Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960) was a novelist, anthropologist, and folklorist whose work was largely forgotten during her lifetime but has been recognized since the 1970s as foundational to African American literature and to American letters broadly. Her prose is among the most distinctive in the language — dense with vernacular speech, folklore, and a refusal to translate Black Southern dialect into Standard American English for the comfort of white readers.
Her Famous Opening
Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) opens with one of the most analyzed paragraphs in American fiction: “Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men. Now, women forget all those things they don’t want to remember, and remember everything they don’t want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly.”
The passage announces the novel’s argument about the difference between how men and women relate to longing and time. Hurston’s syntax and rhythm are doing philosophical work that plain propositional prose could not accomplish.
On Writing in Vernacular
Hurston defended her use of dialect and vernacular speech against critics who argued it was demeaning. Her essay “Characteristics of Negro Expression” (1934) made the case that Black American speech was not degraded English but a living creative tradition: “The Negro is not a white man turned inside out. He is himself. He has created a rich folklore, a distinctive music, a body of humor and a unique speech pattern that has shaped and influenced the language of the nation.”
Frequently Quoted Hurston Lines
- “Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place.” — From Their Eyes Were Watching God.
- “There are years that ask questions and years that answer.” — From Their Eyes Were Watching God.
- “Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose.” — From her autobiography Dust Tracks on a Road (1942).
- “I am not tragically colored.” — From her essay “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” (1928), asserting her refusal to define her identity through oppression.
Hurston’s Rediscovery
Hurston died in poverty in 1960. Her works were out of print and she was buried in an unmarked grave. Alice Walker found her grave in 1973 and placed a marker on it; Walker’s 1975 essay “In Search of Zora Neale Hurston,” published in Ms. magazine, sparked a revival of scholarly and popular interest. Today Hurston is studied as a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance and of American literary modernism, and her prose remains a reference point for any discussion of voice, vernacular, and the politics of literary language.