Race, Culture and Gender in “Spunk” and “M. Butterfly”
The short story, “Spunk,” by Zora Neale Hurston, part of the 1925 anthology by Alain
Locke, The New Negro, and the textual translation of the play, Madame Butterfly, into “M.
Butterfly” by David Henry Hwang are entirely diverse yet distinctly familiar. That is to say, each
text presents its readers with an illuminating cultural perspective on the relationship between
men and women, and through the construction of identity, both works capture the social essence
of physiology. More specifically, the social aspects of race, culture as well as gender are
uniquely significant in the short story, “Spunk” and the text, “M. Butterfly.” An examination of
the physiological conditions
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8).
Thus, “Spunk” serves as not only a cultural contribution but also a political one – defined
largely in part by the obfuscating literary-cultural register within which the short story’s
significance is articulated.
Furthering such a notion of Black consciousness as political are Fatemeh Azizmohammadi and
Nasser Mahmoudi, in their work, “Familial Characterization in Zora Neale Hurston's Spunk.”
Characterizing “Spunk” as a refutation of “contemporary claims that African Americans lacked a
distinct culture of their own,” Azizmohammadi and Mahmoudi affirm the significance of the
social aspect of Hurston’s text. For example, they schematize the theme in “Spunk” as one that
emphasizes “neither the male nor the female role but the importance of the family”
(Azizmohammadi and Mahmoudi, p. 149). Indeed, the role of family is that which brings the
element of blackness within Hurston’s story back into the realm of physiology. As such, the
cultural remnants of “Spunk” constitute the politics of the black family. Thus, Hurston’s work, in
its ability to link the intricacies of the black family to the dynamics of black culture, may fairly
enough be regarded as a politicization of the black body. Furthermore, because the story
I first read the novel during my Junior year of high school, during which time our main focus was merely to include African American authors in the canon, not to search their writings for their social and political implications. For this reason, I left my first reading of Hurston's novel with glazed-over eyes and a lifelong quest, if not an obsession, for a man like Tea Cake.
Zora Neale was an early 20th century American novelist, short story writer, folklorist, and anthropologist. In her best known novel Their eyes were watching God, Hurston integrated her own first-hand knowledge of African American oral culture into her characters dialogue and the novels descriptive passages. By combing folklore, folk language and traditional literary techniques; Hurston created a truly unique literary voice and viewpoint. Zora Neale Hurston's underlying theme of self-expression and search for one’s independence was truly revolutionary for its time. She explored marginal issues ahead of her time using the oral tradition to explore contentious debates. In this essay I will explore Hurston narrative in her depiction of biblical imagery, oppression of African women and her use of colloquial dialect.
In this book, Hurston writes in the dielect of the black community of the time. Many of the words are slang. Hurston begins the story with Janie telling it, but then it becomes a third person narrative throughout most of the story.
I think both authors would agree with this view. Both stories involve a woman and how they are viewed as well as the struggles they face. Hurston’s story is about a power struggle between men and women. She states “see God and ast Him for a li’l mo’ strength so Ah kin whip dis ’oman and make her mind.”
Narrator, this was a third person account, thus leaving much to the imagination. The conversation’s language was left as if truly taken from an African American speaker in the south in such a time. The way Hurston made the scenery appear before me was like a white sheet gets stained with red wine, unable to wash out of my mind. The narration was very brut in a grammatical manner, giving a wash bucket effect of never being settled.
Hurston begins the essay in her birth town: Eatonville, Florida; an exclusively Negro town where whites were a rarity, only occasionally passing by as a tourist. Hurston, sitting on her porch imagines it to be a theatre as she narrates her perspective of the passing white people. She finds a thin line separating the spectator from the viewer. Exchanging stances at will and whim. Her front porch becomes a metaphor for a theater seat and the passers
Zora Neale Hurston’s “Sweat” is a distressing tale of human struggle as it relates to women. The story commences with a hardworking black washwoman named Delia contently and peacefully folds laundry in her quiet home. Her placidity doesn’t last long when her abusive husband, Sykes, emerges just in time to put her back in her ill-treated place. Delia has been taken by this abuse for some fifteen years. She has lived with relentless beatings, adultery, even six-foot long venomous snakes put in places she requires to get to. Her husband’s vindictive acts of torment and the way he has selfishly utilized her can only be defined as malignant. In the end of this leaves the hardworking woman no choice but to make the most arduous decision of her life. That is, to either stand up for herself and let her husband expire or to continue to serve as a victim. "Sweat,” reflects the plight of women during the 1920s through 30s, as the African American culture was undergoing a shift in domestic dynamics. In times of slavery, women generally led African American families and assumed the role as the adherent of the family, taking up domestic responsibilities. On the other hand, the males, slaves at the time, were emasculated by their obligations and treatment by white masters. Emancipation and Reconstruction brought change to these dynamics as African American men commenced working at paying jobs and women were abandoned at home. African American women were assimilated only on the most superficial of calibers into a subcategory of human existence defined by gender-predicated discrimination. (Chambliss) In accordance to this story, Delia was the bread victor fortifying herself and Sykes. Zora Neale Hurston’s 1926 “Sweat” demonstrates the vigor as wel...
But soon she is off, true to her free-minded self. It is interesting to note that Hurston does not dwell on the socio-economic situations (i.e., slavery, poverty) that bring about the two rapes, as another black author (perhaps Richard Wright?) might have done. Hurston instead focuses on Janie’s very real, very necessary search for self-fulfillment. This kind of focus was not common in Black literature at the time of the writing (early 1930’s), and Hurston drew much criticism for what was seen as a refusal to address the social, economic and political issues that preoccupied her contemporaries such as Wright and Ralph Ellison. However, it can be argued that what Hurston was attempting, a portrayal of a culturally “self-sufficient” black community, was just as necessary for a full realization of Black consciousness as was the “protest” literature of the Harlem Renaissance.
Hurston’s characters have idealistic dialect for an African American in that time period; correctly depicting any stereotypes that might fall on the situation. The slang and slurs used throughout the characters dialogue makes the tale more realistic and believable. “Nope, sweetenin’ is for us men-folks. Y’all pritty lil frail eels don’t need nothin’ lak dis. You too sweet already” (987). This type of language appeals to me because of the fascination of a thick mock southern dialect. It is interesting to read the words and be able to hear the dialect sounded in your head. The language in this story helps the theme become more effective because it is obvious that they are less educated than most individuals. Typically, it is understood that the less educated have less money and money has always been known as the “root of all evil”.
" Hutcheon and Natoli, 71-90. Pondrom, Cyrena N. " The Role of Myth in Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God.
Harris, Trudier. "Celebrating Bigamy and Other Outlaw Behaviors: Hurston, Reputation, and the Problems Inherent in Labeling Janie a Feminist." Approaches to Teaching Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God and Other Works. Ed. John Lowe. New York: MLA, 2009. 67-80. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Lawrence J. Trudeau. Vol. 285. Detroit: Gale, 2013. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 14 Jan. 2014.
Hurston describes Eatonville not in a negative way, but more as a place that is not beneficial to an independent woman like Janie. Janie Starks, the wife of the mayor, is sentenced to spend her days as a worker in the town store, hair tied up, and silent. She must deal with money and figures without being able to enjoy the “lying sessions” on the porch, or attending such impressive town events like the “muleogy.” To the reader, Eatonville represents all that is repressive in life. Janie’s nature is restricted not by the town itself, but by her status in the town.
Mrs. Hurston not only uses the vernacular of the Deep South she also uses Southern traditional legends. One example of this is how the book refers to death. Death is called the, "Square-toed one," that comes from the West. Even if the reader is not familiar with referring to death as the, "Square-toed one," the use of traditional legends helps to make us feel like we are where the book took place.
Within every story or poem, there is always an interpretation made by the reader, whether right or wrong. In doing so, one must thoughtfully analyze all aspects of the story in order to make the most accurate assessment based on the literary elements the author has used. Compared and contrasted within the two short stories, “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, and John Updike’s “A&P,” the literary elements character and theme are made evident. These two elements are prominent in each of the differing stories yet similarities are found through each by studying the elements. The girls’ innocence and naivety as characters act as passages to show something superior, oppression in society shown towards women that is not equally shown towards men.
In conclusion, Hurston was a modernist writer who dealt with societal themes of racism, and social and racial identity. She steps away from the folk-oriented style of writing other African American authors, such as Langston Hughes, and she addresses modern topics and issues that relate to her people. She embraces pride in her color and who she is. She does not hate the label of “colored” that has been placed upon her. She embraces who she is and by example, she teaches others to love themselves and the color of their skin. She is very modern. She is everybody’s Zora.