Why zora neale hurston is important

And she challenged the skin-color privilege she saw around her, writing in "Dust Tracks on a Road," her must-read autobiography : "If it was so honorable and glorious to be black, why was it the yellow-skinned people among us had so much prestige?

Her enduring love for black folks and the South makes it understandable then that Eatonville became the setting of her most famous novel, 's "Their Eyes Were Watching God.

It's essentially a love story, one in which the main character, Janie Crawford, searches for affection from men, and ultimately finds independence and learns to love herself. Through the MeToo movement we've read the stories of how calling out sexual harassment and the patriarchy has ruined women's careers. Indeed, Henry Louis Gates wrote of Richard Wright's vehement hatred of Hurston that the "root cause, I believe, was Hurston's creation of a black female protagonist who was comfortable with and celebrated her own sensuality, and who insisted on her right to choose her own lovers in spite of the strictures of the black community.

A few years after publication, it was out of print and Hurston's career never quite recovered. By she was working as a maid in Miami, and a decade later when she died in , she was impoverished and living in a welfare home. So sure, know about Hurston so that you can sound cultured at parties and nod knowingly when an acquaintance mentions going to Eatonville.

Just know that once you start going down the rabbit hole of Hurston's legacy, you will find that there is so much more to learn from her story. As Hurston once said of her life, "I have the nerve to walk my own way, however hard, in my search for reality, rather than climb upon the rattling wagon of wishful illusions.

Get Shondaland directly in your inbox : Subscribe Today. Change Makers. Type keyword s to search. Today's Top Stories. Things That Break Down. How to Plan the Best Friendsgiving Ever. Brianna Ellis-Mitchell Getty Images. Hurston often incorporated her research into her fictional writing.

As an author Hurston, started publishing short stories as early as Unfortunately, her work was ignored by the mainstream literary audience for years.

However, she gained a following among African Americans. In , she published Mules and Men. She later, collaborated with Langston Hughes to create the play, Mule Bone.

She published three books between and One of her most popular works was Their Eyes were Watching God. The fictional story chronicled the tumultuous life of Janie Crawford.

Hurston broke literary norms by focusing her work on the experience of a black woman. Hurston was not only a writer, she also dedicated her life to educating others about the arts. In , she established a school of dramatic arts at Bethune-Cookman College.

Although Hurston eventually received praise for her works, she was often underpaid. Therefore, she remained in debt and poverty. After years of writing, Hurston had to enter the St. Lucie County Welfare Home as she was unable to take care of herself. Hurston died of heart disease on January 28, At first, her remains were placed in an unmarked grave.

In , author Alice Walker located her grave and created a marker. Her work continues to influences writers throughout the world. Some people criticized the magazine for downplaying white supremacy. But Zora and her colleagues felt that there needed to be a place for Black Americans to celebrate their culture without fear. Zora used the funds to plan an elaborate road trip through the American South. During her travels, she conducted interviews, recorded folklore, and collected objects of cultural significance.

She spent the spring and summer in Florida. Then she traveled to Alabama to interview the last known living man to be born in Africa and enslaved in America. Langston and Zora traveled back to New York together, stopping at several cities along the way. They visited the Tuskegee Institute, which was founded by Booker T. That evening, they ran into her in their hotel and spent the evening swapping stories of life on the road. Zora knew that traveling as a single Black woman in the American South was risky.

But she considered the South, particularly Florida, her true home, and did not allow her fear to deter her. She felt that her research was too important to give up. Someone needed to document the Black experience for the future. Using funds from her patron, Zora traveled to Florida and New Orleans to continue her studies in That same year she earned her undergraduate degree from Barnard. The dream is the truth.

Then they act and do things accordingly. Although Zora spent much of her time and money on anthropology studies, she did not give up her love of writing.

Instead, she used her new knowledge to continue writing plays, short stories, and novels. When they disagreed on how much credit each was to receive, the project and their friendship ended. Years later, scholars would argue that the play was a true collaboration by two great talents of the Harlem Renaissance. Zora survived the Great Depression by publishing fiction while working. Zora earned a Guggenheim fellowship to study in Jamaica and Haiti.

In , she published Of Mules and Men, an anthropological study of the folklore she gathered during travels through Florida and New Orleans. At the same time, Zora continued to write fiction. In both books, Zora explored the lives of Black Americans in the South. Their Eyes Were Watching God was particularly important because it provided insight into the experiences of Southern Black women. She relied on her research to incorporate local dialects and folklore into the novel. Her hope was to create a socially and emotionally realistic depiction of life in her home state of Florida.

Some felt that Zora glossed over the violent racism and suppression Black Americans faced. They also worried that her portrayal of Southern Black dialects and folkways out of context furthered racist stereotypes. Others did not like that Zora often created violent characters in her plays and novels who were also sympathetic. As an author and social scientist, Zora sought to present the world as she saw it. She did not believe it was her role to pass judgment. She published an unsuccessful novel and a popular autobiography.

However, none of her writing brought much financial success. Zora resorted to taking odd jobs as a maid, teacher, journalist, and clerk to pay her bills.