success


 * Literature/Critical Success of Zora Neal Hurston**

Zora Neale Hurston focused a lot of her literature on the culture of the Harlem Renaissance and the culture of African Americans in general. Hurston was a gifted novelist and was very interested in folklore and anthropology. Her interest in these topics is evident in her novel //Their Eyes Were Watching God// because the entire novel is based on the lives of a group of African American people living in a community where culture is everything. The folklore element is there when Janie verbally tells her life story to her best friend Pheoby, who then goes on to tell it to the other community members. This story telling follows the same methods as folklore has throughout history.

Zora Neale Hurston published several novels between the years 1934 and 1948. Her first novel was //Jonah's Gourd Vine// in 1934 and was critically successful. Her second novel was called //Mules and Men// and was published in 1935, and was also critically acclaimed. In 1937, Hurston’s most famous novel, //Their Eyes Were Watching God//, was published and met enormous success. In 1938, //Tell My Horse// was published, but the book received mixed reviews, as did her novel called //Moses, Man of the Mountain// in 1939. In 1942, she wrote an autobiography entitled //Dust Tracks on a Road// which was a critical success, but in 1948, her last novel, called //Seraph on the Suwannee// was a critical failure.

Hurston’s novels are valuable pieces of literature because they allow people in today’s generation to see what it was like for African Americans to live in the United States during the Harlem Renaissance. Her novels depict the strong, and colorful culture that existed in tight-nit communities, like towns like Eatonville, where African Americans could escape from the challenges of living in a white, and sometimes prejudiced society. Her novels will always act as a window to society in the United States during the Harlem Renaissance and the years following it.