"... The sensory sweep of her novel carries no theme, no message, no thought. In the main, her novel is not addressed to the Negro, but to a white audience whose chauvinistic tastes she knows how to satisfy. She exploits that phase of Negro life which is "quaint," the phase which evokes a piteous smile on the lips of the "superior" race."
I disagree with Wright's criticism of Hurston's book. I believe that Richard Wright felt this way due to the fact that he was a very opinionated political writer who enjoyed addressing the hardships of African American life in his literary works. In my eyes, he felt this way because it wasn't what he would've wrote, so therefor he was unhappy with it. I think he may have overlooked the talent Hurston exemplified in her writing, just so he could focus on how she wasn't raving about African American repression and rights throughout her novel. I also find that this criticism could have come up because Hurston and Wright focused on different things in their works. Wright wrote in very political terms,while Hurston stayed away from these issues of struggle. I'm not trying to bash Richard Wright here, as I'm sure since he was so popular that he's a very accomplished writer, I'm just merely disagreeing with his criticism of Their Eyes Were Watching God. But hey, maybe that's because I'm white.
Information from: "Zora Neale Hurston." Wikipedia. N.p., 1 Apr. 2011. Web. 13 Apr. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Zora_Neale_Hurston>.
Some Images for the General Public
^^Richard Wright^^ Image from: http://www.math.buffalo.edu/~sww/wright/wright_photo1957.jpg
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