Zora Neale Hurston in the Harlem Renaissance
Christy Koestner
Maggie Bergin
American Literature 211H
1 May 2012
Zora Neale Hurston and the Harlem Renaissance From the beginning, Zora Neale Hurston was ahead of her time. She was born early in 1891 in Notasulga, Alabama. While she was being born her father was off about to make a decision that would be crucial to her in the development as a woman and as a writer; they moved in 1892 to Eatonville, Florida, an all-black town. In childhood, Hurston grew up uneducated and poor, but was immersed with black folk life, and the town of Eatonville had become like an extended family to her. She was protected from racism because she encountered no white people. Booker T. Washington observed that in black-governed towns like Eatonville, Negroes are made to feel the responsibilities of citizenship in ways they cannot be made to feel them elsewhere. If they make mistakes, they, at least, have an opportunity to profit by them. In such a town individuals who have executive ability and initiative, have an opportunity to discover themselves and find out what they can do (Boyd 22).
For Hurston, Eatonville was always home. Eatonville was where she received her first lessons in individualism and her first immersion in community (Boyd 25). With this early security had given Hurston the core of self-confidence she needed to survive in her adulthood. Hurston’s mother died at precisely the time when she needed her mama to teach her how to be a woman. I think this was a big step that helped Hurston become the independent woman she was fast becoming. Hurston wrote as she remembered the moment of her mother’s death, “That hour began my wanderings. Not so much in geography, but in time. Then not so much in time as in spirit” (Boyd 47). After, Hurston was shuffled around by relatives and rejected by her father when he re-married. For a place to go, she resorted to being a hired domestic in several homes. In 1915, Hurston landed a job as a lady’s maid to the lead singer of
Maggie Bergin
American Literature 211H
1 May 2012
Zora Neale Hurston and the Harlem Renaissance From the beginning, Zora Neale Hurston was ahead of her time. She was born early in 1891 in Notasulga, Alabama. While she was being born her father was off about to make a decision that would be crucial to her in the development as a woman and as a writer; they moved in 1892 to Eatonville, Florida, an all-black town. In childhood, Hurston grew up uneducated and poor, but was immersed with black folk life, and the town of Eatonville had become like an extended family to her. She was protected from racism because she encountered no white people. Booker T. Washington observed that in black-governed towns like Eatonville, Negroes are made to feel the responsibilities of citizenship in ways they cannot be made to feel them elsewhere. If they make mistakes, they, at least, have an opportunity to profit by them. In such a town individuals who have executive ability and initiative, have an opportunity to discover themselves and find out what they can do (Boyd 22).
For Hurston, Eatonville was always home. Eatonville was where she received her first lessons in individualism and her first immersion in community (Boyd 25). With this early security had given Hurston the core of self-confidence she needed to survive in her adulthood. Hurston’s mother died at precisely the time when she needed her mama to teach her how to be a woman. I think this was a big step that helped Hurston become the independent woman she was fast becoming. Hurston wrote as she remembered the moment of her mother’s death, “That hour began my wanderings. Not so much in geography, but in time. Then not so much in time as in spirit” (Boyd 47). After, Hurston was shuffled around by relatives and rejected by her father when he re-married. For a place to go, she resorted to being a hired domestic in several homes. In 1915, Hurston landed a job as a lady’s maid to the lead singer of
Cited: Baym, Nina. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. New York and London: W.W. Norton and Company, 1979. Print Boyd, Valerie. “Wrapped In Rainbows”. Simon & Schuster New York. 2003. Print Jchambliss. Social.rollins.edu. Project Mosaic: July 12, 2011 Web.