Zora Neale Hurston
"No matter how far a person can go, the horizon is still way beyond you."
By: Francesca Janvier and Jaia Black
Zora Neale Hurston is an African American woman who is greatly known for her activist ways during the 1900’s. She published novels which discuss the trials and tribulations of not only being a woman, but also about being black in the south around this time frame. Hurston’s most popular novel, “Their Eyes Were Watching God” is largely brought up and taught in African American school courses. The novel discusses liberation, gender roles, values, and race all during the time of the Harlem Renaissance which was at the time known as the New Negro Movement.
Another novel of Hurston’s is “Jonah’s Gourd Vine”. This discusses the realities of her parents marriage and many of the issues they endured during their years together. Topics such as hoodoo, preachings, trust, and womanizing. The parents John and Lucy undergo many issues internally of their marriage, but somehow portray a perfect image in front of the church congregation. Does he honestly and truly love Lucy? Till death do them part?
Hurston created a novel titled the “Barracoon” which was published years after her death. This was due to conflict with her publisher because the publisher had issues with the claims made in the book and the dialect utilized. The story is a biography of one of the last known survivors of the Atlantic slave trade era.
Zora Hurtson also created short stories, plays, articles, and biographies. Many of her works remain unpublished, however, many also became published years after her death. Her writing style is distinctive for its use of dialect and its deep empathy for the people and communities she depicted. Beyond fiction, she was also an anthropologist, collecting oral histories and studying the traditions of African American communities in the South and the Caribbean. Despite facing racism and sexism in a predominantly white literary world, Hurston’s voice was unapologetically her own, offering a profound counterpoint to the prevailing narratives of her time. Her legacy continues to inspire writers and activists, cementing her as one of the most influential literary figures of the Harlem Renaissance and beyond.
