Directions: Use the websites provided to find the answers for this Web Quest.

Put your answers on a

sheet of paper.

1. When and where was Zora Neale Hurston born? Where did she move as a young girl?
Zora was born on January 7, 1891 in Notasulga, Alabama. When she was a young girl she moved to
Eatonville, Florida.

http://zoranealehurston.com/about/index.html

2. Given your knowledge of the time and place, what kind of world did Hurston grow up in?
Zora grew up in a world with black ownership around her she described as a a city of five lakes, three croquet
courts, three hundred brown skins, three hundred good swimmers, plenty guavas, two schools, and no
jailhouse."

http://zoranealehurston.com/about/index.html

3. What was the extent of Hurstons education? Considering her gender and color, does this surprise you?
Explain.
Her education went all the way to college, which she graduated from Barnard College in 1928. Yes, its
surprises me that she is an African American female who actually went all the way to her full potential to
graduation from college and have multiple selling books out nor it is successful.

http://zoranealehurston.com/about/index.html

Go to the following site for Eatonville, Florida http://townofeatonville.com/

4. When, and by whom, was Eatonville founded?

The town of Eatonville was founded by three union officers Captain Josiah Eaton, Captain Lewis Lawrence
and the last one was unknown. Eatonville was founded during the time near the civil war they left South
America to settle there.

5. Who was it named after?

The town was named after Captain Eaton.

6. What is significant about Eatonville and African-American history?

The significant about Eatonville and the history that it was known as a race colony, because so many blacks
would establish communities in this area.

7. What kind of achievements is Hurston noted for? She is noted for the first black American to collect and
publish African-American and Afro-Caribbean folklore.

http://fcit.usf.edu/florida/lessons/hurston/hurston.htm

8. Use Google to look up The Harlem Renaissance. What was it?

The Harlem renaissance was called the new Negro movement, which was a social and culture movement
9. When and where did it occur?
It occurred in Harlem, New York in the 1920s.

10. Who were some of the key participants? The key participants in this movement were Jean Toomer,
Langston Hughes, Rudolf Fisher, Wallace Thurman, Jessie Redmon Fauset, Nella Larsen, Arna Bontemps,
Countee Cullen, and Zora Neale Hurston.

11. Use Google to look up when (and how) Zora Neale Hurston died. She died on Jan. 28, 1960 at the age of
69. Zora died of a stroke.

12. Look up a definition of vernacular language. Explain in your own words what the term means and how it
might be applied to the novel we are about to read, which takes place in the Deep South. Vernacular language
in my own words mean a language that the specific culture or race use in their area or part of town. This
definition might be applied in this book because deep in the south different parts speak or have their own
language which they communicate with their people.

13. Us the following link to explore Hurstons use of Florida as a setting for African American folk life (scroll to
the bottom of page 2 of the document you find there, and read the short article called Scholarly Criticism on
the Use of Florida):

http://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00076693/00001

14. Why was Hurston criticized by other African American writers at the end of her literary career?
The reason why her work was criticized because she didnt mention the growing of African American literature

15. According to Hurston, what role should cultural forms play in the writing of African Americans?
The role it should be played in is influence and the genres.

Using the same document, scroll down to page 5 to the article Hurston and Hughes: Competing
Public Intellectualism.

16. Explain how Mule Bone was supposed to be an example of real Negro art theatre.
It was supposed to be the balance of folk comedy and social critique. Mule bone was supposed to over tune
stereotypes, also wanted to carry a theory of black folk drama.

17. According to the article, why was it problematic?

The article was problematic, because each of the authors had a falling out and left of a key for women to be in
the comedy, which was supposed to be a huge part for this particular role for the story and trying to accept the
characters that are supposed to be in the article.
18. How have African-Americans historically dealt with oppression and self-identity in this country? Offer some
reasons why.
Huges noted that in social conditions of the black public, where segregation and racism must be contested.
He also used folk traditions to get the black communities across and make it stronger than ever, nor they had to
deal with the gender roles most people believe that it should be played by males but in mule bones daisy;
which is a female role is played in this article that Huges and Zora made. It even made the gender role switch
stronger in African American literature and in communities .