The Mistreatment of Women in the Works of Zora Neale Hurston :: Biography Biographies Essays

The Mistreatment of Women in the Works of Zora Neale Hurston     Society is suffering from a number of serious social problems connect to women, and to the interaction between the two sexes. Male domination and patriarchy have been under challenge by feminists and the womens movement. The economic, social and political subjection of women around the world, the wildness brought against women and their confinement has been brought to the forefront in recent years.   Zora Neale Hurstons stories speak out against the uncivil and unjust treatment of women especially in their marriages. Hurstons stories reveal the disturbing situation for women somewhat mistreatment abuse in the 1930s, when speaking out was unheard of. This was the time period for the setting of Hurstons stories, and her stories reflect violence against women that occurred during that era.   Zora Neale Hurstons works are brilliant glimpses into the mind of a woman who lived life for what it was, who wanted nothing more then to have...a busy life, a just mind and timely death. She lived as she wrote, to the fullest, she wasnt just a writer, but also an anthropologist who brought to the light the folklore, and culture of nations that before there had been little study of. She brought new, exciting views of the world through her poetic words, and is a shining exercising of what it is to be a woman. Intelligent, driven, and confidant (Walker 8).   At only thirteen years old Hurston was thrown out of her fathers house because her stepmother didnt approve of her or her siblings. At an too soon age Huston knew about struggling and making a way for herself (Ford 7-9). In Zora Neale Hurstons autobiography she said, There is something about poverty that smells like death. Dead dreams dropping send off the heart like leaves in a dry season and rotting around the feet, impulses smothered too long in the fetid air of resistivity caves. The soul lived in a sick ly air. People can be slave ships in shoes (Hurston 37).   Hurston was mistreated as a child, and in her study Drenched in Light it reveals some of her background of child abandonment. She also focused on womens rights and fights in marriages.