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Zora Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston is a female African- American Author, and has played a significant role in American literature. She has written several works that include information about the stories she heard over the years of her youth. Hurston grew up in Eatonville Florida. She had a bright interest in everything around her. Even though nature and school were her main interests, she especially enjoyed sitting on the lovely porch of the local store, where neighbors would gather to tell stories.
It was this shady porch where she was first introduced to folktales and stories to black America. At age 9, her mother died. She had 8 children and she urged her children to "Jump at the sun whenever they could." On the contrary to Zoras mother, was her father. He believed that it was dangerous for blacks to have too much spirit. After her mother died, Zora was o longer as lively as she was when her mother was there to encourage her.
Shortly after, Zoras father sent her to a school in Jacksonville, and he remarried. Zora hated her stepmother. This built up tension that was already large between her and her father. Zoras father endlessly tried to get the school to adopt her. They finally accepted, but she was taken from the school when she was 13 to help care for her brothers children. At age fourteen, she was on her own. For three years she worked as a domestic servant until she got a job as an actresses maid in a traveling theatrical group. The group loved her and she love them. With their help, eighteen months later, she enrolled herself at Morgan academy in Baltimore.
She graduated in 1918, when she was 23 years old. She then enrolled at Howard University. She loved the universities atmosphere f learning, and she started writing. She kept writing about her Eatonville experiences. In 1925she won second place for both a story and a play. It was for the magazine, "Opportunity." Later on, she was awarded a scholarship to Barnard College in New York City.
She was the schools first black student. Later, she joined a group of African American writers called the Harlem Renaissance. She Brought the Eatonville people to life in her stories and they were an instant hit among the group. Although still enjoying her writing, Zora became interested in Anthropology, the study of people and their cultures. After graduating in 1928, she enrolled in Columbia University to study anthropology. For the next ten years, Zora began collecting folklore of African American literature, and she was the first to do so. She went from Louisiana, to Jamaica, to Haiti, talking to the people and learning of their cultures.
Her collection was eventually hailed by the critics. Financial problems were following Zora throughout her life. Before she could finish high school, she had to work to pay off her classes. She also had to find a way to pay for her college tuition in order to move on with her life. She mostly worked [next page]