Zora Neale Hurston – Naturalism Naturalism is defined as the view that whatever man encounters in any area of human experience is natural. In can be described in detail as factual or realistic representation, especially the practice of describing precisely the actual circumstances of human life in literature and the practice of reproducing subjects as precisely as possible in the visual arts (Yahoo! Education - Dictionary). Zora Neale Hurston, an African American writer, anthropologist, and folklorist, was a naturalist. She was born in the town of Eatonville, Florida, which is five miles from Orlando. Eatonville was the first all black community to be incorporated. Ms. Hurston grew up uneducated and poor, but she was immersed with black folk life. She had little experience with racism early on in life which caused her to have unconventional attitudes later in life. After graduating from the Morgan Academy, Ms. Hurston attended Howard University and received her associates’ degree in 1920. Ms. Hurston worked several jobs during her college years but was still often in debt. She struggled with poverty throughout most of her life despite her hard work. From 1925 on, Ms. Hurston lived in New York and eventually joined the Harlem Renaissance. She was one of the shapers of the black literary and cultural movement of the twenties. Ms. Hurston was the first black scholar to research folklore on the level that she did. From 1930s to the 1960s, Zora Neale Hurston was the most prolific and accomplished black woman writer in America. During that thirty year period, she published many short

stories, magazine articles, plays, and seven books. She gained a reputation as an outstanding folklorist and novelist. She drew attention to herself because she insisted on being herself at a time when African Americans were being urged to assimilate in an effort to