Instead, he implores them to be more political. His goal in writing is to make people aware of the social injustices occurring. The Negro writer who seeks to function within his race as a purposeful aren has a serious responsibility. In order to do justice to his subject matter, in order to depict Negro life in all of its manifold and intricate relationships, a deep, informed, and complex consciousness is necessary; a consciousness which draws for its strength upon the fluid lore of a great people, and more this lore with concepts that move and direct the forces of history today (Wright,
In final words figurative language helps give ideas on how Hurston is allowing the stereotypes to not define her which leads to a brighter
For example, they use vivid description of words like: picturesqueness, which vividly describes in image seen in a perspective that can not be described without imagery. During this period of time, South Carolina slave movement was evident and prominent. Zora Neale Hurston was also involved in the Harlem Renaissance in correlation to the South Carolina Renaissance. Hurston not only knows but plays with the contemporary anthropological truth that you can't ever be an objective- that by in a
Additionally, agony was dealt with and misery happened behind the scenes of the slave’s lives, similar to Tom Robinson and the “Scottsboro Boys” in which both were African-American and how
Hurston’s use of symbolism creates a dynamic piece of literature that can be looked at through multiple lenses. The symbolism in Sweat is somewhat overt, making it difficult to not be noticed. There is a heavy use of religious metaphor, tying the story back to the story of Adam and Eve from the Christian bible. This gives the piece a personal touch, showing us that Hurston has a strong spiritual connection. It also helps to add a whole other layer, creating a depth to the story that would not otherwise be accessible.
Since the middle passage, which is the transfer of Africans into racialized slavery as an institution, the history of America has been intrinsically related to race and thus created the ontological condition of the black body as socially dead, meaning they have no value in society. The black body has been decimated physically and spiritually. Zora Neale Hurston articulates the binaries in the black community and its role in society through instances of internalized prejudice, westernized sexism, and de facto segregation within the black community. From the slave ships to American ghettos, the black body is divided partially due to the hatred they have internalized from the slave master and learned from the social deprivation they face because
Throughout the text, Hurston infers that she's optimistic about being colored. “How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company”(67)? Hurston writes that she feels discriminated against but also feels how could anyone not want to be in her presence therefor She feels optimistic about the future. Hurston recalls that “Slavery is sixty years in the past” (65).
Zora Hurston uses vivid imagery, natural diction, and several literary tools in her essay “How It Feels to Be Colored Me”. Hurston’s use of imagery, diction, and literary tools in “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” contributes to, and also compliments, the essay’s theme which is her view on life as a “colored” person. Throughout “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” Hurston carefully incorporates aspects of her African American culture in an effort to recapture her ancestral past. Hurston’s use of imagery, diction, and use of literary tools shape her essay into a piece of Harlem Renaissance work. Imagery in “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” is quite abundant.
In his essay, Coates refuses the idea of “hope” and delivers his message like a statistic report. He often uses personal anecdotes to make his messages more personal, thus enabling his readers to place themselves in the person’s shoes. Then Coates would go on and recount the gruesome or horrid mistreatment that person has gone through regardless how hurtful or painful these stories are. Furthermore, he substantiates his claims with painful statistic reports and numbers – numbers that pierces the black readers like swords. Tahiti Anyabwile in his essay “A Call for Hope in the Age of Mass Incarceration” states that “Coates fails his readership and fails to represent something vital about African Americans – his writing lacks hope”.
Sophia Pruett Waples January 20th, 2017 The Liberation ‘Vacation’ During the time of slavery, African-Americans lived their day to day lives being treated as animals as they worked long hours. Their white masters felt a sense of power over them, and made the slaves feel as if they were lesser and inferior whites. Harriet Jacobs being a slave herself writes of her experiences being owned by a master and her personal anecdotes of slave masters trying to make slavery sound like the best option compared to living in poverty as a free slave.
After Hurston heard the court ruling that schools will be desegregated , Hurston wrote that she has “no sympathy nor respect for the “tragedy of color” school of thought among us”. She felt there was no need for schools to desegregate. By saying this, it shows us Hurston was against desegregation. Therefore her goal was never for total equality for blacks and whites. She let’s this belief of hers show through in Their Eyes Were Watching God by illustrating abuse among the black community to each other.
Shortly thereafter, escaping slavery was a possibility. Fortunately for the world, it started to become clear that those un-free were human as well. But it took too long. What’s most saddening is that during this time millions of slaves were mistreated and killed, and seen as neither free nor human solely because of the pigment of their
In this excerpt of Seraph on the Suwanee, the speaker, Zora Neale Hurston, describes the Floridian town of Sawley and its inhabitants. Hurston utilizes an admirative tone while discussing the beauty of the environment and the uniqueness of it inhabitants. Hurston does this to show the positive aspects of Sawley while discussing the aspects that make it different from other locations. Through the use of devices such as enumeration, regional dialect, imagery, climax, and sentence structuring, Hurston successfully illustrates the true beauty of the town that has been influenced by the people. Ultimately, Hurston does this to show how truly different the city is than that of any other place.
One example is, "The men noticed her firm buttocks like she had grapefruits in her hip pockets; the great rope of black hair swinging to her waist and unraveling in the wind like a plume; then her pugnacious breast trying to bare holes in her shirt" (Hurston, p. 1). This shows an example of them describing Janie and how she looks. Another example of imagery from the book is "Still a blue sky and fair weather" (Hurston, p. 155). It describes the weather and gives a better understanding of the type of environment they lived in.
Another example is seen in chapter 6,”But you ain’t goin’ off in all dat mess uh commonness”(Hurston,60) This quote shows that Jody is not allowing Janie to go to a communal event, which is the funeral of the mule, because he doesn’t want her to be in all of the commonness. This is hindering Janie’s independence because she is not making choices for herself, and she doesn’t do anything even though she wants to go. Being in the relationship with Jody constricts her freedom, which proves Hurston's theme.
