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. Spunk lives in a town where everyone knows him. He is a man who's size matched his self- confidence, his bravery, and the guy that had not one problem getting women, not even Joe's wife, Lena. The guys in the store constantly talk about how brave
The fight for justice is not always unequivocal or favorable, sometimes justice is given by means that do not seem fair at all. William Styron says in a novel that life “is a search for justice.” It is blatant that throughout Khaled Hosseini's novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, female characters are continuously battered with injustices. Hosseini hones into the oppression of women and the fight for women empowerment through the life of one of his main characters, Mariam. Her journey is shown throughout the novel where she struggles to search for and understand justice.
The short story “Sweat,” by Zora Neale Hurston, seems to exemplify the epitome of a bad marriage. Hurston uses foreshadowing and irony to demonstrate the disintegrated relationship between the abusive husband and the diligent wife. Throughout the story, it becomes obvious that the husband does not oblige by the motto, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Hurston’s use of irony and foreshadowing helps reveal the fact that “the good will prevail” and Sykes will finally get what he deserves.
After recently read a short story titled “Spunk” by Zora Neale Hurston about two men fighting for the woman that they love. Some stories end in happily ever after, but others end up in a tragic, like “Spunk”, one may say “fight for the person that you love”. In this story the two main characters are Spunk and Joe, they are both in love with the same woman, Lena. Spunk has a physical appearance that makes the village afraid of him, including Joe. Joe is married to Lena, but spunk wants her as well. Joe was shot after he took someone’s advice that he should go after Lena, which he did and for that advice caused his death. Spunk thought he
The Harlem Renaissance marked the coming out of many brilliant black authors and thinkers. Names like Jessie Redmon Fauset, Alain Locke, Ralph Waldo Ellison, Langston Hughes, and Zora Neale Hurston marked the scene. Hurton portrays many messages in her stories without having to explicitly spell it out. This among other reasons make Hurston's writing so rich. Two of her almost fable-like stories, "Sweat" and "The Gilded Six-Bits", each portray powerful messages individually. In "Sweat," you get a message of "whatever goes over the Devil's back, is got to come under his belly." You will reap what you sow among other messages. In "The Gilded Six-Bits," you learn that time will heal, money is the root of all evil, and other morals. These
The short story, “Spunk”, written in 1920 by famous author, Zora Neale Hurston of Eatonville, FL, contains many characters but there’s only one that I find to be very amazing, Mr. Joe Kanty. A member of the Harlem Renaissance, author and folklorist, Zora Neale Hurston, constructed many of her works like: “The Gilded Six-Bits”, “Spunk”, and “Their Eyes were watching God,” during the Civil Rights movement to help fuel the setting and purpose of her stories. In the short story, “Spunk”, Mr. Joe’s characters’ transitions or changes to help portray the hero and bravery him. Three character traits that determine Joe’s behavior or inner self throughout the story relates from him being loving and fearful to him becoming revengeful.
In the opening sentence of the story Hurston’s writes, “It was eleven o’clock of a Spring night in Florida. It was Sunday” (Hurston, 73). The beginning signifies correct English grammar and proper sentence structure, but in seamless Zora Neale Hurston’s fashion, the dialogue from the protagonist Delia Jones reads in broken incorrect syntax, “Sykes, you quit grindin’ dirt into these clothes! How can Ah git through by Sat’day if Ah don’t start on Sunday” (74)? In her short stories Hurston’s diction is elevated with the usage of morphology with the constant exchange of word formation with infixes, affixes and the combining of word choices. Hurston’s choice of diction offered a rhymical affect that adds a melodious tone to her writing shaped by the Harlem Renaissance period. As noted in the, The Florida Historical Quarterly “Hurston blended narrator and protagonist through language” (Haskin, 207) Her writing style aid in the management of mood, tone, character depiction, movement, and atmosphere in storytelling procedures. In the commencement of her stories, the storyteller, is communicating in standard English, the third-party narrative speaks as a representative for the character waiting to find his or her voice. As the character(s) discoveries their voice, they sway the narrator, and in the conclusion the narrator and central character are speaking for each other, using equally poetic, participating language (207).
Erick starts off very unpleasant to all the men that come into his mother’s life. One morning Erick was enjoying his favorite breakfast “when a man started changing it all” (Gilb 1) they would always try to include remarks about Erick like “Such a fine-looking boy! How old is he eight or nine? Erick wasn’t even small for an eleven year old.” (Gilb 1) Erick already knew that
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
The story Sweat by Zora Neale Hurston tells the story of Delia who overcame her abusive husband, Sykes through her development of becoming a strong woman. The development of Delia’s character throughout the story relates to Zora Neale Hurston’s life of growing up into a strong, empowered woman. Delia and Zora were both verbally and physically abused which made them afraid and timid. Zora made her characters talk in a dialect that she grew up listening to which was uncommon to do in literature. Delia and Zora both had to provide for themselves by putting in the effort remain stable and happy. They also stood up for what they believed in which started their development into strong women. Delia had to let her husband die in order to gain independence, while Zora had to move away from home in order to be successful in her future which developed them both develop into independent women. They became stronger because of these things which empowered them to take back control of their lives. The snake is a symbol in the story that represents the evil that was overcome by the good. This story can now be better analyzed when looking at the life of Delia which connects to Zora Neale Hurston’s life.
Zora Neale Hurston was a phenomenal woman. At the height of her success she was known as the “Queen of the Harlem Renaissance.” She came to overcome obstacles that were placed in front of her. Hurston rose from poverty to fame and lost it all at the time of her death. Zora had an unusual life; she was a child that was forced to grow up to fast. But despite Zora Neale Hurston’s unsettled life, she managed to surmount every obstacle to become one of the most profound authors of the century.
The author of “Telling Tails” elaborates on how a good story should be by saying “…, a well-imagined story is organized around extraordinary human behavior and unexpected and startling events, which help illuminate the commonplace and the ordinary” (O’Brien). If a story does not afford the reader the luxury to imagine these extraordinary events in our lives, the reader can be easily bored and lose interest in wanting to know more. An example of a well-imagined story that captivates its reader can be deduced from “Boys and Girls.” In this story, the father introduces his female child as a hired man to a salesman who says, “Could of fooled me…I thought it was only a girl” (Kelly 305). The statement being used can tell the reader how a female was thought of as an unimportant person. The author does not mention the obvious but leaves the readers to the device of their imagination. O’Brien would deem this story as a good one as the author is successful in telling a well-imagined and organized story about extraordinary human event and the place women had in society.
“Everybody's good when they're good, darling. You don't judge a person by that. It's how they act when things aren't good that tells you who they really are.” ― Megan Jacobson (Goodreads, “56 Quotes”) Much like the world around us, literature has many elements that have the reader portray their own understanding and perspective of it. In Sweat, Zora Neale Hurston gives the reader many different situations where many readers can have several viewpoints. This seems to be very similar to the Bible, where a child of God can read the same scripture as another and have a completely different meaning in their eyes. Zora Hurston uses many elements that focus on the idea that actions one does speak louder than words, by the use of religious imagery and Delia, the wife.
From the beginning to the end of the story, the narrator undergoes a transformation from a child of the farm to a young woman. From my perspective, she does not start out as particularly masculine; she is more of a blank slate that is trying to rebel against what she views as
Harlequin characters have acted as a precursor to the modern model of clowns. Within the Italian genre of the commedia dell’arte. Within this genre, the harlequin is a stock character recognized for foolish behavior and stupidity. These traits have traditionally defined the character, and are often the core components of the character’s emotional and psychological depth. However, the figure has been portrayed as a more complex character. A clear contrast between the idiotic nature of the traditional archetype and the psychologically-developed persona is displayed in the differing portrayals in Carlo Goldoni’s The Servant of Two Masters and Molière’s The Imaginary Invalid.
Zora Neale Hurston’s “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” can be interpreted as a reverse response of W. E. B. DuBois’ concept of “double consciousness” that he describes in “The Souls of Black Folk.” Hurston shows that not all African Americans experience a sense of double consciousness and that some are instilled with the self confidence required to embrace one’s “blackness.” First, it may be helpful to define consciousness before attempting to explain the notion of double consciousness. Consciousness is defined as the state of being mentally aware of something: oneself, in this essay. Therefore, we can now define double consciousness as the state of an individual being mentally aware of “two selves”: one as you see yourself and the second as