Title: Zora Neale Hurston | Encyclopedia of Alabama
Headings: Zora Neale Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston
Content: Aware of racism, racially motivated violence, and the degradation of Jim Crow laws, Hurston nonetheless did not launch a frontal attack. She understood the problems experienced by African Americans and women in the first half of the twentieth century, but she perceived that portrayals of them as helpless victims would perpetuate a sense of inferiority. Using Eatonville porch stories and material from collecting excursions, she recorded vibrant black life and the will to survive in a hostile environment, and she dealt with bitterness and resentment about injustice in subtle ways. Her characters are proud, independent, confident, and resourceful; they represent a healthy culture that Hurston did not want subsumed or assimilated. She championed diversity. Hers were ordinary people too busy living to spend much time feeling oppressed or demanding pity or sympathy from a dominant culture whose values were questionable. Their Eyes Were Watching God
Some Harlem Renaissance artists believed that it was their duty to create literature, art, and music that promoted assimilation into white mainstream American culture. Hurston drew criticism from some African American intellectuals, including novelist Richard Wright, for writing dialogue in rural African American dialect and for presenting her characters in ways that other writers and critics considered backward or inappropriate. Her writing also met with criticism from some white literary reviewers, who felt that her characters were stereotypes.