Zora was an outstanding folklorist and anthropologist who worked to record the stories and tales of many cultures, including her own African – American heritage. Zora Neale Hurston was born on January 7, 1891, in Notasulga, Alabama which was a small town not far from Orlando. Zora was the fifth of eight children in the Hurston household. Her father John Hurston was a sharecropper, a carpenter, and a Baptist preacher, and her mother Lucy Ann was a school teacher. When Zora was very young, the family
Hurston writes her short story “Spunk” in the folk tradition using black vernacular and writing about black culture. As a writer in the Harlem Renaissance, Hurston strived to create literature that portrayed blacks as humans. “Spunk” revolves around Lena, a married woman that is having an open affair with Spunk. Through her own volition, she decides to leave her husband for Spunk. Hurston portrays two different types of males in Joe and Spunk
deaf ears. These readers felt that Hurston described an individual experience that reflected a more accurate picture of their daily lives, with all the emotional and personal complexities that came with being a black woman. This realism comes at no surprise, though; Their Eyes Were Watching God largely comes from Hurston’s own experiences with a long-time lover, Percival Punter, as the inspiration for Tea Cake. Eatonville directly correlates with a location Hurston lived in (with the same name!) and