Zora Neale Hurston

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Zora Neale Hurston
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Why should you care who she was?

• I do not belong to that
• sobbing school of Negrohood who
• hold that nature somehow has given
• them a lowdown dirty deal."
• - Zora Neale Hurston

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Why should you care who she was?

• Zora was a flamboyant women who always made a
  scene
• She never let anyone lessen her because she was
  black
• She was the most significant black female writer
  during the 1930s and 40s

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Childhood ?

• Born to John and Lucy Hurston on January 7, 1891
  in Notasulga, Alabama. She was the fifth of
  eight children.
• However, she moved to Eatonville, Florida as a
  toddler.

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• Zora grew up in an 8 room house, on 5 acres of
  land
• Zoras mom always told her Jump at de sun, you
  might not land on the
• sun, but at least you would
• get off the ground."

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How did Zora Suffer?
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Her Childhood Had an Abrupt Stop!

• In 1904 when Zora was 13, her mother passed
  away.

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• After the death, John Hurston, Zoras
• father had little time or money
• for his children.
• He quickly remarried a young
• women, whom Zora almost murdered.

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Things Continued to Look Down For Zora

• After the fistfight with her stepmother, she was
  sent by her father to
• her brothers household to clean, cook, and
  watch the children. To do so, Zora was taken out
  of school leaving her with an 8th grade
  education.

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• At the age of 16, a restless Zora left her
  brothers household to join a traveling theater.
• During this time she occasionally worked
  domestically for a white household.

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What made Zora start to write?

• The woman Zora worked for gave her her first
  book, which inspired Zora to start writing.

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Those 10 years she lost were never restored.

• From that point on, Zora Neale Hurston always
  claimed she was 10 years younger then she really
  was.

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Zora went back to high school

• When she was 26 years old,
• Zora lied about her age claming
• she was only 16 and enrolled
• in Morgan Academy and graduated
• from high school.

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How did Zora get her success?

• According to a friend Zora had the gift to walk
  into peoples hearts
• Zora befriended people of great importance such
  as Langston Hughes and Ethel Waters. These
  people helped her get reconized as a writter.

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After High School

• Zora graduated Barnard College in 1928.
• During College Zora had published short stories,
  articles, and a novel called Jonahs Gourd Vine.

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The Harlem Renaissance

• While Zora was in New York during college, The
  Harlem Renaissance was occurring.
• This was a time when Blacks stood up for
  themselves
• They found ways to express themselves through
  dance, music, writing, and art

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Her Most Well Known Piece of Literature.

• The highlight of Zoras career was in the 1930s
  and 1940s.
• In 1937 she published probably her most famous
  piece of work, Their Eyes Were Watching God.

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Their Eyes were watching God

• Her most memorable novel.
• This book was about a girl named Janie who was a
  product of rape, and herself was raped.
• The character grew up in Eastonville, Zoras
  hometown.

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• This book was so fameous that Oprah Winfreys
  production Harpo created a movie after it
  starring Halle Berry.

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Some other novels Zora published

• 1938, Moses, Man of the Mountain
• 1942, Dust tracks on the Road
• 1948, Seraph on the Suwannee.

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Money Failure

• Zora published many pieces of amazing literature,
  but never received proper pay.

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The Burial Conflict

• Zora Neale Hurston died on 1/28/1960 from a
  stroke.
• Because Zora never recied proper pay, she had no
  money saved for her burial. She was buried in an
  unmarked grave until 1973.

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Alice Walker

• Alice Walker in the summer of 1973 flew to
  Eatonville, Florida to mark her heros grave with
  a headstone.

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Links

• http//historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5131/
• http//www.zoranealehurston.com/
• http//www.webster.edu/woolflm/hurston.html
• http//www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/laven
  der/386/zhurston.html
• http//www.teenreads.com/authors/au-hurston-zora.a
  sp
• http//www.jimcrowhistory.org/resources/pdf/amlit_
  lp_hurston.pdf
• http//www.amazon.com/Dust-Tracks-Road-Neale-Hurst
  on/dp/0060921684
• http//itech.fgcu.edu/faculty/wohlpart/alra/hursto
  n.htmHurston20Biography
• http//www.howard.edu/library/reference/guides/hur
  ston/default.htm
• http//www.lewrockwell.com/orig/epstein2.html
• http//dclibrary.org/blkren/bios/hurstonzn.html
• http//www.enotes.com/feminism-literature/hurston-
  zora-neale
• http//authors.aalbc.com/zoraneal.htm
• http//www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/authors/abo
  ut_zora_neale_hurston.html
• http//www.galegroup.com/free_resources/bhm/bio/hu
  rston_z.htm
• http//images.google.com/imgres?imgurlhttp//www.
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• http//images.google.com/imgres?imgurlhttp//www.
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