Biography
Born in Eatonville, Florida,
an all-black town, Zora Neale Hurston was educated at Howard
University, where she studied with Alain Locke, who would
publish his groundbreaking anthology The New Negro in
1925, and at Barnard College, where she worked with Franz
Boas, the well-known anthropologist. Hurston cultivated
a dual career: as a storyteller she published her fiction
in such magazines as Opportunity; as a scholar she
returned to her hometown to study oral traditions, supported
first by a fellowship, then by Mrs. R. Osgood Mason, an
elderly white patron. But Hurston found the patron/artist
relationship limiting, as Mrs. Mason required her protegés
to obtain her permission before publishing any work. Hurston
also felt challenged by some of the male writers of the
Harlem Renaissance, such as Langston
Hughes, because she did not wish to limit her artistic
expression by depicting characters who would be acceptable
to a white audience or by engaging in "racial uplift." Hurston
felt that her race was already uplifted and consequently
created a full range of characters both strong and weak,
good and bad. Her works include Jonah's Gourd Vine (1934)
and Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), both novels; Mules
and Men (1935), a collection of folktales and anthropological
materials; and Dust Tracks on a Road (1942), an
autobiography.
Explorations
Hurston went her own way as
a writer and did not follow political value systems or
agendas favored by other artists associated with the Harlem
Renaissance. A trained social scientist who believed in
portraying the world as she found it, she took risks as
a storyteller and as a chronicler of African American experience
in a literary world dominated by white publishers, booksellers,
and audiences. The Gilded Six-Bits (1933) shows
her polish as a creator of narratives; and it presents
Hurston's complex dialogue with the realities around her
and her intelligent challenging of the stereotypes favored
in that era. 1. Describe Joe's psychological
state after he finds Missie May with Slemmons. We see
his reaction through Missie May's eyes. What can we infer
about what he is thinking and feeling?
2. Near the end of The
Gilded Six-Bits, the store clerk makes a comment
about "these darkies. Laughin' all the time." Why does
Hurston include this character and this remark?
3. The story seems to come
dangerously close to telling a "Frankie and Johnnie" tale,
a narrative reinforcing demeaning stereotypes about rural
African Americans in the South. In what ways does Hurston
set Joe and Missie May apart from those stereotypes?
Do you think that the story addresses and resists those
stereotypes successfully? Offer details from the narrative
to develop your answer.
Other sites to consult:
Harlem
Renaissance. Features outlines of the period,
a detailed chronology, study questions, and links
to in-depth discussions of key figures such as Hurston.
From the PAL: Perspectives in American Literature site
maintained by Paul P. Reuben (California State University,
Stanislaus).
Voices
from the Gaps: Women Writers of Color. An
excellent Hurston page. Includes a detailed biography,
selected bibliography, and a number of related links.
(A site from the University of Minnesota.)
Wired
for Books: Commentary Reconsidered. Listen
to Hurston scholars discuss Their Eyes Were Watching
God on Ohio University Public radio. (Transcripts
are also available.) You might also contribute to
the Hurston discussion forum.
Zora
Neale Hurston. A creative, comprehensive
site maintained by Kip Austin Hinton (Ohio State
University). Includes photographs, links to Hurston-related
sites, and essays.
http://voices.cla.umn.edu/authors/ZoraNealeHurston.html:
Voices from the Gap: Zora Neale Hurston.
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