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In this 1939 novel based on the familiar story of the Exodus, Zora Neale Hurston blends the Moses of the Old Testament with the Moses of black folklore and song to create a compelling allegory of power, redemption, and faith. Narrated in a mixture of biblical rhetoric, black dialect, and colloquial English, Hurston traces Moses's life from the day he is launched into the Nile river in a reed basket, to his development as a great magician, to his transformation into the heroic rebel leader, the Great Emancipator. From his dramatic confrontations with Pharaoh to his fragile negotiations with the wary Hebrews, this very human story is told with great humor, passion, and psychological insight the hallmarks of Hurston as a writer and champion of black culture. Show More Show Less.… (more)
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For those who are not familiar with her writings, Zora Neale Hurston is a storyteller par excellance. Her area of experience and expertise lies in African-American culture. Liberation Theology, particularly in the more recent works of James Cone, shows how the Exodus story – that is, Moses’ story with Israel – centrally defines the identity of African Americans. For centuries, they lived their lives in bondage to American whites with only faith to inspire that someday, somehow, some might have freedom. They were freed only to be pushed back socially into the bondage of Jim Crow. Even after the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, white backlash in systemic racism can keep people down.
Zora, as she is affectionately known, speaks to this experience even though she wrote in the 1930s, well before the protests of Martin Luther King. She brings this Moses story to life. If this world had any justice, this book would be used universally in religious centers to convey this story’s depths to young schoolchildren. While being generally faithful to the religious texts, it does so in an African American dialect of English with rich idioms that only Zora can convey.
In a post-George Floyd era where the struggle regularly shows on news shows, this story is more relevant than ever. It can teach us all – no matter what skin color or ideological disposition – to find our way out of self-made prisons. It speaks about the strife and struggle to living freely. It speaks about eschewing the trappings of material comfort or of petty jealousies. Zora’s narrative brings all these, already present in the Exodus narrative, to richer life through amazing prose. I wish more people would know and revel in her beautiful writing and in this beautiful story. It’s extraordinarily well done.
I'm kind of interested to find out the history of this book. Leaves me to wonder how people viewed this book. I liked this book because you don't have to be religious to enjoy this or get this either. I'm not sure Zora was even Christian. Some might be bothered seeing Moses as a black man, but for me it makes sense with how Zora writes the book.
I think out of all her novels, this one is the most integrating one. I urge people to give this one a chance too. You know, she didn't just write one novel...