Rethinking the African American Great Migration Narrative: Reading Zora Neale Hurston’s Jonah’s Gourd Vine

Abstract

In Jonah’s Gourd Vine Zora Neale Hurston depicts the South-South migration of her protagonist, John Buddy Pearson as part of the larger exodus of blacks during the early twentieth century. This novel, however, has been ignored in studies of the African American Great Migration narrative, mainly because such scholarship has focused on South-North trajectories. Yet Jonah’s Gourd Vine broadens and challenges dominant ideological models of the migration narrative, particularly the “urban adjustment” model which attributes the plight of black migrants to external factors. Hurston instead offers a look inward into her protagonist to find reasons for his failures, focusing on his individual struggle with his internal “brute beast” which clogs the pathway to his self-discovery. By thus centering her narrative on individual consciousness rather than on socio-cultural factors, Hurston presents a more nuanced view of the Great Migration in African American fiction.