Zora Neale Hurston Analysis

Words: 825
Pages: 4
Open Document
Zora Neale Hurston and Alice Walker share many similarities in their work as Hurston had great influence on Walker’s writing. There is a strong connection between the two writers. Walker a contemporary woman writing critically successful work, and Hurston, almost a cultural figure who died in relative anonymity in the sixties. According to Mary Churchill, who wrote “Alice Walker and Zora Neale Hurston: The Common Bond” stated, “Walker seems to have found her muse in Hurston.
Both literary tellers of the same cultural and spiritual tradition, share in the root of their work, an admiration for people who "persist...in spite of everything (7).” The characters in the two authors' major work are troubled women, the "mules of the world," who must rise from the most hopeless circumstances to relative peace, freedom, and self-sufficiency. Alice Walker’s novel, The Color Purple contains aspects of Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God as well as characteristics of Hurston’s female lead, Janie infused in her writing. The aspects in Walker’s novel that are …show more content…
Not only was she raped and threatened repeatedly by her stepfather as he told her, “You gonna do what your mammy wouldn’t” (Walker, 1) but she was also trying to protect her younger sister from the same abuse (Walker, 2). This is very similar characterization to Hurston’s main character Janie in Their Eyes Were Watching God. While Janie’s childhood may not have been as traumatizing as Celie’s, she grew up without a mother or a father and was instead raised by her grandmother who married her off to a man she did not love when she was just sixteen years old. Both women have experienced tremendously trying times in their lives, but have utilized their strength and spirituality to overcome their hardships and reshaped their lives in order to obtain contentedness within their own
Show More

Related Documents: Zora Neale Hurston Analysis

Rhetorical Analysis Of Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston enriches her audience sense of her childhood through her descriptive diction and her skillful manipulation of point of view, giving readers the allusion that her childhood was full of riches and opportunities, but at the same time hinting at an ominous outside world. She is conveying her childhood experience by using diction and point of view to create a unique image towards the audience. She wanted to not only show her view, but give a sense of what it was like to see the lifestyle…

Words 538 - Pages 3

Zora Neale Hurston Character Analysis

Zora Neale Hurston was an African American author who wrote short stories, novels, and folklores. Hurston’s works contributed to the Harlem Renaissance, creating the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, published in 1937. The novel was first criticized, but is now seen as a literary classic. It expressed the ideas of freedom and the longing for finding one's true identity. The main character, Janie, changes over the course of the book, not only physically but mentally. Janie truly finds herself through…

Words 769 - Pages 4

Zora Neale Hurston Sweat Analysis

clarification. The three-part comic pattern signifies to readers, the events of tragedies and comedies in an order that helps them to understand the theme or idea of the reading. In Zora Neale Hurston, Sweat, the three-part comic pattern is used distinctly to enhance the analogy of sweat, and a generalist central theme. Hurston builds the tension within the story very quickly, while keeping the tension very blissful and delicate until the readers are able to perceive an emotional growth of the protagonist…

Words 489 - Pages 2

Sweat By Zora Neale Hurston Analysis

The short story “Sweat”, by Zora Neale Hurston, has a creative style which contributes to the story. The style of writing used is to assist the reader in understand the setting, characters, and conflict going on throughout the story. Hurston’s style of writing helps create a unique story that allows the reader’s imagination to spark. The author uses unique style throughout the story which consists of dialogue, point of view, and also tone. The style makes the story distinct and helps the reader imagine…

Words 773 - Pages 4

Analysis Of Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston

americans created new pieces art, music, and literature. Ebonic also became a popular dialect among african americans. All of these traits of this time is used in Zora Neale Hurston's book “Their Eyes Were Watching God.” The protagonist of the story is a woman named Janie who has come back to her old town after she left without telling anyone. Hurston characterizes Jaine by the effects she has on others and through her dialogue with other characters. Janie is described as a beautiful woman and this has…

Words 531 - Pages 3

Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston: An Analysis

In Zora Neale Hurston's, Their Eyes Were Watching God, readers catch a glimpse of Hurston’s life as well as the historical meaning. Even though this book was published afterward, The Harlem Renaissance is something numerous people have correlated with “Their Eyes Were Watching God.” One can perceive Janie, the main character, as an individual who is taking a path towards self-discovery. Comparably, “while it may have contributed to a certain relaxation of racial attitudes among young whites, perhaps…

Words 448 - Pages 2

Zora Neale Hurston How It Feels To Be Colored Me Analysis

Colored Me” by Zora Neale Hurston is an essay speaking about her expressing thoughts on being a person of color. Hurston explains, “she is not tragically colored.” Hurston gets many people of color are hurt that slavery. Slavery is an unforgettable point of time in American history, but she will not dwell on the past. Considering, slavery took place years ago and colored people are living in a new day and time. Zora Hurston writing makes you think from a positive perspective. Hurston essay opened my…

Words 261 - Pages 2

Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston: Character Analysis

God by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie seeks true love. The author Zora Neale Hurston uses the Pear Tree to symbolize her wish of fulfilling love; a love that is what felt what is under a pear tree. Throughout the novel, the audience sees how Janie grows into a strong and independent woman through her experience of love. By looking at the following examples: Janie's and Logan's marriage, Jody and Janie's marriage and Tea cake and Janie's marriage. It becomes clear to us that Zora Neale Hurston is trying…

Words 717 - Pages 3

Character Analysis: Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston

novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, demonstrates this well. Along these lines, Janie enters into relationships, but she is unable to determine whether they satisfy her. While she tries to find her true desires and motives towards her own life. Zora Neale Hurston utilizes Janie’s relationships to show how Janie is able to find fulfillment in life by knowing her own self-awareness.…

Words 995 - Pages 4

Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston: Literary Analysis

Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston has one of the most unique points of view in all of literature. Throughout the novel, we get to be in the head of Janie and see what she see’s, but there are times when she is not even present in certain circumstances yet we get told every little detail. The point of view in this book falls somewhere between omniscient and limited omniscient. The narrator herself is Janie, and we know everything about her; however, there are other characters and…

Words 775 - Pages 4