from+Dust+Tracks+on+a+Road

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Zora Neale Hurston grew up in Eatonville, Florida, which was one of the first incorporated black towns in the United States (Wilhelm 790). After she was done with high school, she attended Howard University and then Barnard College, where she was trained as an anthropologist and a folklorist by Franz Boas (Wilhelm 790).

Modernism has literary pieces that have loosely defined characteristics (Lorcher). Modernism is a reaction against Realism and had an emphasis on the individual inner being instead of the social being (Worthington). Modernism experiments with language, is a distortion of perception, and is unordered (Worthington). Modernism has a strong reaction against established religious, political, and social views, which breaks tradition (Lorcher). “Hurston was a fierce individualist who resisted membership in any one school of thought” (Wilhelm 790). Modernism writers show passion over reason and morality, and Hurston shows a lot of passion in her autobiography. She describes her life in detail in //Dust Tracks on a Road// (Lorcher). Modernism also experiments with language and breaks traditional forms. Hurston writes a lot of dialect in her writings; for example, “Git down offa dat gate-post! You li’l sow, you! Git down! Setting up dere looking dem white folks right in de face! They’s gowine to lynch you, yet. And don’t stand in dat doorway gazing out at ‘em neither. Youse too brazen to live long” (Hurston 793).

“There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside you.” –Zora Neale Hurston (Wilhelm 790). This quote refers to how she felt about her life as a slave; she wanted to let people know about the things that they went through. Zora Neale Hurston grew up as a slave on a plantation. Most of her writing deals with slavery and tells the stories of lives of slaves. //Dust Tracks on a Road// is an autobiography of Zora Neale Hurston’s life (Wilhelm 791). “After completing her studies, Hurston used her training to collect the folklore of Eatonville and other southern African American communities. She later used this material as a source for much of the fiction writing she pursued when not documenting folklore” (Wilhelm 790). Hurston was married many times during her life (Wilhelm 790). This plays a role in her writing because she wrote about love in her autobiography and also her novel, //Their Eyes Were Watching God,// tells about a woman named Jamie and her life and marriages. Hurston uses a different type of writng style like E. E. Cummings and Marianne Moore do. Hurston uses a lot of dialect and real life situations, E. E. Cummings uses free verse, and Marianne Moore uses a syabillic writing style.

Zora Neale Hurston was a modernist writer whose life effected her writing tremendously. Zora Neale Hurston was a slave and most of her writings tell different stories of slave life. //Dust Tracks on the Road// was an autobiography of Zora Neale Hurston’s life.

Hurston, Zora. “from Dust Tracks on a Road.” American Literature. Columbus: McGraw Hill Glencoe, 2009. Print.

Lorcher, Trent. "Lesson Plans: Modernism in Literature." //Bright Hub //. Bright Hub In 2010. Web. 30 Apr. 2010. < [] >.

Wilhelm, Fisher, Chin, Royster. //American Literature.// Columbus: McGraw Hill Glencoe, 2009. Print.

Worthington, Leslie. "Characteristics of Modernism." //SOCRATES //. Troy University, 8 May 2007. Web. 30 March 2010. < [|http://socrates.troy.edu/~lworthington/eng2206/mod.htm] >.

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According to Toni Morrison, Zora Neale Hurston was “One of the greatest writers of all time” (“Welcome”). With her ability to communicate with words, Hurston reached her readers on an entirely different level. Hurston once stated, “There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside you” (Wilhem 790). Holding true to her belief, Zora Hurston was an effective writer of her time. In her writing one could distinguish the characteristics of Modernism and could sense her African American heritage. She took pride in her background and wrote about it. In her short story “from Dust Tracks on a Road”, Hurston describes her life as a student. Through her writing, Zora Neale Hurston has showed other writers that they had the freedom to write and that one was not imprisoned by any means. Her style of writing was and is respected by many. Hurston grew up in a small all black community in Eatonville, Florida. Here, she experienced little education and poor living conditions. In her short story “from Dust Tracks on a Road”, Hurston explains the situation of how the students had to clean up for white visitors before they came to class so that they would show the whites how good they were. “…we would be cautioned to put on shoes, comb our heads, and see to ears and fingernails. There was a close inspection of every one of us before we marched in that morning” (Hurston 794). Hurston did not live in a high class neighborhood and wrote about her life as an African American. At one point in the story, when two white women came to visit her school, Hurston panicked because “Not only was I barefooted, but my feet and legs were dusty. My hair was more uncombed than usual, and my nails were not shiny clean” (Hurston 793). Her background of living conditions affected her writing and also opened up the eyes of many, who were not educated on racial values and ideals. “Through her writings, Robert Hemenway wrote in //The Harlem Renaissance Remembered//, Hurston "helped to remind the Renaissance--especially its more bourgeois members--of the richness in the racial heritage" (“Welcome”). The Modernism time period is like all the other time periods, unique. It has its traits that make a piece of writing qualify for the time. Some characteristics are anti-religion, improper grammar, and characters being given very little to no physical description (“Writing”). In her story, Hurston talks of the Greek mythology legend of Pluto and Persephone. “Some of the stories I had re-read several times, and this Greco-Roman myth was one of my favorites. I was exalted by it, and that is the way I read my paragraph” (Hurston 794). Hurston also read about Christians who gave their lives for Christ and felt uncaring toward them. “There were other thin books about this and that sweet and gentle little girl who gave up her heart to Christ and good works. Almost always they died from it, preaching as they passed. I was utterly indifferent to their deaths” (Hurston 796). In using these phrases, Hurston comes out anti-religion to her readers. Throughout her writing, she also portrayed improper grammar. “They’s gowine to lynch you, yet” (Hurston 793). Not being very descriptive, Hurston did not specify on the details of the characters. A common theme in Hurston’s stories was African American Heritage. She was an expert at exposing the lives of blacks and conditions that they lived in. Her book //Their Eyes Were Watching God//, is about an African American named Jamie that just got out of a love affair. Jamie is a woman, “…who learns to find herself and accept an identity that society is not so fast to accept, as a fulfilled and autonomous black woman” (Woolfe). When looking at the works of Hart Crane and Robinson Jeffers, she contrasts their writing style by the fact that she focuses on a different topic. She writes about her African American life, while Crane tells about life during the depression. The things that make them similar are the characteristics of Modernism in their writing, for example, anti-religion. Jeffers states, “To be eaten by that beak and become part of him, to share those wings and those eyes-What a sublime end of one’s body…”  (Robinson). Here, Robinson concludes there is no heaven, but instead, one’s body returns to that of the vulture, reflecting anti-religon. Zora Hurston had common themes in writings that had similar characteristics to Modernism and other writers of the time. “ Zora Neale Hurston is considered one of the pre-eminent writers of twentieth-century African-American literature” (“Welcome”). With her power to write, Hurston used her past and heritage to influence the world and writers around her. Her writing features Modernism and also compares to other writers of the era. Zora Hurston was a respected writer of her time.

"Robinson Jeffers | "Vulture" | Poetry Archive | Plagiarist.com." //Poetry Analysis, Poems, Articles, and Reviews | Plagiarist.com //. 2 Mar. 2002. Web. 05 May 2010. []. Woolfe, Linda M. "Zora Neale Hurston." //Webster University//. Web. 05 May 2010. .

"Writing.Com: Understanding Modernism & Postmodernism." //Writing.Com: Writers, Writing, Poetry, Creative Writing, Fiction Writing, Poetry Contests, Writing Contests//. Web. 05 May 2010. .

"Welcome to the Official Web Site of Zora Neal Hurston." //Zora Neale Hurston//. Web. 05 May 2010. <http://www.zoranealehurston.com/>.

<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;">Hurston, Zora Neale. //from Dust Tracks on a Road. Glencoe Literature//. Comp. Jeffery D. Wilhelm, PhD. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw Hill Glencoe, 2009. 792-797. Print. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Wilhelm, Fisher, Chin, Royster. //Meet Zora Neale Hurston.// <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Glencoe Literature. Columbus: McGraw Hill Glencoe, 2009. 790. Print.