Zora Neale Hurston's Critics

When Zora Neale Hurston wrote The Eyes Were Watching God in 1937 she did not get as good as reviews as she does now. These harsh critics were surprisingly mainly black people. They thought that her book didn’t show the harsh reality of what being a black in the south was really like. Most of the blacks who read it thought that she was making their lives easier and better then what they really where and people should not hear this, they should be hearing all of the terrible times, struggles and punishments they had to go through just because of their skin color. Richard Wright, a prominent black writer and intellect of the 30's, said "Their Eyes was theme less and meaningless; he thought that by portraying her people as quaint, Hurston had exploited them."

Personally I agree with parts of those statements that people made about the book, but then I disagree with others. When Wright says that the book was theme less and meaning less, he couldn’t be more wrong. To me this shows exactly what black people of that time were thinking and some of the harsh cruelties that  they went through. It also gives it in a women perspective which, in that time, did not mean anything to men so, it is very interesting to see how far women have come. There are some parts that I do agree with though. Even though I obviously was not there I have learned about blacks being treated much worse then the way they are presented in Hurston's book.  At times it seems like an accurate representation of what it was like but then at others you are kind of left thinking that maybe there should have been more disrespect to the black people to make the story more realistic.


Their Eyes Were Watching God Background | GradeSaver." Study Guides & Essay Editing | GradeSaver. Web. 14 Apr. 2011. <http://www.gradesaver.com/their-eyes-were-watching-god/study-guide/about/>.

Into The Wild Project

For Into The Wild I made a quote chart using quotes from Christopher McCandless and they books he read there. I also added a picture of the woods to show where Chris went.

Zora Neale Hurston

• Zora was born in 1891 and died in 1960

• Zora was born in Notasulga, Alabama

• She was educated at Howard university, Barnard College and at Columbia University.

• She was an American writer and folklorist, whose anthropological study of her racial heritage influenced the Harlem renaissance writers of the 1930's.

• Hurston was a fiction wrote and was commonly known for her metaphorical language, her story telling abilities and her interest in and celebration of Southern black culture.
• Her best-known novel is Their eyes were Watching God, written in 1937.
•  Her other novels consist of Jonah's Gourd Vine and Seraph on the Suwane.

• Through out her career she addressed issue of race and gender, often relating them to the search for freedom.

• Hurston died before her literary works were not recognized.
• In 1970 Hurston's works were rediscovered by a new generation of black writers, and many of her works were republished.

1. "Zora Neale Hurston." Microsoft® Student 2009 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2008.

Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
2. http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http:
3. http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.usps.com/news/2002/

Harlem Renaissance

BACKGROUND INFORMATION-  

• Marked the fist time that mainstream publishers and critics took African American literature seriously.
• This renaissance is primarily a literary movement, but it was closely related to development in African American music, theatre, art and politics
• No common literary style or political ideology defined the Harlem Renaissance, but what united participants was their sense of taking part in a common endeavor.
• Most characteristic aspect of the Harlem Renaissance was the diversity of  its expression
• The diverse literary expression of the Harlem Renaissance  had a huge range, from musical poems to poems attacking racial violence.
• The Harlem Renaissance appealed to a mixed audience
• The renaissance relied heavily on white publishing houses and whit-owned magazines 
• A major accomplishment of the renaissance was to push open the door to mainstream white periodicals the
• The African American musicians and other performers also played to mixed audiences, Harlem's cabaret brought both Harlem residents and white New Yorkers.
• IN the end, the more successful black entertainers, who were widely liked, moved their performances downtown 

Lanston Hughes -

• Born on February 1, 1902 and died on May 22, 1967

• Langston was an American writer, known for using jazz and everyday black speech in his poetry.

• His poems usually express the tribulations and sometimes the joys of ghetto life in plain, spirited resembling the colloquial speech of American blacks.

• In 1921 he publishes his first poem, 'The Negro Speaks of rivers', in Crisis magazine.

• In the late 1920's Hughes lived in New York City and he became a prominent figure of the Harlem Renaissance

 Claude McKay

• Born in 1890 in Jamaica and died 1948.
• McKay's first novel, Home to Harlem, is a vivid picture of a black soldier's life in New York.
• Other novels by McKay are Banana Bottom and Banjo
• He also wrote an autobiography, A Long Way from Home.
• In 1942 McKay renounced is former left wing philosophy and converted to Roman Catholicism
• 
  
  
  Countee Cullen
  • Born in 1903 and died in 1946.
  • Cullen was an American poet, novelist, playwright, and educator.
  • In the first half of the 20th century he was an important figure in the Harlem Renaissance
  • Cullen was one of the best-known black poets
  • Cullen carefully crafted poems were widely admired by both whites and blacks
    

Characterization Chart for Into the Wild

DIRECT CHARACTERIZATION WITH QUOTE/ REACTION	INDIRECT CHARACTERIZATION WITH QUOTES / REACTION
Chapter 1 page 4- "Five feet seven or eight with a wiry build, he claimed to be twenty-four years old and said he was from South Dakota." Reaction- He started to lie about where he was from which I guess is so know one would think that they know him.	Chapter 1 page 5- "Gallien thought that the hitchhikers scheme was foolhardy and tried repeatedly to dissuade him."  Reaction- Many people that the he was stupid to go to Alaska with as very little experience as he had.
Chapter 2 page- 14 "Starvation was posited as the most probable cause of death" Reaction- Since he only had a little bit of food I'm not surprised that he died from starvation
"chapter 3 page 18- "you could tell right away that Alex was intelligent" Reaction- Alex always had books with him, he got ride of many of his possessions but he never got ride of his books. Whenever he gpt free time he would read.	Chapter 3 page 23- " No longer would he answer to Chris Mccandless; he was now Alexander Supertramp, master of his own destiny" Reaction- He hated his old life so much that he didn’t even want to go by the name he was called, but also it was probably so his parents (who he hated) could not track him. So this shows that he is intelligent and wants to be completely free.
Chapter 6 page 51- " I thought he was too nice a kid to be living by that hot springs with those nudist and drunks and dope smokers" Reaction- Chris doesn’t rly care where he lives. As long as he has some place to live he's happy.	Chapter 4 page 27- "Ignoring posted warnings that off-road driving is strictly forbidden, Mccandless steered the Datsun off the pavement where it crossed a broad, sandy wash." Reaction- Alex doesn’t like to follow anyone's rules, even though the rules might be for the better of him. He makes his own rules up as he goes.
Chapter 8 page 71 - " The author describes  a man who has given away a small fortune, forsaken a loving family, abandoned his car, watch and map and burned that last of his money before traipsing off the 'wilderness' west of Healy" Reaction- Many people that know Chris think that he was insane for giving up his entire life, he had a very good life and he just walked away from it all.	Chapter 5 page 46- "The following Wednesday, McCandless announced It was time for him to be moving on." Reaction- Chris didn’t like to stay in one place for too long. He had to make sure that he didn’t stay in one place and become too close to other people because he didn’t want anything to get in his way of going to Alaska
Chapter 11 page 109-  "He didn’t think the odds applied to him. We were always trying to pull him back from the edge" Reaction- Chris was basically a dare devil. He would try anything he thought he wanted to, that’s one of the reasons why he went to Alaska	Chapter 5 page 45- "Despite prodding from Burres,  however, McCandless revealed virtually nothing about his family" Reaction- Chris was extremely secretive. He even went as far to change his name so his entire past life would be basically forgotten.
Chapter 11 page 107-  " he was very to himself. He wasn’t antisocial- he always had friends, and everybody liked him- he could go off and entertain himself for hours." Reaction- Chris didn’t like to be around people very much. This is also evident when he goes to Alaska	Chapter 6 page 50 - " McCandless, however, wasn’t living right at the hot springs; he was camped by himself another half a mile out on the bajada" Reaction- Chris didn’t like to be around people. So he purposely excludes himself from them.
Chapter 12 page 122-  "More then most teens, he tended to see things in black and white. He measure himself and those around him by an impossibly rigorous moral code. " Reaction - Chris judged everyone and him self very much.	Chapter 7 page 63 - "Alec always kept things real neat and orderly- it was just that he didn’t notice the grease." Reaction- Chris was very "book smart" he didn’t really have much common sense.
Chapter 10 page 101-102 - "His hair was long, and he had a beard. Chris almost always had short hair and was clean-shaven." Reaction- Even thought Chris was rebellious he still cared about his look. Obviously when he went to the wild he didn’t have anything to keep up his look so he just let it go	Chapter 7 page 63 - "Alex talked a lot when we got together," Borah recalls. "Serious stuff, like he was baring his soul, kind of. Reaction- At first Alex didn’t talk very much but then when he started getting used to the people around him, he would talk all the time. When he actually started talking everything he would say would be very deep.
Chapter 17 page 184- "He demanded much of himself- more, in the end, then he could deliver" Reaction- Chris pushed him self to the very end and expected a lot more of his body then what he could actually do .	Chapter 8 page 72- "the prevailing Alaska wisdom held that McCandless was simply one more dreamy half- cocked greenhorn who went into the country expecting to find all the answers to all his problems and instead found only mosquitos and a lonely death." Reaction- Chris thought that he would find everything out about his life in Alaska,  but he actually only found death.
Chapter 17 page 174 - "Chris was born into the wrong century. He was looking for more adventure and freedom then todays society gives people." Reaction- Chris  should have been born into a much earlier century because he craved for the adventure and the wilderness that the earlier century could have provided for him .	Chapter 10 page 101-  "Address: none of your damn business. Social security number: I forgot" Reaction- When McCandless filled this out, it showed that he honestly didn’t care about anything anymore.
	Chapter 12 page 125- "Chris lived off campus  in his bare, spartan room furnished with milk crates and a mattress on the floor ." Reaction- Chris didn’t have many belongings at all and he didn’t really care that he didn’t. He thought that he didn’t need many things.
	Chapter 13 page 129 - "Chris and Carine were uncommonly close" Reaction- Usually brothers and sisters that are that close in age are not very close. But Chris and Carine were very close to each other. It's almost like since he didn’t  rly like his parents , the love for them went with the love for Carine to make them close.
	Chapter 13 page 128- "Chris didn’t think twice about risking his own life, but he never would have put Buckley in any kind of danger" Reaction- Chris didn’t really care about his life. But, when ever he loves and care about someone (or something) he would never let anything happen to them.
	Chapter 14 page 134- "did indeed prove fatal, the melodramatic declaration fueled considerable speculation that the boy had been bent on suicide from the beginning " Reaction- Many people that that as soon as he left to go to Alaska he was just trying to find a way to kill himself. So many people thought that he was suicidal.
	Chapter 14 page 133- " If this adventure proves fatal and you don’t ever hear from me again I want you to know you're a great man." Reaction- Even though he tried to not make any relationships with people, he still became very good friends to people like Wayne Westerberg, who he wrote this to in a letter before he "walked into the wild".
	Chapter 18 page 192- "McCandless - rash and incautious by nature- had committed a carless blunder, confusing one plant for another, and died as a consequence" Reaction- This shows that yes Chris was very book smart but not necessarily smart enough to live successfully in the Alaskan wilderness
	Chapter 18 page 189- "It can be interpreted to mean that he was ready, perhaps, to shed a little of the armor he wore around his heart, that upon returning to civilization,  he intended to abandon the life of solitary vagabond, stop  running so hard from intimacy, and become a member of the human community" Reaction- This shoes that Chris had actually changed a lot. He finally seems like he want to go back to a normal life and share his happiness with all of his family members and friends