Zora Neale Hurston Questions and Answers
Zora Neale Hurston
Hurston's reference to "the Great Stuffer of Bags” is not meant to be a serious engagement with religion, but it can...
I am sympathetic to you because this is a convoluted question that seems to have very little to do with what Hurston is talking about in "How It Feels to be Colored Me." However, one could read her...
Zora Neale Hurston
Why was Zora Neale Hurston criticized in her lifetime by fellow African Americans for accepting endowments from white...
In addition to the criticism for not writing protest literature, as ladyvols1 discusses very well, Hurston was also criticized more generally for her performance of black identity. Hurston was...
Zora Neale Hurston
What is Hurston's view on slavery?
Zora Neale Hurston discusses her attitude toward slavery in the essay "How it Feels to Be Colored Me." Rather surprisingly, the essay is humorous in tone and rejects the notion of slavery as an...
Zora Neale Hurston
Are Zora Neale Hurston's books appropriate for young teens? Are Zora Neale Hurston's books appropriate for young...
Absolutely! (And this is from a young mom who is very concerned about sheltering her children as long as she can! Ha!) Hurston's books, and most notably Their Eyes Were Watching God brings up...
Zora Neale Hurston
"So the White man thinks in a written language and the Negro thinks in hieroglyphics," said Zora Neale Hurston in...
This quote is from the following passage, an excerpt from Zora Neale Hurston's “Characteristics of Negro Expression”: The primitive man exchanges descriptive words. His terms are all close...
Zora Neale Hurston
What does Zora Neale Hurston mean when she states, “I remember the very day that I became colored” (357)? How did she...
In her essay, "How It Feels to Be Colored Me," Zora Neale Hurston begins by describing her childhood in Eatonville, Florida—an all-black community. She recalls seeing passing white visitors,...
Zora Neale Hurston
Local Color Writer? Should Hurston be considered a "local color" writer? Why or why not?
This is a term I've never come across before so I'm not sure exactly how it's usually applied. The phrase "local color" and the phrase "writer of color" are two terms that seem completely separate....
Zora Neale Hurston
How does Hurston's "The Gilded Six-Bits" parallel the Garden of Eden story (paradise story) in the Bible?
Numerous similarities exist between the story of Adam and Eve in the Bible and the story of Missie May and Joe in Zora Neale Hurston’s short story “The Gilded Six-Bits.” Among those similarities...
Zora Neale Hurston
In "How It Feels to Be Colored Me," Hurston allows that "at certain times I have no race, I am me;" Would Delia from...
On the face of it, it would seem that Delia (from the story "Sweat") is very different from the Hurston that declares that "sometimes she has no race." Delia is not given to that sort of...
Zora Neale Hurston
What is a good thesis topic for Zora Neale Hurston which is not based specifically on any of her books?
One of the most interesting things I have always remembered about Zora Neal Hurston is something very bold which she did--both as a woman and as an African-American. She was writing during the...
Zora Neale Hurston
In Hurston's description, what kind of community is Eatonville?
There are at least a couple of different texts in which Zora Neale Hurston describes Eatonville, Florida, a town where she grew up but also one in which she set her best-known novel, Their Eyes...
Zora Neale Hurston
Why is Zora Neale Hurston famous?
Although she worked as an anthropologist for much of her life, Zora Neale Hurston is most famous for her writing, most especially her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, considered a classic of the...
Zora Neale Hurston
Why was Hurston against the Racial Uplift movement, of which W.E.B. DuBois became a leader?
In her essay "How It Feels to be Colored Me," Zora Neale Hurston mentions what she calls the "sobbing school of Negrohood who hold that nature somehow has given them a lowdown dirty deal." The...
Zora Neale Hurston
What is a summary of Jump at the Sun: Zora Neale Hurston's Cosmic Comedy?
Jump at the Sun: Zora Neale Hurston’s Cosmic Comedy is John Lowe’s scholarly analysis of Hurston’s work that focuses on its comedic aspects. Lowe argues that the elements of humor that Hurston uses...
Zora Neale Hurston
How was Zora Neale Hurston's work more famous after her death than before her death?
Zora Neale Hurston was widely known as a writer and political activist during the Harlem Renaissance. However, there were many things that contributed to her lack of success during her lifetime....
Zora Neale Hurston
What is "local color" in "Gilded Six-Bits" by Zora Neale Hurston?
Local color refers to the customs, speech, clothing, and other cultural attributes of a place or time period that contribute to its characterization. Much of the early description of the setting...
Zora Neale Hurston
How would you say Hurston treated marriage and/or women? Just wanted to know more about the author. So far I have...
In two of Hurston's novels Their Eyes Were Watching God and Jonah's Gourd Vine, the portrayal of marriage and women is one of hardship. The protagonist Janie of Their Eyes Were Watching God is...