An Analysis of Zora Neale Hurston’s “Sweat” From a Socio-Historical Perspective: The Plight of Black Women in a White Man’s World

Excerpts from the Paper

An Analysis of Zora Neale Hurston’s “Sweat” From a Socio-Historical Perspective: The Plight of Black Women in a White Man’s World
This paper will analyze Zora Neale Hurston’s “Sweat” from a socio-historical perspective that essentially looks at how the situation of Hurston’s protagonist captures the historical, social and human rights (or non-rights) realities of black women alive during the early part of the twentieth century in an America deeply divided along racial lines. The essay will describe the significance of each of the three perspectives discussed above – historical perspective, social perspective and human rights perspective – and highlight how each one of them, even if the distinctions between them are sometimes subtle, adds...

.....ination tactics against new immigrants. As we will see in this issue, it truly was a decade of extremes.
Big business means commercial operations that are organized and financed on a large scale.
A flapper was a young woman who showed her dislike of conventional dress and behavior.
Segregation is the act of separating a Stoup of people from a main body because of race or class.
PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): The career of the famous Hollywood entertainer Charlie Chaplin took off during the 1920s. Ironically, Chaplin often portrayed a homeless tramp in his films during this decade of extremes.
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By Eric Arnesen
Eric Arnesen is a professor of history at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He also is the consulting editor for this issue.