Author Biography: Zora Neale Hurston

“Sometimes, I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It’s beyond me.”

– Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston was born in the year 1891 to a preacher father and a teacher mother. At a very early age, her family moved to Eatonville, Florida, the very first African-American run town in the United States, established in 1891. It was in this town where Hurston is first exposed to the rich culture of the blacks in the Southern United States. Considering this her hometown, she learned here of freedom for blacks and the strength of her native culture. She had seven other siblings, whom their mother told to “jump at de sun” in pursuing their dreams. Hurston later reflects, “We might not land on the sun, but at least we would get off the ground.” Hurston was a vibrant, colorful woman; a free spirit. Hurston did not get along with her father because of their strikingly different personalities. At age thirteen, when her mother died and her father remarried, Zora left her home.

The next years in Hurston’s life are an un-chronicled mystery where she pursued adventure and travel. Eventually she joined a group of travelling performers called Gilbert and Sullivan to work as a maid for one of the singers. The lively girl enjoyed this excitement and adored the environment in which she developed and learned. When the company came to the town of Baltimore, Hurston decided she should pursue an education by receiving her high school diploma. In 1917, the young woman crossed ten years off her age so that she would be sixteen instead of twenty-six. This way she could receive the free education offered by the public schools.

Two years later she began her college education at Howard University. This is when her writing career began. She joined the literary club at Howard and wrote short stories in the next years, including “John Redding Goes to Sea” and “Drenched in Light.” Her works were noticed by Dr. Charles S. Johnson who edited the journal Opportunity. He invited her to come to New York to work for him in the 1920s. She transferred to Barnard College and received her B.A. in anthropology in 1927. She was exposed to the Harlem Renaissance and became acquainted with other notable writers and people who were active in this movement, including the poet Langston Hughes. Her sparkling, spunky personality made her a popular figure. During this time, she did not make very much money, nor did she publish frequently.

Breaking away from the theme and focus of other Harlem Renaissance writers, Hurston began work for a lady named Charlotte Mason. Under her direction, Hurston studied the anthropology and folk tales from the southern blacks. “Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose,” Hurston says. She was able to travel to Haiti and Jamaica to actively pursue the learning of southern tradition.

These studies were incorporated into Hurston’s fictional writing to be captured by characters that embrace the true spirit from this culture. After a slow beginning in the 1930s, her work was finally realized by a publisher who would like to publish a novel of hers. She began her writing of novels and produced seven books in her lifetime, along with numerous short stories and dramas.

It was in 1937 that Hurston wrote her most notable work in seven weeks, today considered a classic of her era, the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. She wrote it while in Haiti studying the Voodoo religion. Before she wrote this novel, however, Hurston experienced a deeply emotional love affair with a man who was nearly half her age, which is said to have influenced the writing of her novel. Hurston says, “I did not just fall in love. I made a parachute jump.” She married twice in addition to this, but neither marriage lasted long because Hurston always focused on her career as a priority. Much of her work illustrated black women with an independent, vibrant nature. Instead of addressing racial issues, she was more prone to tackle the position of women in her culture. She often spoke first of the pursuit of dreams and second of cultural tiebacks, emotion, and spiritual fulfillment. She was a creative genius and poured her imagination into her writing.

Hurston was involved in the writing of many musicals. When she worked under Mason and another organization named the Julius Rosenwald Foundation, she found that the restrictions and requirements were too confining for her nature. She found her enjoyment in the atmosphere of the South and the Caribbean islands. She studied the mystical voodoo religions in the south and many of her observations can be seen through her work.

In the 1940s Hurston wrote her autobiography and many smaller works for magazines. She differed from her contemporaries in that she did not necessarily believe that desegregation between blacks and whites was necessary. After the publishing of her novels, Hurston’s career started to go downhill. It was in 1948 when Hurston was accused of molesting a boy of ten years old. She had an alibi for the alleged time of the crime and was proven to be innocent, but unfortunately this occurrence devastated her life. After this, she attempted work as a maid for a kind of writer’s sabbatical. Apart from an occasional article, she worked odd jobs in the 1950s including teaching, reporting, and being a librarian.

Hurston, still suffering the effects of humiliation, was a pauper when she died of heart disease in 1959. Her grave was unmarked until 1973. She says, “I do not weep at the world I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife.” Even though she was poor materially throughout her life, her dreams were fulfilled in her life of adventure and storytelling.

Completed by: Madeline Reimer

Novel Synopsis

The story begins as Janie Crawford, a middle-aged black woman, returns to Eatonville, Florida after a long absence. The women in the town are gossiping about her return but her best friend Pheoby sticks up for her. Pheoby goes to visit Janie and Janie tells what has happened in the twenty years that she has been gone.

Janie explains that her grandmother raised her after her mother ran away. Nanny loves Janie but after her life as a slave and her experience with her own daughter, Nanny has a twisted worldview. Nanny wants Janie to have all the things that she never had. Her strongest desire is to have Janie get married as soon as possible to a husband that can provide for her. Despite Janie’s protests, Nanny finds an older farm-hand, Logan Killicks, and arranges for the two to be married.

After moving in together, Janie is miserable. Nanny had given her the idea that love comes after one is married rather than the idea that a couple should be in love before they are married. Because of this, Janie wants a love that will make her feel good all the time. But Logan makes Janie work hard and he cares very litter about her opinions. So when Joe Starks, a good-looking and ambitious man, comes along, Janie is sure that he is her ticket to love.

Joe and Janie run off together to Eatonville, Florida, the first all-black town ever. Joe hopes to have a big voice in the town and soon becomes the mayor, storekeeper, postmaster and biggest landowner in the town. Joe’s “voice” in the town soon becomes too large for Janie because Janie is never able to speak her mind. Janie realizes that her marriage to Joe is not all that she wanted in a relationship. Janie wants to be a part of the town and have a social life, but Joe doesn’t want her to spend time with common people. After twenty years of marriage, Joe dies and Janie feels free for the first time in years. She is no longer being repressed and can live her life according to what she wants.

One day, a man named Tea Cake comes into the store and Janie senses an instant connection. Janie begins to date Tea Cake despite the gossip of the townspeople. Tea Cake allows Janie to speak for herself and carry on like a normal person which is something that she loves. To the town’s shock, Janie marries Tea Cake only nine months after Joe’s death and they move to Jacksonville together. During the first week of their marriage, Tea Cake steals Janie’s money and leaves her alone one night, making her question her decision to marry him. Tea Cake returns and explains why he took Janie’s money. After this, they decide to share everything with each other.

Janie and Tea Cake then move to the Everglades, where they work harvesting beans and sugar cane. During the off-season, they socialize with the others living on “the muck.” They live off of the money they make and are happy in love. Tea Cake and Janie’s friendliness soon make their house an attraction for all of the town’s entertainment.

Two years after Janie and Tea Cake are married, a hurricane hits the Everglades. As they are trying to flee the high water, a rabid dog bites Tea Cake. Three weeks later, Tea Cake gets ill and in a bout of rabies-induced delirium, he tries to kill Janie. Janie is forced to save her life by killing Tea Cake. She is then put on trial for his murder, but the jury finds her not guilty. Janie returns to Eatonville where she faces the malicious gossip of her former neighbors who think that Tea Cake has left her and taken all her money. The story ends as Janie finishing recounting her experiences to an impressed Pheoby. After Pheoby leaves, Janie feels Tea Cake’s presence and is finally at peace with herself.

Completed by: Jennifer Barber

Novel Advertisement courtesy of Madeline Reimer