Drenched in Light

Zora Neale Hurston’s “Drenched in Light” is set in 1920s Florida and follows a single day of a young girl named Isis Watts, or Isie. The setting of a small town right outside of Orlando resembles Hurston’s own childhood in Eatonville. Published in 1924 by Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life, “Drenched in Light” debuted early in Hurston’s career and includes some of her recurring themes dealing with race, gender, and identity. Hurston went on to become a major writer in the Harlem Renaissance, publishing more than 50 works of literature in her 35-year career as a writer, anthropologist, and folklorist.

This guide refers to “Drenched in Light” as it appears in Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick, a short story collection published by HarperCollins in 2020.

Content Warning: The source text contains instances of domestic violence.

“Drenched in Light” is written in two parts, and its third-person point of view is limited to Isis’s perspective.

At the beginning of the story, young Isis is sitting on a fence post watching cars drive by on their way to Orlando while Grandmother Potts chastises her for not doing her chores, specifically raking the yard.