury. Janie friends requested Janie to share her tale of love and experience with the people living in the town so that they may enlighten themselves with the purity of love. Janie states that Tea Cake will always be alive in her memories and their love will always remain immortal. When this novel was published many critics perceived this as an emotional love story. The novel also depicts the beginning of women’s sexuality. This novel marked the growth of women intellectual power with the arrival of the women movement in the 1970s. This novel, “suggests that Janie is one of the earliest African American women characters to develop cultural and personal identity.” (Champion, 166) In Hurston’s novel ‘Their Eyes Were Watching God’, the author emphasizes that marriage oppressed Janie both physically and mentally and acted as a hindrance to the growth of her potentials and capabilities. Hurston states that ‘marriage does not make love’. This novel of Zora has adopted a psychological approach. Janie has faced psychological violence in all her marriage which suffocated her life as well as her own identity. By the end of the novel Janie was able to create a psychic space within her for the rebirth of the self and for true independence. Tell My Horse which was published in the year 1938, “records oral tales, religious practices and hoodoo rituals collected on those travels”. (Sage, Greer & Showalter, 335) This book was written on the experience of the author when she toured Jamaica and Haiti for gathering the folklore. The author has adopted the approach of cultural study and ethnographic method to compose this work. This book covers the politics of Haiti and her participation and experience of Haitian voodoo. Zora found that the contribution of the people in Haitian voodoo was remarkable. The book comprises of the importance of the black cultural practices. This folklore consists of a cultural approach. This folklore portrays a thick description of each culture and background of the people of Haiti and their life styles. Hurston shaped her perception about the people and their practices in a form of a tale. Hurston’s narration of the voodoo in this folklore was mysterious, weird and tragic. Voodoo rites played by the individuals portray the cultural conflict than culture uniformity. The folklore presents the confusion of the Haitian culture. Penalty for the practice of voodoo was prevalent but there was a loophole in the execution of the law for the practice of voodoo in the Haitian culture. Hurston stated that, “voodoo has more enemies in public and more friends in private than anything else in Haiti”. Laws were made in Haiti to punish the people who were involved in the animal sacrifice and the other ceremonies related to the animal sacrifice like rites, dance and meeting which were performed as a superstitious belief before the sacrifice of any animal. The sacrifice was not only limited to the animals rather human sacrifices were very popular in Haiti. The voodoo practices involved magic which was a form of wish fulfillment and power of the Haitian people. Haitian people used to worship spirits for power. Voodoo practices were the expression of slavery because the people offer their friends and family members to the evil in exchange of power. Haitian people practiced the voodoo to bring justice through revenge. Women of Haiti were considered to be a burden by the men and they were rated in the basis of color and class. Hurston reflects the cultural approach by describing the practices and believes that influence the lives of the Haitian people in this folklore. Zora Neale Hurston was an independent black woman who could successfully form a secured place in the literary world. She was very famous for her works where she reflected the positive aspects of women world. Zora faced lot of criticism due to her emphasis on rich black culture but her work was appreciated in the white group of scholars. Zora had a painful childhood devoid from the affection of her parents but still with immense hard work and sincerity she was able to be qualified enough to mark a place in the American society. Zora worked on several different jobs but her love for writing made her famous. She mostly penned down her personal experiences that she gathers while traveling worldwide and incorporated the folklore in a form of tale in her works. Zora in spite of her skills died a painful death because of poverty. References Hemenway, Robert. Zora Neale Hurston: a literary biography, U.S.A: University of Illinois Press, 1980 Bloom, Harold. Zora Neale Hurston, New York: Infobase Publishing, 2003 Jones, Sharon. Critical companion to Zora Neale Hurston, New York: Infobase Publishing, 2009 Champion, Laurie. American women writers, 1900-1945, U.S.A: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2000 Lester, Neal. Understanding Zora Neale Hurston’s Their eyes were watching God, U.S.A: Greenwood Publishing Group, 1999 Saga, Lorna, Greer, Germaine and Elaine Showalter, The Cambridge guide to women’s writing in English, England: Cambridge of University Press, 1999 Hurston, Zora and Alice, Walker, I love myself when I am laughing. New York: Feminist Press, 1979 Read More