Zora Neale Hurston Research Paper Zora Hurston was a bright, young woman with great talent for writing books with a goal to portray and capture the everyday life of African Americans in the hardships during the 1930's through the 1950's. In "Standards Focus: Author Biography--Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960)," an informative article by John Doe, Hurston is described as a large figure to the African-American culture in the United States during this hard racial time period. Zora Hurst attended two academic schools after she left high school. She attended "college preparatory courses at Morgan Academy (Now Morgan State University) in Baltimore, Maryland, and in the fall of 1918 entered Howard University," (Doe 1). It is obvious that Hurston wanted a good education from the beginning, to start off in the already rough everyday life of the racial period for African Americans.
The story is set in the south of the United States of America in the first half of the twentieth century and chronicles the struggle of several black women in rural Georgia. During that period, there was a great unrest and poverty in the black communities of the South and the black woman were the victims of abuses by both white assailant and the black men of their own community. During the 1970s and 1980s, feminist movements were also active in bringing up women’s issues and to liberate them from male oppression; hence, the women’s writing was one of the most common ways for feminist to bring women’s issues to the world, and particularly black women’s rights by black writers such as Alice walker and Toni Morison. This paper will undertake the issue of dual oppression of black women because of patriarchal structure of the society and the racial discrimination against the black communities according to the Alice Walker’s description in The Color Purple. The story of The Color Purple is in the epistolary form in which Celie, a poor black woman, writes letters to the God and describes the oppressions she goes through in her life.
According to Hamm, Jackson’s path is worn not only because she has traveled it many times, but because it has been followed by countless, self-sacrificing others. The actual “Worn Path” shows the struggles of many African Americans and women during that time period (Hamm 1). African Americans and women have struggled for their rights for many years, and have worked very hard to get the freedoms they have today. Who would have ever imagined having an African American president, or having a woman in congress? This story alludes to the struggles they went through and show how hard it was for this group of people to get where they are today.
That may be the measure of our lives,” Toni Morrison. I believe that Toni Morrison is a very inspirational African American author. In her lifetime she has accomplished many achievements with the struggles of raising two children and managing to have a full-time job. I know from some experience that it’s hard for my mom to take care of me sometimes with my father being deployed every other year. I could only imagine how much harder it would be if my mother had another child who was also involved with sports and clubs.
Alice Walker: The Color Purple Alice Malsenior Walker Novelist, poet, feminist was born on February 9, 1944, in Eatonton, Georgia She studied at Spelman College, Atlanta, and Sarah Lawrence College, New York, and then worked as a social worker, teacher, and lecturer. Alice Walker is one of the most admired African American writers working today. She took a brief sabbatical from her writing in the 1960s to live in Mississippi and work in the civil rights movement, returning to New York to write for Ms. Magazine (Biography.com) Alice Walker is an accomplished poet and is best known for her novels, most notably 1982's The Color Purple for which she won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The book was later made into a successful film, which tells the story of two black sisters in the segregated world of the Deep South. Later novels include The Temple of My Familiar, Possessing the Secret of Joy, and By the Light of My Father's Smile.
Biography of Kate Chopin Kate Chopin was a famous author during the late eighteen hundreds publishing many famous short stories and novels such as The Awakening and Bayou Folks. She has often been referred to as “a pioneer in the amoral treatment of sexuality, of divorce, and of woman’s urge for an existential authenticity” (Seyersted 1). She led the way for feminism and was praised after her death once her style of writing became more accepted. Chopin wrote about the passion that other authors during her time would not dare to speak of. Her life greatly influenced literature today and the censorship that follows.
“I got to start by giving myself a start.” Madam CJ always took upon herself to make something she does count. “I’m not ashamed of my past I am ashamed by my humble beginning.” She started out as a slave and at the age seven she became an orphan and her parents died of yellow fever. Many people have a rough beginning but the end may be just right. Like some people go through a lot of obstacles to over come what they face. “God answered my prayer, for one night I had a dream, and in that dream a big black man appeared to me and told me what to mix
Growing up the novel “Gone With the Wind” by Margaret Mitchell, was always a treat to hear. My great-grandmother would always read to me page by page of the story of Scarlett O’Hara, a young southern belle faced with the hardships that the Civil War brought, along with the struggle to have your true love. The elaborate descriptions of the parties, the war, Rhett Butler, and the personal struggle to want someone that you may never have, have always interested me, but it’s much deeper. The history in this novel is very rich, and it was something I never was able to grasp all the way until I recently completed a U.S History course. This book is much more than a women chasing after her dream guy, but it is more a glimpse into the high class society of the South that was turned upside down at the start of the Civil War.
In these two periods women around the world expressed their frustration with inequality and sexual frustration. Two of the most prolific writers of first and second wave feminism were Kate Chopin and Margaret Atwood, respectively. Chopin was the true bridge between first wave and second wave feminism. She not only dealt with issues of suffrage but also female sexuality. In her short story entitled “The Story of an Hour”, Chopin addresses issues of grief and repression.
Context The novel was written in 1982 but explores the 1930’s in the Southern United States. The novel explores not only the treatment of women, but also the racial tension that was defiantly apparent throughout Walker’s life. Although supposedly free, Walker throughout her life was subjected to racial hatred and exploitation of her labour, which she shows through the character of Sofia. It is important to note that Walker was a black feminist. Alice Walker was also an active participant in the Civil Rights movement.