zora neale hurston facts

8/6/2019 Zora Neale Hurston Facts

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Zora Neale Hurston

Portrait of Zora Neale Hurston by Carl Van Vechten, published 1938Source: Carl Van Vechten, photographer, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division (Reproduction

number LC-USZ62-79898DLC).

[Extended profile]

BIRTHDATE: Jan. 7, 1891?

EDUCATION: Graduated from Morgan Academy (high school division of Morgan College(now Morgan State University) in 1918. Attended Howard University and received her B.A. in

anthropology from Barnard College, Columbia University in 1928.

FAMILY BACKGROUND: Her father was a Baptist preacher, tenant farmer, and carpenter.

At age three her family moved to Eatonville, Fla., the first incorporated black community inAmerica, of which her father would become mayor. In her writings she would glorify Eatonville

as a utopia where black Americans could live independent of the prejudices of white society.

DESCRIPTION OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS: A novelist, folklorist, and anthropologist, Zora

Neale Hurston was the prototypical authority on black culture from the Harlem Renaissance. Inthis artistic movement of the 1920s black artists moved from traditional dialectical works and

imitation of white writers to explore their own culture and affirm pride in their race. Zora Neale

Hurston pursued this objective by combining literature with anthropology. She first gainedattention with her short stories such as "John Redding Goes to Sea" and "Spunk" which appeared

in black literary magazines. After several years of anthropological research financed through

grants and fellowships, Zora Neale Hurston's first novelJonah's Gourd Vine was published in
http://www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/hurs-zorx.htmhttp://www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/hurs-zorx.htm


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1934 to critical success. In 1935, her bookMules and Men, which investigated voodoo practices

in black communities in Florida and New Orleans, also brought her kudos.

The year 1937 saw the publication of what is considered Hurston's greatest novel Their Eyes

Watching God. And the following year her travelogue and study of Caribbean voodoo Tell My

Horse was published. It received mixed reviews, as did her 1939 novel Moses, Man of theMountain. Her autobiographyDust Tracks on a Roadwas a commercial success in 1942, despite

its overall absurdness, and her final novel Seraph on the Suwanee, published in 1948, was acritical failure.

Zora Neale Hurston was a utopian, who held that black Americans could attain sovereignty from

white American society and all its bigotry, as proven by her hometown of Eatonville. Never in

her works did she address the issue of racism of whites toward blacks, and as this became anascent theme among black writers in the post World War II ear of civil rights, Hurston's literary

influence faded. She further scathed her own reputation by railing the civil rights movement and

supporting ultraconservative politicians. She died in poverty and obscurity.

DATE OF DEATH: Jan. 28, 1960.

PLACE OF DEATH: Fort Pierce, Fla.

WEB SITES:

Issues and Themes

Hurston's work was greatly influenced by her environment, self-confidence, patronage,anthropology, folklore, hoodoo (voodoo), and the rise and fall of the Harlem Renaissance. Zora

Neale Hurston was raised in Eatonville, Florida. It was the first all-black incorporated city thatwas self-governed. When she was thirteen, she was sent to school in Jacksonville. There she

became aware of her color because she was no longer part of the all negro town. In Jacksonville,

she experienced the racial oppression and gender stereotyping that is evident in her works.

After leaving Jacksonville, she performed odd jobs for some years and met almost impossibleodds to receive an outstanding education. She began her writing career in 1925 and ended her

career with seven novels and over one hundred plays, short stories, and articles under her belt.

Hurston's works deal with the social issues of racism, materialism, and the oppression offemales, especially black females in that time.

Robert Hemenway wrote a biography on Zora Hurston and claims, "Zora Hurston was anextraordinary witty woman, and she acquired an instant reputation in New York for her high

spirits and side-splitting tales of Eatonville life. She could walk into a room of strangers . . . and

almost immediately gather people, charm, amuse, and impress them."

In "How It Feels to be Colored Me" and other Hurston works, one of the major themesis racial oppression of African-Americans, especially in the South. She claims that her race and


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her people should be happy, and they should not constantly think of the racial oppression their

ancestors experienced. In "How It Feels to be Colored Me," Hurston claims, "I am not tragically

colored" (1984). She is not sorry for who she is, and she does not feel it is necessary to holdonto slavery as an excuse for failure in life. In "How It Feels to be Colored Me," she compares

the institution of slavery to an operation by stating, "The operation was successful and the patient

is doing well" (1984). Like a patient recovering from an operation, she has recovered from theeffects of slavery. She is not ashamed of her race, but rather proud and excited because blacks

have the chance to advance in society and "no one on earth ever had a greater chance for glory"

(1985). In her autobiography,Dust Tracks, Hurston maintained that blacks should focus on thepositive aspects of black American life instead of staying with "the sobbing school of

Negrohood" (Hurston 1942).

Hurston is proud of her race. She also acknowledges that whites and blacks are bothdifferent and alike. In "How It Feels to Be Colored Me," Hurston places herself in a "white

environment" in Jacksonville and then she reverses the situation and places a white man in a

black jazz club. The jazz scene with her and her white friend illuminates the differences in the

races because both people have totally different reactions to the music. While Hurston's pulse isthrobbing and she feels like a jungle animal yelling "yeeeeowww!" because she is feeling the

music, her white friend sits there "motionless" and drums "the table with his finger- tips" (1985).We also see a bit of Hurston's interest in anthropology when she places herself in an African

tribe with a tribal spear as an illustration of her primal, emotional response to the jazz music.

Hurston writes, "I dance wildly inside myself: I yell within, I whoop, I shake my assegai above

my head..." (1985). Though she feels most colored around whites, she "remains herself" becauseshe is not going to change for anyone (1985). Her attitude toward race is illuminated in the

"brown bag" passage of the story, where Hurston explains that were are all the same on the

inside.

She addresses racism in her novels also. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, the character

named Nanny is a black slave who is forced into sexual relations with her white master throughwhich she bears Janie, the protagonist of the novel. To show how blacks discriminated against

themselves, the character Mrs. Turner, who is a light skinned black woman, claims, "De black

ones is holdin us back. Look at me! Ah, ain't got no flat nose and liver lips" (Howard 1980).

Another major focus in Hurston's works is the woman's discovery of self and search forhappiness. Se>

zora neale hurston facts

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