Zora Neale HurstonBy- Richelle Weller

and Diane Shoemaker

Questions Where was Zora Neale Hurston born? What year did she die in? Where did Hurston spend here time

writing Their Eyes Were Watching God? In what does the book Sweat reveal

about Hurston’s life? What was Hurston’s father’s

occupations?

Life Facts

Birthday-January 7, 1891 Born in Notasulga, Alabama Death-January 25, 1960 Graduated from Morgan Academy in

1918 Received her B.A. in anthropology from

Barnard College and Columbia University in 1928

Younger Life

At the age of nine when Zora's mother died, Zora's world changed.

Her father remarried and Zora, along with her brother and sister were sent off to a boarding school.

After a year Zora father stop paying Zora's school fee and asked the school to adopt Zora intead.

Zora and her siblings were unwanted by their stepmother and father and were sent to live with relatives and friends

Zora lived in a series of homes. During this time Zora had to work and it depressed her when she saw other children going to school.

Eatonville- Population 125

• Hurston’s family moved to Eatonville, FL when she was a toddler.

• She drew from her home in Eatonville as to enrich her stories and characters.

• It was a very peaceful and small rural town that had good morals, and they also didn’t have a jailhouse.

• Eatonville was the first incorporated black community in America

Family Background

Hurston’s father was a Baptist preacher, farmer and carpenter.

When they moved, when she was 3, to Eatonville he became mayor.

Her mother was a schoolteacher She also had a sister Sarah and brother

Robert

Tragic Turn• Hurston’s mother died in 1904, when Zora was

only 13 yr old.

• She wrote, “ That hour began my wanderings, Not so much in geography, but in time. Then not so much in time as in spirit.”

• To her dismay, Hurston’s father remarried quickly to a woman that later she almost “killed in a fistfight”.

• Hurston’s father then since had little time or money for his children.

Importance

• In 1925 she went to New York City, drawn by the circle of creative black artists (now known as the Harlem Renaissance), and she began writing fiction.

• Annie Nathan Meyer, founder of Barnard College, found a scholarship for Zora Neale Hurston.

• From the 1930s through the 1950s, Zora Neale Hurston was the most prolific and accomplished black woman writer in America.

AcknowledgementsHurston, was best known for her collection of

African American folklore.

Her work, revived by feminists in the 1970s, has gained her considerable recognition as one of the most important black writers in American history.

Autobiography receives Anisfield-Wolf award for best book in race relations and Howard University's Distinguished Alumni Award.

Their Eyes Were Watching God was adapted for a 2005 film.

On February 28, 2003, Hurston was appointed with the U.S. Post Office Stamp Dedication,(2nd release). The first release of this stamp occurred in Eatonville, Florida, where Zora spent her childhood.

Quotes

“Someone is always at my elbow reminding me that I am the granddaughter of slaves. It fails to register depression with me.”-Hurston

Mama exhorted her children at every opportunity to "jump at de sun." We might not land on the sun, but at least we would get off the ground.

THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD

Hurston wrote Their Eyes in 1937 in only seven weeks while doing anthropological research in Haiti.White readers were less critical of the novel than black readers, they felt that Hurston had not been harsh as she should have been in her critique of the white treatment of blacks in the South.

EATONVILLE IN HURSTON'S TEWWG

Reconstruction after the Civil War was a time of joy and for building a better way of living for blacks. At first, newly freed blacks began to establish homes and businesses in white communities. By the 1800s, tensions from this new coexistence gave rise to segregation, the separation of blacks to a particular area in the community.

Hurston sings and dances with children in Eatonville, Fla., June 1935.

LOVE LIFE

When Hurston was a young girl she married her boyfriend this was

short lived and they soon separated

In the book TEWWG Janie was married several times and they all end in abuse and suppression

She used these experiences in the book

TEWWG to show how she struggled for equality.

Sweat

The first influence was Hurston's childhood town of Eatonville and its economic situation.

Hurston's town was ideal for a young African-American girl in the early nineteenth century, providing a safe haven from restrictions of race.

"Sweat" reveals much of Hurston's bittersweet memories, though it primarily focuses on Eatonville's economic dependence on the neighboring town of Winter Park.

Like Delia in "Sweat," African-American residents of Eatonville made daily pilgrimages across the rail road tracks to clean houses, tend gardens, cook meals

Sweat Sweat was influenced not only by

Hurston's childhood town but also by her relationship with her employer Fannie Hurst.

Hurston felt dependent on Fannie Hurst's white patronage for recognition, much like Delia did in "Sweat," and saw her patron as a restriction to her art

Bibliography

  About.com, "Zora Neale Hurston." About.com. 2000. New York Time

Company. 25 Apr 2008 <http://womenshistory.about.com/od/hurstonzoraneale/p/hurston_bio.htm>.

  Collins, Harper. "About Zora Neale Hurston." The Official Zorn Neale Hurston

     Website. 9 Apr. 2007. Sonnet Media. 22 Apr. 2008      <http://www.zoranealehurston.com/biography.html>.

  Gale, "Black History Zora Neale Hurston." Gale Free Resources. 1998.

Concise Dictionary of American Literary Biography Supplement: Modern Writers. 25 Apr 2008 <http://www.galegroup.com/free_resources/bhm/bio/hurston_z.htm>.

Women In History. "Zora Neale Hurston." Women In History. 25 Jan. 2008. Lakewood      Public Library. 22 Apr. 2008 <http://www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/      hurs-zor.htm>.