The Genius of the South
Zora Neale Hurston was a great Harlem Renaissance writer, whose work was not readily accepted in its time. Her work was not recognized and she died penniless and unknown in Florida. Even though Zora's talents of writing were not acknowledged, her work made a difference in the African American Literature society. She wrote many different stories including the award winning Their Eyes Were Watching God and Dust Tracks on a Road. Zora addressed issues of race and gender, often relating them to the search for freedom.Zora's most acclaimed novel Their Eyes Were Watching God tells the story of astrong, passionate, and independent woman named Janie May Crawford (Andrews 402). She comes back to her hometown and tells her life story to her friend, Phoeby. Janie was raised on a plantation by her grandmother. Janie searches for freedom throughout the story by trying to be her own woman and refuses to be tied down by the stereotype that black women carry heavy loads on their backs. Even though Janie felt this way, her grandmother told her the way she has "Honey, de white man is de ruler of everything as fur as Ah been able tuh find
" She assured readers she had no prejudice of any kind. She concludes that perhaps it was God's intention to make us all that way. Zora can simply work to get whatever she can. She must deal with money and figures without being able to enjoy the "lying sessions" on the porch, or attending town events. Her published work remains a testament to that struggle and an inspiration for those who have followed in her footsteps. So de white man throw down de load and tell de nigger man tuh pick it up. Buy Saving Stamps (24)In her 1928 essay, "How It Feels to Be Colored Me," Zora Neale Hurston exults that being black may have its challenges, but it also has its opportunities and victories. In this book Zora writes about how she conquered great odds of success in a time period that denied equal opportunities and black achievement (---. Until then, she saw white people only as passers-through her town, uninteresting if they were local, but intensely interesting if they were tourists. Growing up in 3an all-Negro town of Eatonville, Florida, she says she never even knew that she was "colored" until she was in her early teens. When Dust Tracks on a Road was published Hurston wrote an eloquent plea for patriotism: "Freedom is a cemetery flower - rooted in struggle and nourished in blood. De nigger woman is de mule uh de 2world so fur as Ah can see. Zora went to great lengths to assume readers she was not bitter over the treatment of her people. " Slavery, she says, is sixty years past, and "the price I paid for civilization. " She feels it most often when she is set against an all-white background, as she was when she attended Barnard College as the only black student.
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Acceptance Essays
