Richard Wright & Zora Neale Hurston

A detailed Summary of Richard Wright & Zora Neale Hurston

During the Harlem Renaissance, although Blacks and Africans-in-America were freed by law,

America was still divided among the races. Discrimination and stereotypical mentalities still

flooded the minds of White America. This was the period of American history that displayed

strongly the ideas of superiority and white supremacy. Many Blacks, along with their

accomplishments were beginning to relay a deep message not only to whites, but also to the rest

of America that this was a new era. This era was filled with creatively assembled literary works

such as poetry, novels, short stories, and essays as well as expressive visual arts. Through all

the different advances of Blacks, the literature of the Renaissance ranked among the most

In reading literary works by Richard Wright and another significant writer of the

Renaissance, Zora Neale Hurston (chapter 5), we find a pattern of Black and White societal

conflicts that do not neccessar8ily dominate the work, but is evident within situations and events

that the characters live through. Many of these problems were dilemmas of the Harlem

Renaissance, therefore reflected into the works of the times.

These two writers, Hurston and Wright, wrote primarily about Bla

what to do. In effect, Bigger is what one might expect him to be, given the social conditions in

rich man who profits from charging high rents to poor Black tenants on the South Side of

White community. There were no questions asked about his girlfriend, Bessie, whom he killed

The active them in the literary works of both Hurston and Wright is the struggle of Black

white people as a collective, overwhelming force that tells him where to live, where to work, and

during the trial. Through this literary example, we might see how Whites felt about

disguise--and Delia was working for them. This was a big problem for Sykes and the reader

life, become, like Bigger, a disaster waiting to happen. Wright believed that the structure of

within her stories. For instance, in "Sweat", besides the constant abusing by Sykes, Delia Jones'

dramatize the conflicts of Black America in the urban neighborhoods and the diversity of Black

American society. He had witnessed a peculiar social phenomenon--there was a distinct pattern

Approximate Word count = 878
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Miscellaneous

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