Research Paper on:
Harlem Renaissance and Zora Neale Hurston

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
engaged in by the main characters. These characters provide an unbiased look into the lives of the ordinary person living in the South and what life was like for the  Black American during this time. It is through her use of folklore and anthropology that she is able to place a definition and illustrate the black renaissance that was occurring  at this time. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston weaves the tale of a young girl becoming a woman in the deep South. Not only is it a coming  of age tale, but it is more importantly an awakening of a person to their own worth. This parallels what was beginning to happen in Harlem during this time as  well. The civil rights movements were beginning to move into full swing, but in the South that movement churned slower than in the North. Nonetheless, it can be said, that  the story of Janine in Their Eyes Were Watching God is in many ways a parallel of the growth and route that the black American took in realizing and regaining  pride in themselves as a people. For example, in the beginning of the book, Janine is married off by her well intentioned Grandmother to a man that is twice  her age and a man that treats her badly. In many ways he enslaves her and she feels helpless to leave him. Finally, Janie shares that when her grandmother passes  away she takes off and runs away from Logan. Shortly after that she tells Phoebe, her best friend, about Joe Starks, who is an ambitious man that soon becomes the  mayor of a small town called Eatonville. But Janie soon learns that she has left one type of abuse for another. This is in direct correlation, one could say, to