The Harlem Renaissance initiated a cultural awakening or blossoming of music, art, and literature among the African American community. According to the Encarta Encyclopedia 2003, Zora Neale Hurston, "The American writer and folklorist, who's anthropological study of her racial heritage, at a time when black culture was not a popular field of study, had a great impact and influence on the Harlem Renaissance writers." (138) As a fiction writer, Hurston is noted for her metaphorical language, her story-telling abilities, and her interest in and celebration of the Southern black culture in the United States. Hurston, although uneducated and poor during her upbringing, was immersed with in the rich black folk life. With very little experience with racism, Zora Neale Hurston was able to portray black life unconcerned with white people and unaware of problems attributed to being black. She showed them laughing, celebrating, loving, and struggling just as every human being does.
The former Washington, D.C., residence of Georgia ...
Hurston House
Zora Neale Hurston, American author. Deutsch: Zora..."She could write about the most ordinary things and make them infinitely gorgeous." (Hinton 2). The passage concerning moments of time in Hurston's novel Dust Tracks on the Road, shows her true talent to do this. "No two moments are any more alike than two snowflakes. Like snowflakes, they get the same look from being so plentiful and falling so close together. But examine them closely and see the multiple differences between them. Each moment has it's own task and capacity; doesn't melt down like snow and form again, It keeps in character forever." (Zora Neale Hurston 123). The readers of her books will empathize, love, hate, and mourn right along with the characters that Zora creates!"(Hinton 1). Zora Neale Hurston is one of the great pioneers in Literature today and her voice will carry on for generations more to come.
Hurston published seven books during...