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Zora Neale HurstonA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Within Hurston’s political allegory, the Book of Thoth—a difficult-to-obtain book containing all of human knowledge—acts as a powerful symbol of literacy and technical training. As a young boy, Moses first hears of the Book of Thoth from his mentor, Mentu. Mentu claims that “when you read only two pages in this book you will enchant the heavens, the earth, the abyss, the mountain, and the sea” (56). Significantly, the Book is hidden within six boxes and guarded by a deathless snake—precautions that suggest that the knowledge it contains is dangerous in the hands of the people. As Mentu warns, anyone who reads it “would be too powerful for the palace” (57). Ultimately, Moses does find and read the Book of Thoth as an adult, and as a result “a divine power [is] with him” (117). This divine power leads Moses to God in Mt. Sinai, and ultimately to free the Hebrews from Egypt.
Because the Hebrews correlate with enslaved Africans in Hurston’s political allegory, the Book of Thoth functions as a symbol of literacy and radical self-reliance. Enslavers in the American South fought literacy among the enslaved in order to prevent them from working together and sharing their experiences.
By Zora Neale Hurston
Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo"
Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo"
Zora Neale Hurston
Drenched in Light
Drenched in Light
Zora Neale Hurston
Dust Tracks on a Road
Dust Tracks on a Road
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Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick
Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick
Zora Neale Hurston
How It Feels To Be Colored Me
How It Feels To Be Colored Me
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Jonah's Gourd Vine
Jonah's Gourd Vine
Zora Neale Hurston
Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life
Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life
Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston
Mules and Men
Mules and Men
Zora Neale Hurston
Seraph on the Suwanee
Seraph on the Suwanee
Zora Neale Hurston
Spunk
Spunk
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Sweat
Sweat
Zora Neale Hurston
Tell My Horse
Tell My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica
Zora Neale Hurston
The Eatonville Anthology
The Eatonville Anthology
Zora Neale Hurston
The Gilded Six-Bits
The Gilded Six-Bits
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Their Eyes Were Watching God
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Zora Neale Hurston
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