Zora Neale Hurston

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Fiona Grover & Rebecca Russell

Saugus High School AP Literature Author Comparison Project

 

 

 

 

Zora Neale Hurston

Their Eyes Were Watching God and “Sweat”

 

 

 

 

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Biography

Brief Overview of Texts

Author Style Elements

Critical Reads: Essays

Critical Reads: Historical, Reader-Based, Biographical

Quiz

Works Cited

Extra Information Links

 

 

 

 

 

 

Biography

Zora Neale Hurston was born January 7, 1891 in the rural town of Eatonville, Florida.  Her father was a reverend and a prominent member of the South Florida Baptist Association; her mother was a retired schoolteacher who tended to Hurston and her seven brothers and sisters. She was living on her own by the time she was fourteen years old, performing domestic tasks for other families in order to support herself.  She graduated from Morgan Academy and eventually entered Howard University in 1918.  There she met and fell in love with a man named Herbert Sheen; they married in 1927. However, the marriage ended in a divorce after only two years (Hurston later married Albert Price III on June 27, 1939).

In 1921, Hurston wrote her first work, “John Redding Goes to Sea” and published it in the Howard University magazine.  The piece was about a young man, whose mother and wife do not allow him to follow his traveler’s instinct and achieve his personal best. She soon wrote “Drenched in Light”, a tale about a young girl living under the rule of a grandmother that curbs her granddaughter’s energetic liveliness. Hurston moved to New York City shortly after in 1925, the same year she received awards for her short story, “Spunk.” These were just the beginnings of a soon-to-be groundbreaking career for Hurston. She began to study folklore and anthropology near the end of the 20’s.

As time went on, Hurston managed to produce some of her most renowned works: Their Eyes Were Watching God, The Man of the Mountain, Sweat, Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life in Three, and others.  A majority of Zora Neale Hurston’s lifetime writings examine African-American culture and lifestyle as well as daily life in the southern regions of the United States.  She is most commonly known for her participation in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920’s. She wrote numerous novels in addition to creating collections of short stories. She also published many books of the black folktales she learned throughout her lifetime, as well as an in-depth autobiography. Writer Robert E. Hemenway, in his biography of Hurston, regarded her as "flamboyant and yet vulnerable, self-centered and yet kind, a Republican conservative and yet an early black nationalist."

  Hurston worked diligently up until her death in October of 1959. She was buried under an unmarked grave in a segregated cemetery in Fort Piece, Florida.

 

 

 

 

 

Overviews of “Sweat” and Their Eyes Were Watching God

“Sweat”

Sweat is a short story by Zora Neale Hurston, first published in a Harlem Renaissance literary magazine called Fire!! It includes themes of marital conflict, spiritual consciousness, gender, oppression, and  African-American culture found in the southeast United States. The main character is Delia Jones, a washerwoman living in Florida who is waiting for her husband, Sykes, to arrive home. Suddenly, a bullwhip is laid on her shoulder and Delia is terribly afraid (she is scared of snakes), but it is only her husband playing a trick on her. Her husband begins to psychologically torture her and make a mess of the laundry she is cleaning. Delia has endured his torture during the entirety of their marriage, and knows that he unfaithful. Her “sweat” is what has made their modest home into Delia’s haven, decorating it to make it comfortable. The next day, Sykes takes pleasure in letting Delia see him buy his girlfriend whatever she wants in the general store, and Delia is deeply embarrassed.

            Later, Delia arrives home and sees a crate, which Sykes pretends is a present for his wife—but it is actually a large snake. Delia is scared immensely, but tells firmly tells Sykes that she will not tolerate the snake in her home any longer.  With threats of physical violence, Sykes leaves the house and does not return until the next day. On Sunday, Delia discovers that the snake has been set loose in her home! She is scared out of her wits and sleeps in the barn to stay safe. Sykes, however, is missing in action. Later, Delia hears him calling out but is too afraid to go into the house.  She finds that the snake is killing her husband—and leaves it to do so, realizing that she has known the whole time what was happening to her husband.

 

 

Their Eyes Were Watching God

            In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston depicts a young woman, Janie, in her struggle through three marriages and her development as an independent woman. At sixteen, Janie is forced into an arranged marriage to Logan Killicks, by her overbearing grandmother. Logan’s devotion to her quickly fades into impassivity and begins to regard her as ungrateful and unhelpful. Thus, when the charming and ambitious Jody Starks shows up at her fence one day, Janie does not hesitate to leave with him. He leads her to a developing all-black town, Eatonville, where he takes over as Mayor and gives Janie a metaphorical throne. However, Janie soon finds that Jody has no interest in her personality and her opinions, and as a result, her soul regresses within herself. When Jody dies of kidney failure, Janie makes a show of her grief for the sake of the townspeople, even though she hardly mourns him at all. About four months after his death, a young and charismatic man who calls himself Tea Cake walks into her store. Despite the age difference, the two fall in love and leave the town to get married. They live a peaceful life on a marsh and he allows for Janie’s soul to be renewed and encourages her individuality. Janie and Tea Cake live a happy and carefree life, until nature shatters their calm. A hurricane drives them from their home and they are forced to flee to safer grounds. During their flight, Janie falls into a river and finds refuge on a floating cow. Unfortunately, the cow is already occupied by a fierce dog, and Tea Cake jumps in to save her, earning himself a bite on the face from the beast. Upon their arrival, Tea Cake falls ill, and the local doctor tells Janie that the dog had obviously been rabid, and that Tea Cake now suffers from rabies. As Tea Cake loses more of himself to the disease, a violent and dangerous person takes over in his stead. When he cracks and holds Janie at gunpoint, she defends herself and shoots him first, immediately killing him. After a trial at which she is found innocent, she returns to Eatonville as a strong and independent woman, who cares not about the petty opinions of the people around her.

 

 

 

 

 

Author Style Elements

“Sweat”

  • Biblical allusions: Delia surrounds her home with trees and flowers, which are representative of the lush vegetation within the Garden of Eden.
  • Freudian elements: the bullwhip is considered a phallic symbol, representing Sykes’s control over his wife, Delia.
  • Colloquial language: Hurston wrote the way African-American speech was spoken around her. “ …’but he kin run thew whut Ah brings quick enough. Now he done toted off nigh on tuh haff uh box uh matches.’”
  • Hurston writes in a third-person limited point of view, allowing the reader a partial look into Delia’s thoughts.
  • Hurston takes cultural folklore and music that she learned in her own life and includes it in this piece: Delia sings “"Jurden water, black an' col'/
    Chills de body, not de soul / An' Ah wantah cross Jurden in uh calm time."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Their Eyes Were Watching God

  • Extended Metaphor: “She saw a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight. So this was a marriage! She had been summoned to behold a revelation. Then Janie felt a pain remorseless sweet that left her limp and languid” (Hurston 11).
  • Symbolism: Janie’s hair is a symbol of her individuality, as it sets her apart from the traditional black standards and feminine inferiority.
  • Epiphanies: “The familiar people and things had failed her so she hung over the gate and looked up the road towards way off. She knew now that marriage did not make love. Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman” (Hurston 25).
  • Dialect: “‘Naw, Ah ain’t no young gal no mo’ but den Ah ain’t no old woman neither. Ah reckon Ah looks mah age too. But Ah’m uh woman every inch of me, and Ah know it. Dat’s uh whole lot more’n you kin say. You big-bellies round here and put out a lot of brag, but ‘tain’t nothin’ to it but yo’ big voice. Humph! Talkin’ ‘bout me lookin’ old! When you pull down yo’ britches, you look lak de change uh life’” (Hurston 79).
  • Imagery: “On each side of the fill was a great expance of water like lakes—water full of things living and dead. Things that didn’t belong in water. As far as the eye could reach, water and wind playing upon it in fury. A large piece of tar-paper roofing sailed through the air and scudded along the fill until it hung against a tree” (Hurston 165).

 

 

 

 

 

Critical Reads: Essays

 

Their Eyes Were Watching God

According to the British writer and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, “women are systematically degraded by receiving the trivial attentions which men think it manly to pay to the sex, when, in fact, men are insultingly supporting their own superiority.”

Zora Neale Hurston has a similar philosophy, which she expresses through her own literary prowess. Her novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, follows Janie, a young black woman struggling to find her place in a society struck by inequity and poverty, through trials of love and marriage. Through the use of conflict and characterization, Hurston disdainfully explicates the role that was once customary for women to portray in order to protest against the injustices of gender discrimination.

            The title, Their Eyes Were Watching God, implies that the central conflict of the novel is man versus nature, or, as in Janie’s case, woman versus nature. Hurston writes that nature is, “de strongest thing dat God ever made, now. Fact is it’s de onliest thing dat God ever made. He made nature and nature made everything else” (Hurston 65). Through this bold declaration, Hurston emphasizes that God and nature are synonymously omnipotent, and, therefore, Janie’s most exigent struggle. Janie must overcome the nature of the society she resides in to find her independence. The natural discrimination that Janie experiences throughout her marriages is an obstacle to parallel that which women fought to overcome in the movement for women’s rights.

Hurston illustrates the characterization of Janie throughout her three disparate marriages from an unsure sixteen-year-old to a strong, confident, and independent woman. These marriages represent the different stages of women’s existence throughout history. Her first marriage, to an amicable yet unattractive doctor, Logan Killicks, was arranged by her grandmother and based upon financial stability and social respectability rather than love. His consideration of her as no more than a house-maid and farm-hand emphasizes the lack of rights that women had once upon a time of white-male domination.  As a beacon of hope, the ambitious, wealthy, and power-hungry, Jody Starks, saves Janie from the placid and pragmatic union, promising her his complete adoration and a life of high-status. This life turned sour for Janie, as she was constantly forced to live her life on the sidelines, until her soul became idle within her person. Jody’s metaphoric “leash” he had on Janie symbolizes the era when women were objectified by men and their atrophied identities were replaced by the vision of themselves that their husbands created. After Jody’s unfortunate death, a new man who calls himself Tea Cake, introduced himself to Janie, and she found herself falling in love with him. Tea Cake was Janie’s first and only true love, and he allowed her to express her own opinions and individuality to the extent that she believed she deserved. Her third and final marriage represents the emergence of women into themselves and the freedom they earned to convey it.

Zora Neale Hurston scornfully displays the degradation of women in the early twentieth century in her novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. As a black, female author, Hurston revolutionized the classical literary canon and emerged as one of the greatest authors of her time period. Her feminist philosophies and innovating protests against discrimination have earned her the respect and honor of a successful, inspiring author.

 

 

“Sweat”

            Sometimes an author’s use of literary elements can take the meaning of a particular story to an entirely different level. All these are found in Harlem Renaissance writer Zora Neale Hurston’s short story, “Sweat”. It is a tale of a wife (Delia) and her unfaithful husband (Sykes) that examines how a woman’s strength—or, seemingly, a lack thereof—can resolve conflicts. Hurston uses two significant biblical allusions, one of which is a blatantly Freudian symbol, and writes in the Southern dialect to bolster authenticity—all in order to create a story that effectively teaches the reader.

            The first of the two biblical allusions is that of Delia’s house. As African-Americans living in a small town where segregation still exists, she and her husband make a meager living. Despite this, Delia has made it her mission to beautify their property.  She has made it picturesque, surrounded with trees and exquisite flowers. All of Delia’s efforts and sweat have gone into making something she can be proud of in her humble life--essentially giving the story its title. This home is parallel to and a biblical allusion of the Garden of Eden. This garden was once the magnificent home of Adam and Eve, before they were banished from it by sinning. 

Also related to the Garden of Eden is the second biblical allusion—Sykes’s bullwhip. Sykes uses the bullwhip to frighten Delia, for it looks like a snake and he knows she is terrified of snakes.  Sykes uses the whip to bully and torture his wife, who remains faithful to him even though he is not faithful to her.  The whip, representing temptation and cruelty, alludes to the snake that was virtually the reason for Adam and Eve’s sinning. The snake tempted Eve to try an apple from a forbidden tree, who in turn offered an apple to Eve.  The two were then banished from Eden as a consequence of their sins. Additionally, the whip is a symbol with strong Freudian undertones. It is a phallic symbol, signifying Sykes need to exert the force of his masculinity over his innocent wife. This symbol and allusion serves as a reminder of the morals embedded within this story.

Finally, Hurston writes in the sometimes difficult to decipher Southern dialect. "’Yo' ole black hide don't look lak nothin' tuh me, but uh passle uh wrinkled up rubber’” is just a sample of some of the dialogue in “Sweat” (page 3).  Hurston also includes portions of old African-American spirituals, sung by Delia in times of hardship or suffering: “Jurden water, black an' col'/ Chills de body, not de soul/ An' Ah wantah cross Jurden in uh calm time” (page 3). These references to Hurston’s African-American culture add to the believability of the story, putting it on a level that readers can relate to.

Biblical allusions, a Freudian symbol, and the Southern dialect all contribute to the overall effectiveness of “Sweat”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Critical Reads: Historical, Reader-Based, and Biographical

 

 

Historical Read

  • Zora Neale Hurston grew up in the early twentieth century, which was a flourishing era for African-Americans.
  • She was plagued by the Great Depression.
  • Her novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, was published years after the Harlem Renaissance, the emergence of African American literature, art, and music. This was represented in the text by one of her characters, Tea Cake, and his affinity for the guitar.
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Reader-response Analysis

  • Zora Neale Hurston wrote in the dialect of the early twentieth century. For example, Jody tell’s Jane, “‘dat’s ‘cause you ain’t got de right feelin’ for nobody. You oughter have some sympathy ‘bout yo’self. You ain’t no hog’” (Hurston 85).
  • Hurston had a tendency to use extended metaphors. For example:
    • She saw a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight. So this was a marriage! She had been summoned to behold a revelation. Then Janie felt a pain remorseless sweet that left her limp and languid. (Hurston 11)

The metaphor of the bee and the flower in comparison to marriage represents Janie’s ideal nature, full of love and compassion. It also foreshadows Janie’s encounter with the hurricane, and how the hurricane disrupted her peaceful perception of nature.

  • Zora Neale Hurston incorporates many themes in her works, including feminism and civil rights.

 

Biographical Read

  • “Sweat” takes place in a small town in Florida. Zora Neale Hurston was born and raised in Eatonville, Florida, which is essentially the same place.
  • Hurston includes a portion of an old African-American spiritual song, one she learned during her lifetime travels: “Jurden water, black an' col'/ Chills de body, not de soul/ An' Ah wantah cross Jurden in uh calm time."
  • Hurston writes in colloquialisms and the dialect she had heard since she was a young child in the South: "’Yo' ole black hide don't look lak nothin' tuh me, but uh passle uh wrinkled up rubber.’”

 

 

 

 

 

Quiz!

  1. The most notable literary element found in Zora Neale Hurston’s works is
    1. Repetition
    2. Hyperbole
    3. Extended Metephor
    4. Imagery
  2. This era influenced the creation of Their Eyes Were Watching God and is represented by her character, Tea Cake.
    1. Civil Rights Movement
    2. Harlem Renaissance
    3. Feminist Movement
    4. Great Depression
  3. A common theme that Zora Neale Hurston emphasizes in Their Eyes Were Watching God is:
    1. Feminism
    2. Civil Rights
    3. Both a. and b.
    4. Neither a. nor b.
  4. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie first marries
    1. Logan Killicks 
    2. Jody Starks
    3. Tea Cake
    4. Neither
  5. Janie’s marriage to Jody Starks ended when:
    1. Logan rescued her, promising her adoration and praise.
    2. He died.
    3. She fell in love with Tea Cake.
    4. He left her for another woman.
  6. Janie truly loved:

                                                               i.      Logan

                                                             ii.      Jody

                                                            iii.      Tea Cake

a.       i., ii., and iii.

b.      i. only

c.       ii., and iii.

d.      iii. only

  1. The central conflict of Their Eyes Were Watching God is:
    1. Man vs. Nature
    2. Man vs. Man
    3. Man vs. Society
    4. Man vs. Self
  2. Janie’s marriage to Logan Killicks was arranged by
    1. Her friend
    2. Her grandmother
    3. Herself
    4. Logan’s father
  3. Zora Neale Hurston was plagued by
    1. Disease
    2. Discrimination
    3. The Great Depression
    4. Death
  4. The wealthy and ambitious man that Janie married was:
    1. Logan
    2. Jody
    3. Tea Cake
    4. None of the above
  5. Janie’s soul emerged through her marriage to:
    1. Logan
    2. Jody
    3. Tea Cake
    4. None of the above
  6. Janie’s marriage to ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­________ was dull and pragmatic:
    1. Logan
    2. Jody
    3. Tea Cake
    4. None of the above

 

Fill-in:

  1. What university did Hurston attend in the 20’s?
  2. Where was Zora Neale Hurston born?
  3. What was the name of Hurston’s first published piece and in what year was it published?   
  4. What movement is Hurston most commonly associated with?
  5. How does Hurston write dialogue in her stories in order to make it more authentic
  6. How does the location of “Sweat” relate to Zora Neale Hurston’s life?
  7. In the beginning of “Sweat”, what does Sykes do to his wife Delia in order to frighten her?
  8. One of the biggest symbols in “Sweat” is that of the flower and tree-surrounded house. What does it represent?
  9. What type of symbol is the bullwhip?
  10. What is in the crate that Sykes leaves for Delia near the end of the story?
  11. What happens to Sykes and Delia by the end of “Sweat”?
  12. What two elements did Hurston directly drawn on from her culture in “Sweat”?
  13. Did African-American folk music and stories influence Zora Neale Hurston?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

"Blac"Black History: Zora Neale Hurston." Gale: Cengage Learning. Gale. 6 Apr 2008            <http://www.galegroup.com/free_resources/bhm/bio/hurston_z.htm>.

Bone, Robert. Down Home: A History of Afro-American Short Fiction from Its Beginnings to the End of the Harlem Renaissance. New York:  Putnam, 1975.

Boyd, Valerie. Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston. New York: Scribner, 2002.

Cannarella, Deborah. Zora Neale Hurston: African American Writer. Minnesota: Child's World, 2003.

Caponi, Gena Degal. Signifyin', Sanctifyin', and Slam Dunking: A Reader In African. Massachusetts: Univ. of Massachusetts Press, 1999.

Carby, Hazel V.. Reconstructing Womanhood: The Emergence of the Afro-American.   US: Oxford University Press, 1987.

Hemenway, Robert E.. Zora Neale Hurston: A Literary Biography. US: Univ. of Illinois Press, 1980.

Holloway, Karla F.C., The Character of the Word: The Texts of Zora Neale Hurston. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1987.

Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: HarperCollins         Publishers, 2006.

Hurston, Zora Neale. "Sweat." FIRE!! 1(November 1926): 40-45.

Lewis, Jone Johnson. "Zora Neale Hurston." About.com: Women's History. About.com.           6 Apr 2008            <http://womenshistory.about.com/od/hurstonzoraneale/p/hurston_bio.htm>.

Posnock, Ross. Color & Culture: Black Writers and the Making of the Modern Intellectual. US: Harvard University Press, 1998.

Seidel, Kathryn Lee. "The Artist in the Kitchen: The Economics of Creativity in Hurston's “Sweat.'" Zora in Florida. Eds. Steve Glassman and Kathryn Lee Seidel. Orlando: University of Central Florida Press, 1991.

Turner, Darwin T., In a Minor Chord: Three Afro-American Writers and Their Search for Identity. Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press, 1971.

Willis, Susan, Specifying: Black Women Writing the American Experience. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1987.

Women in History. Zora Neal Hurston biography - extended . (1/25/2008). Lakewood Public Library. 4/5/2008. http://www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/hurs-zorx.htm

Yates, Janelle. Zora Neale Hurston: A Storyteller's Life. Ward Hill Press, 1991.

"Zora Neale Hurston." Gallaher. 08 Oct. 1997. Gallaher. 6 Apr 2008 <http://www            hsc.usc.edu/~gallaher/hurston/hurston.html>.

"Zora Neale Hurston." The Official Zora Neale Hurston Website. Sonnet Media. 6 Apr 2008 <http://www.zoranealehurston.com/>.

“Zora Neale Hurston: Biography and Genealogy Master Index.” Gale, Cengage Learning. 6 April 2008. <http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BGMI/hits?r=d&origSearch=true&o=DocTitle&n=10&l=12&c=3&docNum=DO1901816435&locID=lapl&secondary=false&u=BGMI&t=KW&s=1&NA=Zora+Neale+Hurston%0D%0A&NR=full>

 

 

 

Extra Information Links

 

http://www.zoranealehurston.com/

 

www.zoranealehurston.ucf.edu/

 

http://www.zoranealehurstonfestival.com/

 

http://womenshistory.about.com/od/hurstonzoraneale/p/hurston_bio.htm

 

http://www.si.umich.edu/CHICO/Harlem/text/hurston.html