It seems that fighting is a game where everybody is the loser.
She's got those big black eyes with plenty shiny white in them that makes them shine like brand new money and she knows what God gave women eyelashes for, too. Her hair is not what you might call straight. It's negro hair, but it's got a kind of white flavor. Like the piece of string out of a ham. It's not ham at all, but it's been around ham and got the flavor.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote celebrates the beauty and uniqueness of a woman, appreciating her physical features through vivid imagery.
In this quote, Zora Neale Hurston describes a woman's striking features using imaginative and culturally rich metaphors. The comparison of her eyes to 'brand new money' suggests not only their visual appeal but also the value and allure they represent. Additionally, her hair is portrayed as having a distinct quality, reflecting both cultural identity and individuality. This artistic expression highlights the complexities of beauty, identity, and the appreciation of diversity.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote is perfect for a poetry reading discussing beauty in different cultural contexts.
More from Zora Neale Hurston
All quotes →Lack of power and opportunity passes off too often for virtue.
From barren brown stems to glistening leaf-buds; from the leaf-buds to snowy virginity of bloom…It was like a flute song forgotten in another existence and remembered again. What? How? Why? This singing she heard that had nothing to do with her ears. The rose of the world was breathing out smell. It followed her through all her waking moments and caressed her in her sleep.
Someone is always at my elbow reminding me that I am the granddaughter of slaves. It fails to register depression with me.
Don't you realize that the sea is the home of water? All water is off on a journey unless it's in the sea, and it's homesick, and bound to make its way home someday.
Two things everybody's got tuh do fuh theyselves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin' fuh theyselves.
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The advice I like to give young artists, or really anybody who’ll listen to me, is not to wait around for inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work.
It's important as a writer to do my art well and do it in a way that is powerful and beautiful and meaningful, so that my work regenerates the people, certainly Indian people, and the earth and the sun. And in that way we all continue forever.
It's like these ideas, these characters, kind of bubble up inside me, and one day they're not there, and the next day they are there. They're alive, and they're whispering in my head and all that stuff, and I want to write about those things.
Perceptions are portraits, not photographs, and their form reveals the artist’s hand every bit as much as it reflects the things portrayed
We shouldn't be copying what we see. We should try to find our own sense of style, to believe in ourselves.