Zora Neale Hurston was born in 1901. She was raised in Eatonville, Florida. Hurston went to Howard University and progressed on to Barnard College. Hurston’s work reflected the use of African American legends in her short stories. Hurston was a vital figure who composed stories and played during the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s and 1930s. She was committed to telling the stories of many cultures to allocate their social legacy with deference and love with an end goal to beat the unrefined stereotyping of her period. In 1925 during the Harlem Renaissance, Hurston wrote a story called “Spunk”. In the story “Spunk”, Hurston used the literary terms like character, setting, and conflict that catches the reader’s attention and made …show more content…
Hurston introduced Joe as a scrawny, small man who was afraid and scary. Joe was married to Lena but the narrator does not discuss what happened to their relationship. The reader can only assume that Joe and Lena had marital problems due to her being around another man. Joe became envious that his wife was with another man. Everyone thought that Joe could not stand up for himself. When Joe allowed Spunk to humiliate him in front of Lena, she was turned off by Joe. At first he was afraid to confront Spunk for taking his wife from him, but Joe was still in love with his wife Lena and wanted her back. After Joe heard that his wife was clinging on another man’s arm around town, he actually got the courage to confront Spunk. “Well, Ah’m goin’ after her to-day. Ah’m goin’ an’ fetch her back. Spunk’s done gone too fur.”(Joyce 1925, 502). Due to Joe being jealous and upset with Lena and Spunk’s relationship, Joe became violent towards Spunk and the guys started to fight. Joe’s goal was to get Lena back and get rid of Spunk. Joe ended up getting shot by Spunk because the author wrote, “See mah back? Mah close cut clear through. He sneaked up an’ tried to kill me from the back, but Ah got him, an’ got him good, first shot, said Spunk.” (Hurston, 1925, 504). After Joe died he started to haunt Spunk, coming back to life in a form of a bobcat. Joe wanted to get payback on Spunk because Spunk killed him and …show more content…
The conflict is exemplified very well throughout the story. The major conflict in the story was about the two main characters which are Joe Kanty and Spunk Banks, who are both in love with the same woman Lena. The story starts by stating Spunk walking around with Lena on his arms, not caring who sees him. “A giant of a brown-skinned man sauntered up the one street of the village and onto the palmetto thickets with a small pretty woman clinging lovingly to his arm.” (Hurston, 1925, 502).This quote shows him as an assertive man who does not care what people thinks of him. The people see Joe as weak and scary. A conflict aroused when Joe decided that he was going to confront Spunk to get his wife back. “ Didn’t he meet Spunk an’ Lena face to face one day las’ week an’ mumble sumthin’ to Spunk ‘bout lettin’ his wife alone?” (Hurston, 1925, 503). Joe is very upset and jealous that he lost his wife to Spunk. In the story the author wrote, “Ah like him fine but tain’t right the way he carries on wid Lena Kanty, jus’ ‘cause Joe’s timid ‘bout fightin’.” (Hurston, 1925, 503). The author showed that Joe was prepared to challenge Spunk and take back what belongs to him. Spunk and Joe fought for the love of Lena. Joe ends up getting killed with a gun by Spunk trying to get his wife back. “Well, Spunk announced calmly, Joe came out there wid a meat axe an’ made me kill him.”(Hurston, 1925,
Zora Neale Hurston was born January 7, 1891 in Notasulga, Alabama and later moved to Eatonville, Florida. She lived a happy childhood in her 8-room house and 7 siblings. As a child, she was raised in an all black community, therefore was never exposed to discrimination. Black achievement flourished in her town, including her father and mother. Zora’s father, John Hurston, formulated laws. Zora’s mother Lucy Ann Hurston aided in churches as a director of the christian curricula. However, following the death of her mother in 1904, Zora’s life shifted. Her father quickly remarried, resulting in a difficult relationship in which he no longer had the time or money for his children. (Gradesaver)
Zora Neale Hurston was born in Notasulga, Alabama on January 7, 1891. Her father, John Hurston, was a minister and he had several years as a mayor for that town. Her mother, Lucy Hurston, seemed to only have her family as any worries. Her childhood seemed to be perfect, it was free from racism and poverty (Zora 1). Although, everything changed when her mother passed away and his father remarried and soon was sent to boarding school. She was then expelled a while after her father stopped paying for tuition so she worked in a theatrical company as a maid (Zora 1). Quitting that job, at
Zora Neale Hurston, known as one of the most symbolic African American women during the Harlem Renaissance in the 1930’s. Hurston was known as a non fiction writer, anthropologist and folklorist. Hurston’s literature has served as a big eye opener during the Harlem Renaissance, celebrating black dialect and their traditions. Most of her published stories “depict relationships among black residents in her native southern Florida, was largely unconcerned with racial injustices” (Bomarito 89). Hurston was unique when it came to her racial point of views, promoting white racism instead of black racism. Even though her works had been forgotten by the time of her death, now her literature has left a bigger impact to future literature
Zora Neal Hurston was criticized by other African American writers for her use of dialect and folk speech. Richard Wright was one of her harshest critics and likened Hurston’s technique “to that of a minstrel show designed to appease a white audience” (www.pbs.org).Given the time frame, the Harlem Renaissance, it is understandable that Zora Neale Hurston may be criticized. The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement which redefined how America, and the world, viewed African Americans, so her folk speech could be seen as perpetuating main stream society’s view of African Americans as ignorant and incapable of speaking in complete sentences. However, others, such as philosopher and critic Alain Locke, praised her. He considered Hurston’s “gift for poetic phrase and rare dialect, a welcome replacement for so much faulty local color fiction about Negroes” (www.pbs.org).
She uses idealistic examples and real world situations to get the best realistic interpretation on the matter of the harlem renaissance. This novel also is a great way to learn and understand the importance of women's roles and rights during the harlem renaissance era for the black/african american women. All in all, Hurston’s depiction of the harlem renaissance reflects and departs the major topics and does so
Many writers allow their personal experiences to influence their writing, but Zora Neale Hurston used her life to influence others. Hurston took her personal experience and used it to show impoverished black youth that they can be successful. The way she was raised influenced her and created a woman who would pave the way for feminists to be recognized as a respectable group. Hurston had a way with words that still, to this day, have an affect on youth and will affect future generations.. Her childhood and her introduction to average American society developed Hurston into a preacher of equal rights, a teacher of confidence, and a writer ahead of her time.
Both Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes were great writers but their attitudes towards their personal experience as an African American differed in many ways. These differences can be attributed to various reasons that range from gender to life experience but even though they had different perceptions regarding the African American experience, they both shared one common goal, racial equality through art. To accurately delve into the minds of the writers’ one must first consider authors background such as their childhood experience, education, as well their early adulthood to truly understand how it affected their writing in terms the similarities and
In the short story “Drenched in Light” by Zora Neale Hurston, the author appeals to a broad audience by disguising ethnology and an underlying theme of gender, race, and oppression with an ambiguous tale of a young black girl and the appreciation she receives from white people. Often writing to a double audience, Hurston had a keen ability to appeal to white and black readers in a clever way. “[Hurston] knew her white folks well and performed her minstrel shows tongue in cheek” (Meisenhelder 2). Originally published in The Opportunity in 1924, “Drenched in Light” was Hurston’s first story to a national audience.
Zora Neale Hurston was an African-American folklorist, novelist and anthropologist. She was born in 1891 and lived in the first all-black town in the United States, Eatonville, Florida. Her 1937 novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God and played a vital role in the literacy movement the Harlem Renaissance is what she is best known for. Zora Neale Hurston depicts racism in her writings and has contributed greatly to African-American literature. Her work became more popular posthumously.
After Joe's murder the following things were said; "At the general store later on, they all talked of locking him (Spunk) up..."; "Know what ah think? Joe wuz a braver man than Spunk."; and "He (Spunk) oughter be nervous after what
A situation with a man who is known for having a way with women and not being scared of anything is normally not going to turn out well. In the short story "Spunk" written by Zora Neale Hurston, Spunk Banks is that man. Spunk is the protagonist of the story. Most of the things that happen to Spunk are things he brings upon himself. Spunk's character change is reflected through the what the guys in the store are saying about him, his actions, and what he says throughout the story.
Zora Neale Hurston was born on January 7, 1891 in Alabama. She is known to be one of the most influential novelist of the twentieth century in African America literature. Hurston is described to be a very opinionated woman that stood for what she believed in; which reflected in some of her works. In addition to her many titles such as, being an anthropologist and short story writer, she was closely related and heavily focused on the Harlem Renaissance. Zora Neale Hurston and her political opinions placed her at odds with important figures during that time which I wholeheartedly believe played a part in the undeniable attraction that most people have towards her works. Being that Hurston was such a unique writer, to understand the ethics and themes of her and how she contributed to African American literature comes with an understanding of the background and childhood she had.
At the beginning of the essay Hurston opens up with the statement that she is colored and that she offers no extenuating circumstances to the fact except that she is the only Negro in the U.S. whose grandfather was not an Indian chief. She presents a striking notion that she was not born colored, but that she later became colored during her life. Hurston then delves into her childhood in Eatonville, Florida an exclusively colored town where she did not realize her color then. Through anecdotes describing moments when she greeted neighbors, sang and danced in the streets, and viewed her surroundings from a comfortable spot on her porch, she just liked the white tourists going through the town. Back then, she was “everybody’s Zora” (p. 903), free from the alienating feeling of difference. However, when her mother passed away she had to leave home and
The short story Spunk by Zora Neal Hurston's depicted a deadly love triangle. A strong theme throughout the story was fear, although, the fear shifted from Joe to Lena to Spunk. Initially, Joe was fearful of Spunk, but Elijah toyed with his emotions and convinced him to go after spunk with a razor blade, forcing Spunk to kill Joe in an act of self-defense. Then, the fear shifted to Lena, she was devastated about witnessing the death of her husband, but not for long, in no time she was engaged to Spunk, her husband’s killer. It’s also important to mention that another major theme of this story was manliness, Spunk and Joe were constantly being contrasted. However, one day, Joe's manhood took a blow of its own—a bobcat showed up at his home and
The short story “Spunk” by Zora Heale Hurston was written during the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s and 1930s, where a cultural, social, and artistic burst took place in Harlem, NY significant for African Americans at the time. While Hurston’s work was widely ignored during the Harlem Renaissance, she was rediscovered in the 1970s through the women’s movement. Hurston’s style of writing is unique to her as her background in anthropology is reflected her works through hints of African American folklore. This can be seen in “Spunk” where her combination of folklore and raw southern dialect captures the reality of life in the South. The story describes a love triangle between Joe, Spunk, and Lena that others in town are interested in. While Lena and Joe are married, Lena and Spunk parade their affair around the town, allowing townsfolk like Elijah Mosley and Walter Thomas to gossip and rumor about the love triangle.