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Essay / The Symbolism in Their Eyes Was Looking at God by Zora Hurston
! ยป This quote is from Zora Hurston; she demonstrates her cultural background and how her work is rooted in Southern black art. Hurston demonstrates independence and refuses to allow her love interests and marriages to interfere with her career, and she depicts aspects of her cultural background that are exceptionally influential. Hurston's use of symbolism is a key factor in his writing. There are countless considerable symbols in Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God that are essential to fully understanding Hurston's development of the black woman. According to Hurston, women were treated like animals, specifically mules, to carry men's burdens. Hurston intends to encourage women to rise up and show that they have potential just like men and can achieve their dreams. One of the most curious symbols is that of the mule. Hurston uses the mule to show the development of female identity (Dilbeck 2). The connection between the mule and the woman is repeated so often that it is considered a motif (Dilbeck 1). Another intriguing element in Their Eyes Were WatchingVines 2God is hybridity. Hybridity is a daily reality that we face in an increasingly multi-ethnic and pluralistic society. Hurston uses hybridity in his stories to reflect and even include African origins. Her tales speak to the hybridity of readers from various ethnicities. Hurston points out that Americans also begin to become hybrid as they begin to include their African American cultural counterparts (Jirousek 3). Even if Americans do not recognize this process, they have become accustomed to it and can benefit from it. Hurston uses this simply to clarify a long-established reality (Jirousek 4). In fact... middle of paper ...... effective examination of female talent, it ultimately hides the suffering of black women whose working-class existence is dominated by hard work and financial instability (Jordan 2). Hurston was more prolific than any other black writer before her. Hurston has published four novels, two volumes of folklore and an autobiography, as well as around fifty short stories, essays and plays. Much of Hurston's art is rooted in his cultural traditions of the black rural South (Wall 2). Hurston's independence and refusal to let her romantic interests interfere with her career and anthropological research make her an excellent writer (Jordan 1). Hurston does focus her work on her culture, but through it she shows how clear it is to realize that her background reflects many aspects of her writing that are exceptionally influential..