Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Zora Neale Hurston Reflection In Her Work - 1322 Words

Authors get their ideas on paper in many ways. They can use their imagination making up everything from thin air. They can use their past experiences or experiences that others relate to them. A better explanation about how authors end up writing what we read is best clarified by an author themselves. Ursula Le Guin an American novelist explains, â€Å"I dont believe that a writer gets (takes into the head) an idea (some sort of mental object) from somewhere, and then turns it into words, and writes them on paper. The stuff has to be transformed into oneself, it has to be composted, before it can grow into a story.† If that is too complicated to understand we have the help of Robertson Davis a Canadian novelist who says, â€Å"I dont get†¦show more content†¦It didnt have to be specifically cheating; it could have been any unethical or moral act. Otis D. Slemmons also represents many people in the past and today. The economy in America had been going so well that for many the Great Depression had to be just a nightmare it could not be true. Most people at the time could not face losing most or all of their commodities they had. There was poverty everywhere that some people didnt want to recognize their own reality and tried to distort it. Slemmons had convinced everybody that he was a wealthy man, but the whole time he wasnt wearing real gold at all. Missy May’s husband makes fun of Slemmons fake reality as he explained to a store worker, â€Å"Ha Ha! He had a quarter on his tie pin and it wuz all golded up too. Tryin’ to fool people. Makin’ out he so rich and everything. Ha! Ha!...† (563). The Great Depression either made people sadly live with the reality or had people believe their own lies. Even today there are people like Slemmons, who have a fake it till you make it mentality telling themselves things that are not true. It is common to see people who buy things with money they dont have to impress people that they dont know. Money may be a single coin or piece of paper, but in rough times it can change peoples behavior. Another work by Hurston named â€Å"Sweat† pinpointed two major cultural events in the late 1920s. The short story pinShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Sweat By Zora Neale Hurston1313 Words   |  6 Pageshusband who publicly cheats and abuses her? How would she react to his psychological and physical abuse, would she fight back or stay silent? There are many ways one can fight back, and silence is one of them. By simply saying nothing can kill a person, literally. In the short story, â€Å"Sweat† by Zora Neale Hurston unfolds the story of African American wash woman by the name of Delia Jones, the protagonist in the story, is a hard-working woman who has been supporting her good for nothing husband by doingRead More Comparing Characterization in Alias Grace, Their Eyes Were Watching God, and Fools Crow1290 Words   |  6 Pagesis at peace, but there are still many questions about her left unanswered.   Because Atwoods style of writing is informative, yet unclear at the s ame time, the audience is left to put the pieces of the puzzle that is Grace together themselves.  Ã‚   This leaves the reader guessing about her character.   Two other works that contrast the characterization of Grace Atwood uses in Alias Grace are Janie in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, and Fools Crow in Fools Crow by James Welch.   The characterizationRead MoreAnalysis Of The Harlem Renaissance By Zora Neale Hurston1751 Words   |  8 Pagesphotography, actors and much more. Zora Neale Hurston was a well known novelist, essayist, author,anthropologist and vital to the Harlem Renaissance she was raised in a very small town named Eatonville in florida, her mother died at the age of 13 interrupting her childhood. She was struggling to finish the rest of her high school years but eventually she did. She graduated at age 26 at Barnard college in 1928, she wrote novels such as â€Å"Their Eyes were Watching God†. A writer’s work in both a natur al productRead More Finding Hope in Their Eyes Were Watching God Essay3095 Words   |  13 Pagespossess, the fear of the unknown and resulting stagnation. But Hurston does not leave us with the hopelessness of Fitzgerald or Hemingway, rather, she extends a recognition and understanding of humanitys need to escape emptiness. Dem meatskins is got tuh rattle tuh make out theys alive (183) Her solution is simple: Yuh got tuh go there tuh know there. Janie, like characters in earlier novels, sets out on a quest to make sense of her inner questionings--a void she knew she possessed from the momentRead MoreThe Harlem Renaissance By Zora Neale Hurston1906 Words   |  8 Pages Truth A reflection of the truth. The Harlem Renaissance is real. It is identified as a spiritual re-awakening, a rebirth in culture, a sense of pride and self awareness. However, African Americans were not always allowed this prodigious freedom. Prior to the Harlem Renaissance African Americans were slaves; considered a piece of property who had no rights whatsoever. Despite, their harsh history, Civil Rights were enforced, this helped bring them out of their misery; which is why the harlemRead MoreOverview: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston1641 Words   |  7 PagesTheir Eyes Were Watching God was written by Zora Neale Hurston and published in 1937. Hurstons book guides us through character Janie Crawford’s hectic journey while taking place in the 1900s. The story starts out with Janie, a middle-aged African American woman, returning to her hometown in Eatonville, Florida. Her surprise visit gets the town talking. They wonder where she had gone, what she was doin g, and why she was gone so long. Janie’s friend, Pheoby Watson, visits Janie to find out what happenedRead MoreSweat, By Zora Neale Hurston1776 Words   |  8 Pagesâ€Å"Sweat,† a short story written by Zora Neale Hurston depicts the story of Delia, a washerwoman who is physically and mentally abused by her husband, Sykes. As Hurston explains, Delia is a strong, hardworking, calm, brave, and understanding woman who is able to stand with her head held high even through all the troubles she endures. In contrast, Sykes is abusive, a coward, troubleshooter and a man who depends on his wife to provide for him. He even has the indecency to use Delia’s money to pay forRead MoreRichard Wright’s Misperception of Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God 2453 Words   |  10 Pagesthe most prominent artists of the Harlem Renaissance could ever disagree as much as or be as different as Zora Neale Hurston and Richard Wright. Despite the fact that t hey are the same color and lived during the same time period, they do not have much else in common. On the one hand is Hurston, a female writer who indulges in black art and culture and creates subtle messages throughout her most famous novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. On the other hand is Wright, who is a male writer who demonstratesRead MoreEssay on Their Eyes Were Watching God921 Words   |  4 Pageshaving to maintain opinions. For Janie Crawford, it was not: she finds her voice among those lost within the pages of Zora Neale Hurston’s famed novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. This dynamic character’s natural intelligence, talent for speaking, and uncommon insights made her the perfect candidate to develop into the outspoken, individual woman she has wanted to be all along. As the novel begins, Janie walks into her former hometown quietly and bravely. She is not the same woman who left;Read MoreTheir Eyes Were Watching God1335 Words   |  6 Pagespower from others.In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston tells us a story about Janie who has three relationships with three different men, she learns how to find freedom and true love from nature. The marriage with Logan Killicks makes her understand that marriage does not mean love; sometimes, love can tarnish the freedom of divine nature. After Janie is disappointed in Logan, she feels â€Å"The familiar people and things had failed her so she hung over the gate and looked up the road

Merchants of Cool free essay sample

In watching the film, Merchants of Cool, which was aired in 2001, it is quite concerning how our society is turning to consuming as a means of achieving a satisfying standard of living. The film brought to light how large media companies, especially conglomerates that own all production and distribution of media from start to finish, study and sell to teen youths because of their large quantity of â€Å"guilt money†, disposable income giving to youth by parents to keep them happy. They have become the most marketed group, which in turn turns the youth into adults that continue to seek happiness in consuming. The fear in this standard of living is that we start losing touch with our true values, and instead of looking towards family, community, ethnicity and religion as the creator of cultural forms, we are now being oriented as a society by the world of commodities. And with the advancement of technology, so has marketing research advanced, where we are being specifically being catered to with ads to continue this cycle of finding meaning and happiness through the purchase of goods and services. We will write a custom essay sample on Merchants of Cool or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Advertisers know that they cannot sell meaning and happiness, but they can illicit those feelings by advertising visions of what a â€Å"good life† should be through the selling of products, known as **image-based advertising**. Sut Jhally’s article, Image-Based Culture: Advertising and Popular Culture, explains how image-based advertising has been so integrated into our way of thought and consumption that it is difficult to pinpoint when our most cherished values became tied into consumer culture (p 201). Advertisements have taken up so much of our public space and discourse, and now even our private with the advancement of technology, that we are constantly being shown what the vision of happiness is, and what we must buy to achieve a satisfying standard of living. Juliet Schor’s article, The New Politics of Consumption: Why Americans Want So Much More Than They Need, breaks down the idea that Americans live in a constant state of **dis-ease**: worrying about the preoccupation with getting and spending (p 205). Not only is this disconcerting because it takes away from living in the moment, but it pushes us to live beyond our means. We aren’t happy because we do not emulate what we see as the â€Å"good life† because of the growing aspirational gap because of upscale emulation. We are never at ease where we stand economically and socially, and feel the pressures to keep up. And although this is a problem with the upper and middle class, it is a more dangerous problem for the lower class. The trickle effect of status symbol goods, such as state of the art phones, flat screen televisions, etc. , sets up those with limited resources and aspirations of living the â€Å"good life† by buying those goods for continual financial failure through consumption of expensive goods that is beyond their means. The film, The Merchants of Cool, aired in 2001, and the way that companies acquired information from the consumer was with â€Å"cool hunters†, marketing researchers who would research and interview to see what trends could be capitalized on. The analyzing was apparent, as opposed to now where consumers are being researched and targeted in ways that are more subtle, and now advertisers have the tools to more conspicuously sell us the â€Å"good life†. On the radio interview â€Å"How Companies are ‘Defining Your Worth’ Online†, Joseph Turrow discussed how marketers don’t even have to do much to gather information from us, they can now track our online movements using digital tracking like cookies. This information is gathered and sold to advertisers by data marketers, unbeknownst to us. Market research has evolved so much because of the growing digital world we live in. And advertisers are now able to subtly sell to us in a personally targeted way, instead of the blatant in your face banner ads that we would automatically close without even reading them. Although this is perfectly legal, the downfall falls on the consumer that is being researched and targeted. Our sense of consumption is insatiable when we are constantly being targeted, we lose a sense of privacy when we are constantly being watched, and, as Joseph Turrow also discussed, and we can also be targets of **digital social discrimination**. Digital social discrimination, which is the idea that companies can take digital information and make inferences of what kind of ads are suitable for the individual consumer, they target only certain ads, discounts, and such (2012). Advertisers then think of that individual only in a certain way, and may even target ads that may have negative connotations, such as getting out of debt ads, weight loss, and such. Consumers are being categorized, and because of the categories they are being targeted by certain ads, which perhaps sell a good that is not appropriate, and denied others because of assumptions being made by the online information gathered on that individual. This is why it is important to have some sort of regulatory system overseeing the structure and ownership of media. U. S. government plays only a small role in determining who owns the media, and only regulates it minimally, and the power of the U. S. media that uses the market research to produce products reaches us not just here in the United States, but also has a global impact. Because of the United States’ **cultural imperialism**, where American styles in fashion and food, as well as media far, dominate the global market, our versions of the â€Å"good life† are influenced on parts of the world, as discussed in Richard Campbell’s â€Å"Media Economics and the Global Marketplace†, (p 411). Our ‘cultural dumping’ of exporting U. S. media can influence other countries societal value systems, development of original local products, and abandon their own rituals to adopt American tastes. In reality, the power behind these large media researchers, marketers, producers, and distributors, who are often the owned by the same company, is astounding and influences not only our lives as an individual, but also has the potential to influence on a global level. They are able to gather information about individuals, sell it, and categorize as they see fit, leaving us with no sense of privacy, with the goal of selling us as many goods and services as possible until we reach the unattainable â€Å"good life†, which is a vision that they have carefully created. Until we, as consumers, are more aware of how much consumption has taken over our sense of self-worth and satisfaction and how little privacy we have in the new digital age, we will keep trying to buy the â€Å"good life†. ? Merchants of Cool free essay sample Does the restrictive structure of MTV, which limits exposure to a small percentage of artists who have significant corporate backing, mean that someone else is really making music choices for us? Is this kind of narrow control of music inevitable? Contrast the experience of a group like Limp Bizkit, which had corporate backing, to the careers of artists who have remained independent, like Ani DiFranco. (You may make a more modern comparison; just make sure to do your research! ) †¢ Is the mook (the stereotypically crude, adolescent male) real, or just a media construction? How about the midriff (the girl as sex symbol)? Do you know any mooks or midriffs? Do you think you or your friends are influenced by the MTV standard of cool? If so, how? Are there ways to be cool without copying media? How do the mook and midriff stereotypes relate to the corporate interests of the media outlets that perpetuate them (in other words, why these particular stereotypes and not some other stereotype)? †¢ Many media observers have claimed that programs like Beverly Hills 90210 or Dawsons Creek are popular because they are reflective of teen life. We will write a custom essay sample on Merchants of Cool or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page In what ways are shows like 90210 and Dawsons Creek reflective of how teenagers really live and in what ways are they distortions? Do these shows mirror the way you live? (Again, you may use more contemporary shows like Jersey Shore, Gossip Girl, True Blood, etc. ) †¢ Because they do so much research, media makers think they know a lot about you. Consider whether you agree with the following assertion from The Merchants of Cool: No teenager is going to be satisfied with a PG-13 rated horror film. They want to see blood and guts. Thats what they want to do.