Andrew B.
Mrs. Zurkowski
Honors English 9- Yellows
13 April 2011
Controversy Surrounding Zora Neale Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston was a very famous writer during the Harlem Renaissance and she wrote a very famous book called Their Eyes Were Watching God in 1937. Through this work and many others written by Hurston, African American critics have come to really despise her work for how she makes African Americans feel like they have no freedom and never would. Critics have also noticed that she is, in a way, writing to a white audience since her works have favored white suppression. Zora had many brash views on the black race and critics questioned why she wanted blacks to rise up in society in ways that were not appropriate. In her books, such as Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston displays that blacks should live under the rule of whites and be silent instead of openly protesting against white rule. Many critics of the African American race are very upset with her because they think she portrays African Americans as people of no value and they think she supported segregation in her own time. One very famous African American, Richard Wright, was one of the main critics of Hurston and he challenged her views so much that Hurston had to stop writing.
Richard Wright was a very influential character during the Harlem Renaissance and he is very famous for criticizing Hurston and her views on the black race. He hated the book Their Eyes Were Watching God, particularly for how Hurston portrays blacks in society. Hurston was very famous for her black dialect within the books and she treasured using it. But Richard Wright thought it was completely wrong because the dialect described blacks as dumb people who did not know how to talk. With this he says that blacks had no knowledge of anything if they could not even speak right. He also criticizes Hurston for her description on what blacks do and does not like the fact that the blacks have to do all the work and they have be under the control of white rule. “Richard Wright , Author of "Black Boy", disliked Zora portrayal of blacks as "common folks working beanfields”” (Jack, 1998). As an active speaker for African American rights, Wright thinks that blacks should fight for their rights instead of accepting that whites have the power and being silent, which Hurston portrays about blacks. His ultimate view of the book is this: “He therefore thought the story of "Their Eyes are watching God, the story of Jamie Crawford a wasted one” (Jack, 1998). Since Wright was so popular amongst his peers, everyone agreed with him and Hurston disappeared from literature and society.
I agree and disagree with the critics on their views on Hurston. I agree that Hurston should have promoted black protest rather than the blacks just keeping quiet. I also definitely agree with the idea that Hurston wrote to white audiences and it seemed to me that she was supporting segregation and white rule. I do not agree that she was trying to make African Americans seem like dumb people and people that do all the work. I say this because the dialect that she used in the book was very important to her heritage and she valued it a lot, so I think she deserves to use it. When she portrayed African Americans doing all the work, I think she was just trying to detail the lives of the African Americans at the time and describe how mistreated they were. Her book was not a waste to me but rather was very influential because it described that segregation had a bad impact on African Americans. Overall, I have mixed feelings about Hurston and what the critics have to say, but she will always be remembered for all the criticism she had to take.
Bibliography
Jack, Grace. "Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960)." Http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu. 7 Dec. 1998. Web. 13 Apr. 2011. http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/386/zhurston.html.
Vrotsos, Karen. "AP Central - English Literature Author: Zora Neale Hurston." HTML REDIRECT. Collegeboard.com. Web. 15 Apr. 2011. <http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/members/courses/teachers_corner/30289.html
http://kalamu.posterous.com/video-richard-wright-black-boy
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