Zora Unveiled

 

"It's thrilling to think- to know that for any act of mine, I shall get twice as much praise or twice as much blame."(Hurston) Hurston has a remarkably positive but realistic outlook on the duallity, the double consciousness, of the African American. She understands and therefore is aware that the African American is greatly magnified in the blurred eyes of the white world that distorts all of his achievements and shortcomings. Hurston was caugt between the emphasis on the exotic aspects of the Harlem Renaissance and the angry voice of black literature during the 1940s and 1950s. Her critics, like Richard Wright, thought Hurston catered to a white auidence by using her "minstrel techniques to exploit the quaint phase of Negro life" (32). Although many collegues including Alain Locke believed Zora could provide the connection to black folk heritage that was essential to the creation of the New Negro literature (Watson 46). Lillie P. Howard believed Hurston's works offer some light for those who "ain't ne'er seen di light at all" ( 22). Using enotional and poetic expression, emphatic dialect, folk music, and other details of black heritage, Hurston wove together treasures of historic folklore. (Hedgepeth 4) Hurston's works affirm blackness (while not denying whiteness) in a black-denying society and present characters who are realistically human.

Janie, the main character, spans tewnty years of her life searching for an identitiy, a place where she belongs, her black mecca. Hurston uses the metaphor of the horizon to symbolize "the individual experiences one must acquire to achieve selfhood" (Wall). Janie's strong desire to leave her home town is misinterpreted as feelings of love for Joe Starks, who in reality only represents the "change and chance of the horizon" (Hurston 28).

Finally, Janie realizes that her self-discovery can only be accomplished with "her learning to manipulate language" (Wall 14). She is denied this right when she is married to Joe Starks. Janie's self-acceptance grows and fosters when she is married to Tea Cake. With Tea Cake as her guide, Janie "explore[s] the soul of her culture and learn[s] how to value herself" (Wall 23). Having been to the horizon and back, Janie is eager to teach the crucial lessons she has learned in her travels:

  • Everybody must do tow things for themselves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got to find out about livin' fuh theyselves."
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    Hurston focus on the internal black community attempts to discover the universal through the individual experiences of the members of the group (Roberts 44).

    Although some criticize Hurston for the absence of "explicitly political protest" (Jordan 36), she tries to destroy racial stereotypes held by the majority culture while simultaneously urges black people to be proud of their folk heritage. Like DuBois states in Souls for Black Folk, one will never fully master one area when one concentrates on both areas. Though the white world remains more a symbol to Hurston than an actuality, it is in actuality that it is oppressive.(Gayle 56). Even nowadays our society is still polluted with these outdated thoughts and incongruencies of the African American Culture.