John DOS Passos and Zora Neale Hurston Essay

John Dos Passos and Zora Neale Hurston Literature Review

"From the 42nd Parallel: Big Bill" by John Dos Passos

"From their eyes were watching God: the yellow mule" by Zora Neale Hurston

How do John Passos and Zora Neale Hurston feature common working American in their work?

It is said that the best travel writing isn't so much about the destination as it is about the journey. The destination serves no more than an interesting backdrop. Likewise, all the literature about the life of African-Americans and Americans is not just what they have achieved or not achieved in their life, but it's about the history they have created during their journey of pain, misery, comfort, glory or misfortune. After going through the literature of both the authors in their work named "From the 42nd Parallel: Big Bill" by John Dos Passos and "From their eyes were watching God: the yellow mule" by Zora Neale Hurston, number of thoughts and questions, linguistic as well as literary came under heated discussion of the work life of African-Americans and how it has created impact in the surroundings.

Zora Neale Hurston in her book titled "From their eyes were watching God: yellow mule" had tried to capture two important themes of her life. First her quest for freedom and fulfillment and second her affection and emotional attachment with the black culture. This book is the symbolic representation of African-American life compared to the yellow mule. "The mule in the book has a special "meaning" because of its nature and what the animal is. A mule is typically a hard worker and sometimes exploited for its ability to carry things.To me, the mule represents a slave during the times of slavery in the United States. On page 76 there is one of these passages Janie talks about Abraham Lincoln freeing the slaves and that is exactly what Jody did by buying the mule from its owner"(CFlores, 2011).

Author has shown how much power was important at that time for societies to survive. African-American were powerless in those societies, they were struggling hard for their freedom. This was expressed in the character of Janie Crawford. Janie has always wanted to untangle herself from all the knots of discomfort, misfortune and pain in her life and wanted to free herself where she can find her own identity and her own self-esteem.

The story gives tribute to African-American women and the struggle she has to face during her life in searching for basic needs of her life which she deserves and which men expects to have as a necessity in their life. Amidst their struggle for survival and finding respectable position in society, African-American has strong sense of togetherness and social bonding with each other which is very rare to see in today's society. This is evident in the book through these words in chapter six "The people of Eatonville love to pass the time telling stories on the porch. One of their favorite topics….....