Dust Tracks on a Road Hurston’s Dust Tracks on a Road depicts the struggle and journey of growing up in a predominately African American society. She displays how African Americans were curtailed to nothing after the Civil War and how it was quite difficult to commence a town on their own of there own race. Her autobiography entails the very candid moments of the Harlem Renaissance. As the novel is exposed in the opening chapter the subject matter is revealed and it entails Zora Neale Hurston’s life. “So you will have to know something about the time and place where I came from, in order that you may interpret the incidents and directions of my life” (Hurston 1). The setting appears to be one of the developing subjects in the novel because her atmosphere depicted many of the events in her life. The town’s locations also foreshadowed many of her life events. “Eatonville is what you might call hitting a straight lick with a crooked stick. The town was not in the original plan. It is a by-product of something else” (1). The town setting is very symbolic in Huston’s life because she lived amongst one of the only all black towns in the state of Florida. This coincides with the possible theme of the individual in society. Living in this society had many effects on Hurston’s life. She reveals these frank moments with the reader. The setting sets up the forthcoming of the rest of the novel by demonstrating that living in the predominately black town will come with many hardships that will alter Hurston as a character. In chapter one, Hurston also discloses some of the various symbols and motifs in the novel such as roads, war generals, and battles in the Civil War. Just by reading the title of the novel one can assume that roads will have a lot of significance. “ Roads were made by the simple expedient of driving buggies and wagons back forth over the foot trail, which ran for seven miles between Maitland and Orlando” (4). The roads enable the townspeople to intermingle with neighboring groups of people. The roads also provide a passageway or link around the state of Florida. This could potentially be the vacuum or circuit in Hurston’s life that attested for her fame in the Harlem Renaissance. The war generals were also very significant people in the development of Eatonville and neighboring towns. “Now, these founders were, to a man, people who had risked their lives and fortunes that Negroes might be free. Those who had fought in the ranks had thrown their weight behind the cause of Emancipation” (5). This demonstration of leadership and uncertainty are characteristics that Hurston posses. “So, in a raw, bustling frontier, the experiment of self-government for Negroes was tried. White Maitland and Negro Eatonville have lived side by side for fifty-five years without a single instance of enmity. The spirit of the founders ha reached beyond the grave” (6). Hurston’s opening exposition reveals only partial of what could be the remaining events in the novel. However they do parallel with the theme of an individual versus society. This being said because she has become a product of her environment and her environment has shaped her in many ways as a writer. She was fortunate enough to grow up in a very influential area. She prepares the reader for potential conflict with her environment because her environment is so historic and classic. This usually results in amending one’s behavior or having to comply with the rules of society. But by having read other novels by Hurston one knows that she is not one to agree in compliance and there lies her conflict. The titles of each chapter also serve as a section of Hurston’s journey in life that is very beneficial.