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In the very center of Florida, a young girl grew up in a world where blacks were leaders. In the very center of the mean streets of Memphis, a young boy grew up in a world of hardships, desertion, and struggle. This girl and boy would grow up to be two of the most inspiring writers of the Harlem Renaissance: Zora Neale Hurston and Richard Wright. While Hurston wrote of the African-American experience in Their …

…opposing writing styles. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston writes to convey that life is controlled by God, using settings, characters, and various themes. Wright uses the same three devices in Black Boy to show that people have control of their own lives. These viewpoints, I believe, have arisen from Hurston’s and Wright’s childhood experiences, as Hurston struggled to find her voice, and Wright struggled to deal with not having a father.