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MODEL: Which novel would you use to compare contrast and "Spunk"

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Hurston treats nature with____.
As a narrator in "Magnolia Flower," nature's voice assumes the role of_____ and____, revealing...
Nature affects the atmosphere in "______" and "______" by functioning as _______.

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Hurston: "How it Feels to be Colored Me"

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Hurston: "How it Feels to be Colored Me"

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The essay ZNH wrote that everyone should read while reading her stories:

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"Sweat" by Zora Neale Hurston

It was eleven o'clock of a Spring night in Florida. It was Sunday. Any other night, Delia Jones would have been in bed for two hours by this time. But she was a wash-woman, and Monday morning meant a great deal to her. So she collected the soiled clothes on Saturday when she returned the clean things. Sunday night after church, she sorted them and put the white things to soak. It saved her almost a half day's start. A great hamper in the bedroom held the clothes that she brought home. It was so much neater than a number of bundles lying around.

She squatted in the kitchen floor beside the great pile of clothes, sorting them into small heaps according to color, and humming a song in a mournful key, but wondering through it all where Sykes, her husband, had gone with her horse and buckboard.

Just then something long, round, limp and black fell upon her shoulders and slithered to the floor beside her. A great terror took hold of her. It softened her knees and dried her mouth so that it was a full minute before she could cry out or move. Then she saw that it was the big bull whip her husband liked to carry when he drove.

She lifted her eyes to the door and saw him standing there bent over with laughter at her fright. She screamed at him.

"Sykes, what you throw dat whip on me like dat? You know it would skeer me-looks just like a snake, an' you knows how skeered Ah is of snakes."

"Course Ah knowed it! That's how come Ah done it." He slapped his leg with his hand and almost rolled on the ground in his mirth. "If you such a big fool dat you got to have a fit over a earth worm or a string, Ah don't keer how bad Ah skeer you."

"You aint got no business doing it. Gawd knows it's a sin. Some day Ah'm goin' tuh drop dead from some of yo' foolishness. 'Nother thing, where you been wid mah rig? Ah feeds dat pony. He aint fuh you to be drivin' wid no bull whip."

"You sho is one aggravatin' nigger woman!" he declared and stepped into the room. She resumed her work and did not answer him at once. "Ah done tole you time and again to keep them white folks' clothes outa dis house."

He picked up the whip and glared down at her. Delia went on with her work. She went out into the yard and returned with a galvanized tub and set it on the washbench. She saw that Sykes had kicked all of the clothes together again, and now stood in her way truculently, his whole manner hoping, praying, for an argument. But she walked calmly around him and commenced to re-sort the things.

"Next time, Ah'm gointer kick 'em outdoors," he threatened as he struck a match along the leg of his corduroy breeches.

Delia never looked up from her work, and her thin, stooped shoulders sagged further.
"Ah aint for no fuss t'night Sykes. Ah just come from taking sacrament at the church house."

He snorted scornfully. "Yeah, you just come from de church house on a Sunday night, but heah you is gone to work on them clothes. You ain't nothing but a hypocrite. One of them amen-corner Christians-sing, whoop, and shout, then come home and wash white folks clothes on the Sabbath."

He stepped roughly upon the whitest pile of things, kicking them helter-skelter as he crossed the room. His wife gave a little scream of dismay, and quickly gathered them together again.

"Sykes, you quit grindin' dirt into these clothes! How can Ah git through by Sat'day if Ah don't start on Sunday?"

"Ah don't keer if you never git through. Anyhow, Ah done promised Gawd and a couple of other men, Ah aint gointer have it in mah house. Don't gimme no lip neither, else Ah'll throw 'em out and put mah fist up side yo' head to boot."

Delia's habitual meekness seemed to slip from her shoulders like a blown scarf. She was on her feet; her poor little body, her bare knuckly hands bravely defying the strapping hulk before her.

"Looka heah, Sykes, you done gone too fur. Ah been married to you fur fifteen years, and Ah been takin' in washin' for fifteen years. Sweat, sweat, sweat! Work and sweat, cry and sweat, pray and sweat!"

"What's that got to do with me?" he asked brutally.

"What's it got to do with you, Sykes? Mah tub of suds is filled yo' belly with vittles more times than yo' hands is filled it. Mah sweat is done paid for this house and Ah reckon Ah kin keep on sweatin' in it."

She seized the iron skillet from the stove and struck a defensive pose, which act surprised him greatly, coming from her. It cowed him and he did not strike her as he usually did.

"Naw you won't," she panted, "that ole snaggle-toothed black woman you runnin' with aint comin' heah to pile up on mah sweat and blood. You aint paid for nothin' on this place, and Ah'm gointer stay right heah till Ah'm toted out foot foremost."

"Well, you better quit gittin' me riled up, else they'll be totin' you out sooner than you expect. Ah'm so tired of you Ah don't know whut to do. Gawd! how Ah hates skinny wimmen!"

A little awed by this new Delia, he sidled out of the door and slammed the back gate after him. He did not say where he had gone, but she knew too well. She knew very well that he would not return until nearly daybreak also. Her work over, she went on to bed but not to sleep at once. Things had come to a pretty pass!

She lay awake, gazing upon the debris that cluttered their matrimonial trail. Not an image left standing along the way. Anything like flowers had long ago been drowned in the salty stream that had been pressed from her heart. Her tears, her sweat, her blood. She had brought love to the union and he had brought a longing after the flesh. Two months after the wedding, he had given her the first brutal beating. She had the memory of his numerous trips to Orlando with all of his wages when he had returned to her penniless, even before the first year had passed. She was young and soft then, but now she thought of her knotty, muscled limbs, her harsh knuckly hands, and drew herself up into an unhappy little ball in the middle of the big feather bed. Too late now to hope for love, even if it were not Bertha it would be someone else. This case differed from the others only in that she was bolder than the others. Too late for everything except her little home. She had built it for her old days, and planted one by one the trees and flowers there. It was lovely to her, lovely.

Somehow, before sleep came, she found herself saying aloud: "Oh well, whatever goes over the Devil's back, is got to come under his belly. Sometime or ruther, Sykes, like everybody else, is gointer reap his sowing." After that she was able to build a spiritual earthworks against her husband. His shells could no longer reach her. Amen. She went to sleep and slept until he announced his presence in bed by kicking her feet and rudely snatching the covers away.

"Gimme some kivah heah, an' git yo' damn foots over on yo' own side! Ah oughter mash you in yo' mouf fuh drawing dat skillet on me."

Delia went clear to the rail without answering him. A triumphant indifference to all that he was or did.

*****

The week was as full of work for Delia as all other weeks, and Saturday found her behind her little pony, collecting and delivering clothes.

It was a hot, hot day near the end of July. The village men on Joe Clarke's porch even chewed cane listlessly. They did not hurl the cane-knots as usual. They let them dribble over the edge of the porch. Even conversation had collapsed under the heat.

"Heah come Delia Jones," Jim Merchant said, as the shaggy pony came 'round the bend of the road toward them. The rusty buckboard was heaped with baskets of crisp, clean laundry.

"Yep," Joe Lindsay agreed. "Hot or col', rain or shine, jes ez reg'lar ez de weeks roll roun' Delia carries 'em an' fetches 'em on Sat'day."

"She better if she wanter eat," said Moss. "Syke Jones aint wuth de shot an' powder hit would tek tuh kill 'em. Not to huh he aint. "

"He sho' aint," Walter Thomas chimed in. "It's too bad, too, cause she wuz a right pritty lil trick when he got huh. Ah'd uh mah'ied huh mahseff if he hadnter beat me to it."

Delia nodded briefly at the men as she drove past.

"Too much knockin' will ruin any 'oman. He done beat huh 'nough tuh kill three women, let 'lone change they looks," said Elijah Moseley. "How Syke kin stommuck dat big black greasy Mogul he's layin' roun wid, gits me. Ah swear dat eight-rock couldn't kiss a sardine can Ah done throwed out de back do' 'way las' yeah."

"Aw, she's fat, thass how come. He's allus been crazy 'bout fat women," put in Merchant. "He'd a' been tied up wid one long time ago if he could a' found one tuh have him. Did Ah tell yuh 'bout him come sidlin' roun' mah wife-bringin' her a basket uh pecans outa his yard fuh a present? Yessir, mah wife! She tol' him tuh take 'em right straight back home, cause Delia works so hard ovah dat washtub she reckon everything on de place taste lak sweat an' soapsuds. Ah jus' wisht Ah'd a' caught 'im 'dere! Ah'd a' made his hips ketch on fiah down dat shell road."

"Ah know he done it, too. Ah sees 'im grinnin' at every 'oman dat passes," Walter Thomas said. "But even so, he useter eat some mighty big hunks uh humble pie tuh git dat lil 'oman he got. She wuz ez pritty ez a speckled pup! Dat wuz fifteen yeahs ago. He useter be so skeered uh losin' huh, she could make him do some parts of a husband's duty. Dey never wuz de same in de mind."

"There oughter be a law about him," said Lindsay. "He aint fit tuh carry guts tuh a bear."

Clarke spoke for the first time. "Taint no law on earth dat kin make a man be decent if it aint in 'im. There's plenty men dat takes a wife lak dey do a joint uh sugar-cane. It's round, juicy an' sweet when dey gits it. But dey squeeze an' grind, squeeze an' grind an' wring tell dey wring every drop uh pleasure dat's in 'em out. When dey's satisfied dat dey is wrung dry, dey treats 'em jes lak dey do a cane-chew. Dey throws em away. Dey knows whut dey is doin' while dey is at it, an' hates theirselves fuh it but they keeps on hangin' after huh tell she's empty. Den dey hates huh fuh bein' a cane-chew an' in de way."

"We oughter take Syke an' dat stray 'oman uh his'n down in Lake Howell swamp an' lay on de rawhide till they cain't say Lawd a' mussy.' He allus wuz uh ovahbearin' niggah, but since dat white 'oman from up north done teached 'im how to run a automobile, he done got too biggety to live-an' we oughter kill 'im," Old Man Anderson advised.

A grunt of approval went around the porch. But the heat was melting their civic virtue, and Elijah Moseley began to bait Joe Clarke.

"Come on, Joe, git a melon outa dere an' slice it up for yo' customers. We'se all sufferin' wid de heat. De bear's done got me!"

"Thass right, Joe, a watermelon is jes' whut Ah needs tuh cure de eppizudicks," Walter Thomas joined forces with Moseley. "Come on dere, Joe. We all is steady customers an' you aint set us up in a long time. Ah chooses dat long, bowlegged Floridy favorite."

"A god, an' be dough. You all gimme twenty cents and slice way," Clarke retorted. "Ah needs a col' slice m'self. Heah, everybody chip in. Ah'll lend y'll mah meat knife."

The money was quickly subscribed and the huge melon brought forth. At that moment, Sykes and Bertha arrived. A determined silence fell on the porch and the melon was put away again.

Merchant snapped down the blade of his jackknife and moved toward the store door.

"Come on in, Joe, an' gimme a slab uh sow belly an' uh pound uh coffee-almost fuhgot 'twas Sat'day. Got to git on home." Most of the men left also.

Just then Delia drove past on her way home, as Sykes was ordering magnificently for Bertha. It pleased him for Delia to see.

"Git whutsoever yo' heart desires, Honey. Wait a minute, Joe. Give huh two bottles uh strawberry soda-water, uh quart uh parched ground-peas, an' a block uh chewin' gum."

With all this they left the store, with Sykes reminding Bertha that this was his town and she could have it if she wanted it.

The men returned soon after they left, and held their watermelon feast.

"Where did Syke Jones git da 'oman from nohow?" Lindsay asked.

"Ovah Apopka. Guess dey musta been cleanin' out de town when she lef'. She don't look lak a thing but a hunk uh liver wid hair on it."

"Well, she sho' kin squall," Dave Carter contributed. "When she gits ready tuh laff, she jes' opens huh mouf an' latches it back tuh de las' notch. No ole grandpa alligator down in Lake Bell ain't got nothin' on huh."

*****

Bertha had been in town three months now. Sykes was still paying her room rent at Della Lewis'-the only house in town that would have taken her in. Sykes took her frequently to Winter Park to "stomps." He still assured her that he was the swellest man in the state.

"Sho' you kin have dat lil' ole house soon's Ah kin git dat 'oman outa dere. Everything b'longs tuh me an' you sho' kin have it. Ah sho' 'bominates uh skinny 'oman. Lawdy, you sho' is got one portly shape on you! You kin git anything you wants. Dis is mah town an' you sho' kin have it."

Delia's work-worn knees crawled over the earth in Gethsemane and up the rocks of Calvary many, many times during these months. She avoided the villagers and meeting places in her efforts to be blind and deaf. But Bertha nullified this to a degree, by coming to Delia's house to call Sykes out to her at the gate.

Delia and Sykes fought all the time now with no peaceful interludes. They slept and ate in silence. Two or three times Delia had attempted a timid friendliness, but she was repulsed each time. It was plain that the breaches must remain agape.

The sun had burned July to August. The heat streamed down like a million hot arrows, smiting all things living upon the earth. Grass withered, leaves browned, snakes went blind in shedding and men and dogs went mad. Dog days!

Delia came home one day and found Sykes there before her. She wondered, but started to go on into the house without speaking, even though he was standing in the kitchen door and she must either stoop under his arm or ask him to move. He made no room for her. She noticed a soap box beside the steps, but paid no particular attention to it, knowing that he must have brought it there. As she was stooping to pass under his outstretched arm, he suddenly pushed her backward, laughingly.

"Look in de box dere Delia, Ah done brung yuh somethin'!"

She nearly fell upon the box in her stumbling, and when she saw what it held, she all but fainted outright.

"Syke! Syke, mah Gawd! You take dat rattlesnake 'way from heah! You gottuh. Oh, Jesus, have mussy!"

"Ah aint gut tuh do nuthin' uh de kin'-fact is Ah aint got tuh do nothin' but die. Taint no use uh you puttin' on airs makin' out lak you skeered uh dat snake-he's gointer stay right heah tell he die. He wouldn't bite me cause Ah knows how tuh handle 'im. Nohow he wouldn't risk breakin' out his fangs 'gin yo' skinny laigs."

"Naw, now Syke, don't keep dat thing 'roun' heah tuh skeer me tuh death. You knows Ah'm even feared uh earth worms. Thass de biggest snake Ah evah did see. Kill 'im Syke, please."

"Doan ast me tuh do nothin' fuh yuh. Goin' roun' trying' tuh be so damn asterperious. Naw, Ah aint gonna kill it. Ah think uh damn sight mo' uh him dan you! Dat's a nice snake an' anybody doan lak 'im kin jes' hit de grit."

The village soon heard that Sykes had the snake, and came to see and ask questions.

"How de hen-fire did you ketch dat six-foot rattler, Syke?" Thomas asked.

"He's full uh frogs so he caint hardly move, thass how. Ah eased up on 'm. But Ah'm a snake charmer an' knows how tuh handle 'em. Shux, dat aint nothin'. Ah could ketch one eve'y day if Ah so wanted tuh."

"Whut he needs is a heavy hick'ry club leaned real heavy on his head. Dat's de bes 'way tuh charm a rattlesnake."

"Naw, Walt, y'll jes' don't understand dese diamon' backs lak Ah do," said Sykes in a superior tone of voice.

The village agreed with Walter, but the snake stayed on. His box remained by the kitchen door with its screen wire covering. Two or three days later it had digested its meal of frogs and literally came to life. It rattled at every movement in the kitchen or the yard. One day as Delia came down the kitchen steps she saw his chalky-white fangs curved like scimitars hung in the wire meshes. This time she did not run away with averted eyes as usual. She stood for a long time in the doorway in a red fury that grew bloodier for every second that she regarded the creature that was her torment.

That night she broached the subject as soon as Sykes sat down to the table.

"Syke, Ah wants you tuh take dat snake 'way fum heah. You done starved me an' Ah put up widcher, you done beat me an Ah took dat, but you done kilt all mah insides bringin' dat varmint heah."

Sykes poured out a saucer full of coffee and drank it deliberately before he answered her.

"A whole lot Ah keer 'bout how you feels inside uh out. Dat snake aint goin' no damn wheah till Ah gits ready fuh 'im tuh go. So fur as beatin' is concerned, yuh aint took near all dat you gointer take ef yuh stay 'roun' me."

Delia pushed back her plate and got up from the table. "Ah hates you, Sykes," she said calmly. "Ah hates you tuh de same degree dat Ah useter love yuh. Ah done took an' took till mah belly is full up tuh mah neck. Dat's de reason Ah got mah letter fum de church an' moved mah membership tuh Woodbridge-so Ah don't haf tuh take no sacrament wid yuh. Ah don't wantuh see yuh 'roun' me atall. Lay 'roun' wid dat 'oman all yuh wants tuh, but gwan 'way fum me an' mah house. Ah hates yuh lak uh suck-egg dog."

Sykes almost let the huge wad of corn bread and collard greens he was chewing fall out of his mouth in amazement. He had a hard time whipping himself up to the proper fury to try to answer Delia.

"Well, Ah'm glad you does hate me. Ah'm sho' tiahed uh you hangin' ontuh me. Ah don't want yuh. Look at yuh stringey ole neck! Yo' rawbony laigs an' arms is enough tuh cut uh man tuh death. You looks jes' lak de devvul's doll-baby tuh me. You cain't hate me no worse dan Ah hates you. Ah been hatin' you fuh years."

"Yo' ole black hide don't look lak nothin' tuh me, but uh passle uh wrinkled up rubber, wid yo' big ole yeahs flappin' on each side lak uh paih uh buzzard wings. Don't think Ah'm gointuh be run 'way fum mah house neither. Ah'm goin' tuh de white folks bout you, mah young man, de very nex' time you lay yo' han's on me. Mah cup is done run ovah." Delia said this with no signs of fear and Sykes departed from the house, threatening her, but made not the slightest move to carry out any of them.

That night he did not return at all, and the next day being Sunday, Delia was glad she did not have to quarrel before she hitched up her pony and drove the four miles to Woodbridge.

She stayed to the night service-"love feast"-which was very warm and full of spirit. In the emotional winds her domestic trials were borne far and wide so that she sang as she drove homeward.

"Jurden water, black an' col'

Chills de body, not de soul

An' Ah wantah cross Jurden in uh calm time."

She came from the barn to the kitchen door and stopped.

"Whut's de mattah, ol' satan, you aint kickin' up yo' racket?" She addressed the snake's box. Complete silence. She went on into the house with a new hope in its birth struggles. Perhaps her threat to go to the white folks had frightened Sykes! Perhaps he was sorry! Fifteen years of misery and suppression had brought Delia to the place where she would hope anything that looked towards a way over or through her wall of inhibitions.

She felt in the match safe behind the stove at once for a match. There was only one there.

"Dat niggah wouldn't fetch nothin' heah tuh save his rotten neck, but he kin run thew whut Ah brings quick enough. Now he done toted off nigh on tuh haff uh box uh matches. He done had dat 'oman heah in mah house, too."

Nobody but a woman could tell how she knew this even before she struck the match. But she did and it put her into a new fury.

Presently she brought in the tubs to put the white things to soak. This time she decided she need not bring the hamper out of the bedroom; she would go in there and do the sorting. She picked up the pot-bellied lamp and went in. The room was small and the hamper stood hard by the foot of the white iron bed. She could sit and reach through the bedposts-resting as she worked.

"Ah wantah cross Jurden in uh calm time," she was singing again. The mood of the "love feast" had returned. She threw back the lid of the basket almost gaily. Then, moved by both horror and terror, she sprang back toward the door. There lay the snake in the basket! He moved sluggishly at first, but even as she turned round and round, jumped up and down in an insanity of fear, he began to stir vigorously. She saw him pouring his awful beauty from the basket upon the bed, then she seized the lamp and ran as fast as she could to the kitchen. The wind from the open door blew out the light and the darkness added to her terror. She sped to the darkness of the yard, slamming the door after her before she thought to set down the lamp. She did not feel safe even on the ground, so she climbed up in the hay barn.

There for an hour or more she lay sprawled upon the hay a gibbering wreck.

Finally, she grew quiet, and after that, coherent thought. With this, stalked through her a cold, bloody rage. Hours of this. A period of introspection, a space of retrospection, then a mixture of both. Out of this an awful calm.

"Well, Ah done de bes' Ah could. If things aint right, Gawd knows taint mah fault."

She went to sleep-a twitch sleep-and woke up to a faint gray sky. There was a loud hollow sound below. She peered out. Sykes was at the wood-pile, demolishing a wire-covered box.

He hurried to the kitchen door, but hung outside there some minutes before he entered, and stood some minutes more inside before he closed it after him.

The gray in the sky was spreading. Delia descended without fear now, and crouched beneath the low bedroom window. The drawn shade shut out the dawn, shut in the night. But the thin walls held back no sound.

"Dat ol' scratch is woke up now!" She mused at the tremendous whirr inside, which every woodsman knows, is one of the sound illusions. The rattler is a ventriloquist. His whirr sounds to the right, to the left, straight ahead, behind, close under foot-everywhere but where it is. Woe to him who guesses wrong unless he is prepared to hold up his end of the argument! Sometimes he strikes without rattling at all.

Inside, Sykes heard nothing until he knocked a pot lid off the stove while trying to reach the match safe in the dark. He had emptied his pockets at Bertha's.

The snake seemed to wake up under the stove and Sykes made a quick leap into the bedroom. In spite of the gin he had had, his head was clearing now.

"'Mah Gawd!" he chattered, "ef Ah could on'y strack uh light!"

The rattling ceased for a moment as he stood paralyzed. He waited. It seemed that the snake waited also.

"Oh, fuh de light! Ah thought he'd be too sick"-Sykes was muttering to himself when the whirr began again, closer, right underfoot this time. Long before this, Sykes' ability to think had been flattened down to primitive instinct and he leaped-onto the bed.

Outside Delia heard a cry that might have come from a maddened chimpanzee, a stricken gorilla. All the terror, all the horror, all the rage that man possibly could express, without a recognizable human sound.

A tremendous stir inside there, another series of animal screams, the intermittent whirr of the reptile. The shade torn violently down from the window, letting in the red dawn, a huge brown hand seizing the window stick, great dull blows upon the wooden floor punctuating the gibberish of sound long after the rattle of the snake had abruptly subsided. All this Delia could see and hear from her place beneath the window, and it made her ill. She crept over to the four-o'clocks and stretched herself on the cool earth to recover.

She lay there. "Delia. Delia!" She could hear Sykes calling in a most despairing tone as one who expected no answer. The sun crept on up, and he called. Delia could not move-her legs were gone flabby. She never moved, he called, and the sun kept rising.

"Mah Gawd!" She heard him moan, "Mah Gawd fum Heben!" She heard him stumbling about and got up from her flower-bed. The sun was growing warm. As she approached the door she heard him call out hopefully, "Delia, is dat you Ah heah?"

She saw him on his hands and knees as soon as she reached the door. He crept an inch or two toward her-all that he was able, and she saw his horribly swollen neck and his one open eye shining with hope. A surge of pity too strong to support bore her away from that eye that must, could not, fail to see the tubs. He would see the lamp. Orlando with its doctors was too far. She could scarcely reach the Chinaberry tree, where she waited in the growing heat while inside she knew the cold river was creeping up and up to extinguish that eye which must know by now that she knew.

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"Sweat" by Zora Neale Hurston It was eleven o'clock of a Spring night in Florida. It was Sunday. Any other night, Delia Jones would have been in bed for two hours by this time. But she was a wash-woman, and Monday morning meant a great deal to her.

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Quotations about the Novel and Short Story With IB Paper 2 Prompts

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aalbc.com: African American Literature Book Club

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The Gilded Six-Bits, A Short Story by Zora Neale Hurston

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The Gilded Six-Bits, A Short Story by Zora Neale Hurston (Jan 01, 1970)

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"Looka heah, Sykes, you done gone too fur. Ah been married to you fur fifteen years, and Ah been takin’ in washin’ for fifteen years. Sweat, sweat, sweat! Work and sweat, cry and sweat, pray and sweat!”

(symbolism/repetition/conflict/dialogue)

The main character Delia Jones is extremely upset at her husband of fifteen years for playing a "joke" on her. He caused a black bull whip to fall upon her shoulders while doing laundry, Delia immediately went into a panic thinking the whip was a snake. During their argument the characters display a Man vs. Man conflict over the symbolic whip. The quote also shows repetition from the title with the word "sweat constantly being used.

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"she wore trailing robes,golden slippers with blue bottoms. she rode white horses with flaring pink nostrils to the horizon, for she still believed it to be lands end."

This quote continues the motif of innocence as it shows how Isis is pure as a character. This is seen when she states that the horizon is still believed to be lands end. She is also stated as riding a white horse which can also be symbolism for innocence because white is often associated with purity and innocence.

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Quote: I ain't want to shoot him, but he was a coward."
Commentary: This line poses an, perhaps, as a means to summarize stories inherent theme in a economic fashion. Indeed, the contrast between a coward and a man/women of bravery is apparent in this line. the shooter has the courage to shoot another man for a mere moral code. Hence, the reader can conclude that Hurston wants us to consider the true implications of the ideal man. If, in fact, the ideal man is categorized by courage and toughness, then what might come from marry a man of that caliber- 🤬? Furthermore, the central conflict in the story is the marriage between two souls, and Hurston uses this to compare societies ideal man to its antithesis. Overall, this line forces one to ponder the true meaning of Hurston's work.

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Delia pushed back her plate and got up from the table. “Ah hates you, Sykes,” she said calmly. “Ah hates you tuh de same degree dat Ah useter love yuh. Ah done took an’ took till mah belly is full up tuh mah neck.

This quote recalls an earlier motif of sweat: Delia has sweated all her pleasure and love out, and now it has been replaced with hate, to the same degree with which she loved Sykes. Expanding upon this, she flips the idea that Sykes wrung her out and instead suggests that he has instead shoved his brutality down her throat.

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There's not much written about their lives aside from what's happening at the current moment. There is more than enough evidence that the two of them love each other. The play fighting, bantering through dinner, chasing each other around the house, a routine in place after x years. Even though they went through a hardship, the two of them fell back into their old routine as if nothing.

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Quote: "The women ate heartily of the funeral baked meats and wondered who

would be Lena’s next. The men whispered coarse conjectures between

guzzles of whiskey."
Commentary: This really is a statement on the differences between men and women. Almost the whole story, men are the ones giving the information and it is all talked about in a store and they are just talking talk and never really wonder anything. The women, when they are brought up are gossiping about who Lena is gonna go after next instead of talking about how awful everything was or just being polite because they are doing this over the funeral meats. The men are also again showed as just men sort of in a barber shop where they just talk but they are doing it while they drink to remember and forget their friends and this really shows that nothing has changed for them.

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“Look, ’Lige, you goin’ to set up wid 🤬?”

“New, Ah reckon not, Walter. Tell yuh the truth, Ah’m a lil bit skittish.

🤬 died too wicket—died cussin’ he did. You know he thought he wuz

done outa life.”

It is ironic that even after his death, 🤬 still evoked fear in the majority of the towns people. It proves how much influence he had over the entire town, perhaps they feared him though because they too suspected Joe was 🤬's killer. I also find it sort of "funny" that they mentioned earlier in the story that 🤬 had never met his match, especially in Joe, and then shortly after he was "killed by Joe". But perhaps his own guilt drove him to make impulsive decisions and led to his death. Just a couple of disorganized thoughts.

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Quote ¨She lay awake, gazing upon the debris that cluttered their matrimonial trail. Not an image left standing along the way. Anything like flowers had long ago been drowned in the salty stream that had been pressed from her heart. Her tears, her sweat, her blood. She had brought love to the union and he had brought a longing after the flesh. ¨

Commentary: Delia reflects on her past and her poor decisions. She describes how the man she married has mistreated her and that she has physically changed because of it. This connects the sweat she has put into the things she has earned in her life.

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"The sun had burned July to August. The heat streamed down like a million hot arrows..."

This section is important to the development of the story as it acts as a turning point in the story. It sticks out because of the title and references to sweating in the heat. While the sun here is killing all that lays under it, the relationship and conflict between Delia and Sykes is coming to a climax. In these few sentences, Hurston moves the time frame of the story by a month while ramping up the tension in the story as heat often makes people more on edge. Hurston's ability to move the plot like this is important in the realm of the short story. If this were a novel, she would have had more room to fill in those months with events.

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Quote:

"🤬 steps right up and starts ridin’. The rest of us was skeered to go near it.”
Dialectical: This quote shows how other characters view 🤬. they see him as a higher character that cannot be matched by normal people. He does things that other people cannot do. It seems like he goes by his own rules, and there is nothing anyone can do to change his mind. This be generalized to show that men as a whole control other people's lives, the women were just talking about him, they did not do anything to change him.

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This story shows the way life is often cyclical, at the beginning the husband is joking with his wife by putting a whip on her shoulder, and at the end of the story the husband is attacked and killed by one.

´Just then something long, round, limp and black fell upon her shoulders and slithered to the floor beside her. A great terror took hold of her. It softened her knees and dried her mouth so that it was a full minute before she could cry out or move. Then she saw that it was the big bull whip her husband liked to carry when he drove.´

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Quote: One day as Delia came down the kitchen steps she saw his chalky-white fangs curved like scimitars hung in the wire meshes. This time she did not run away with averted eyes as usual. She stood for a long time in the doorway in a red fury that grew bloodier for every second that she regarded the creature that was her torment.

Analysis: This excerpt for me felt like the turning point for our protagonist Delia. She moves from really being susceptible and passive toward the behavior of Sykes. In the end, she does get her sort of passive revenge on him but this is where I really thought she was going to do something about his behavior. The author uses imagery and metaphors in this excerpt to illustrate her turn. Like comparing the snakes teeth to a sword or her calling her anger bloody. The blood and sword definitely foreshadows some kind of death or violence in the conclusion. The same way she does not avert her eyes from the snake she will not avert her eyes from Sykes.

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Quote:  “Well, Ah’m goin‘ after her to-day. Ah’m goin’ an’ fetch her back.

🤬’s done gone too fur.”

It's safe to assume that Joe would not have gone after 🤬 with a knife if he wasn't encouraged by these townspeople. Even though these men are not directly involved in this situation, they act as though they know exactly what is right and wrong, and who should win at the end. It's like a game for them. They want to see how far they can push Joe, and they end up being successful in their mission to cause a confrontation between Joe and 🤬. They continue to call others cowards when they are cowards themselves.

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"He said this calmly...by a girl." It's interesting to look at the way he dies, especially in the context of the story. He has spent his life being cruel and angry, taking almost the same position as his masters, and it seems that as his wife, daughter, and henchmen desert him, even his own heart was unwilling to follow him any longer.

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Everyone in the village was there, even old Jeff Kanty, Joe’s father,

who a few hours before would have been afraid to come within ten feet

of him, stood leering triumphantly down upon the fallen giant as if his

fingers had been the teeth of steel that laid him low.

This scene is characteristic of the way the inhabitants of the town treat 🤬. They show him deference, even friendliness, to his face, but feel free to speculate and gossip about him behind his back. One has to wonder who exactly is the cautionary tale? Was is 🤬, who, if inconsiderate, was arguably justified in his actions, yet ended up dead? Or are readers supposed to scorn the people of the town for their treatment of him?

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ZNH took the idea of telling a love story and switched it up. She told the story through the eyes of a river. She did this to give the story that she wanted to tell a timeless effect, make this story stick out among the other love stories.
"I have seen millions of of lovers, child." Out of millions, this is the one that stands out.

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“Two months after the wedding, he had given her the first brutal beating. She had the memory of all his previous trips to Orlando with all his wages when he had returned penniless, even before the first year had passed.”

This quote informs the readers that from the beginning, Delia and Sykes had never had a happy marriage. Delia has been dealing with his abuse for so long, so it brings up the question of why did she stay with him. One explanation could be that she, being very religious, made herself stay in the marriage because she somehow saw hope in their future. Also, during this time period, it wasn’t exactly acceptable women to just leave their husbands. This fact also makes the ending more significant. She was at a point where she couldn’t endure anymore of his abuse, and the snake granted her freedom.

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“‘Mah Gawd!” he chattered, “ef Ah could on’y strack uh light!”
The rattling ceased for a moment as he stood paralyzed. He waited. It seemed that the snake waited also."

This is a very important event in the story as it illustrates the shift of power from Skye to Delia. Delia is scared of snakes as seen in the story. Skye abuses this fear and uses it as power that he holds over Delia. The snake, being used as a symbol of power(fear), creates an ironic shift as Skye becomes afraid of the snake in the end and begs Delia to help him. This symbol along with sweat symbolizing defiance/independence emphasizes the continuous struggle present throughout the story and how it begins to shift during this event.

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In contrast to the whimsical language of the brook, the river takes on a more serious tone when describing the lovers and “infinite tears” he has seen. This establishes the river as a voice of maturity and wisdom from which the river can tell Magnolia Flower’s story with the perspective of time. In other words, the river has credibility as a narrator. If the brook were to recount this story, there would be more room to question whether or not Magnolia Flower and her lover were in the right to disobey her father. However, since the river is the narrator and it seems to sympathize with Magnolia Flower as evident by how Magnolia Flower feels that the river likes them, it lends more integrity to her actions that could otherwise be taken as simply disobedient.

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quote:"Know what Ah think? Joe

wuz a braver man than 🤬.”
this quote is important because it develops the motif of courageousness and cowards by bringing to light the switched roles of 🤬 and joe. At the beginning of the story joe was seen as being cowardly. however by the end of the story joe is viewed as a courageous figure who after death terrifies 🤬. This brings up questions like what does it mean to be courageous if the most fearless man in town is afraid of a puny man like joe. It also brings up the idea that even the most put together person can be brought to their knees by superstition.

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Quote: "The river slapped its banks angrily. 'But,' added the brook diffidently, 'I passed numbers of lovers as I came on. There was also a sweet-voiced night-bird.'  . . . I am wide awake now, and I suppose the brooks must be humored.'"

Analysis: Obviously this section is the best and most obvious example of personification I have ever seen. It is a conversation between the brook and the river. There is some kind of power difference and struggle between the two objects of nature. The brook seems to fell inferior and has a respect for the river. The imagery used by Hurston establishes the river as this wise and powerful figure that booms its responses to the brook in an intimidating way. This power difference is carried on in the river's story between the two characters due to racial inequalities.

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“If spirits kin fight, there’s a powerful tussle goin’ on somewhere ovah
Jordan ’cause Ah b’leeve Joe’s ready for 🤬 an’ ain’t skeered any more."

Fear is a plot device in this story that drives most of the events that occur. As fear and violence go hand in hand to create a stressful atmosphere this scene creates a sort of realization that without fear the characters in this story are on an equal playing field so to speak. The drive of the first half of the story is that 🤬 is using Joe's fear to manipulate him. However once Joe dies there is an implied epiphany Joe has (after he can no longer be intimidated) that causes him to loose that fear thereby gaining the ability to stand up for himself in the form of revenge. This story along with Sweat similarly use fear as a tool to represent/ enforce power and ironically shift this power to the underdog/ weak character. These stories so far all have in common the triumph of the underdog/ weak character causing the "antagonist" to ultimately fail.

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"The women ate heartily of the funeral baked meats and wondered who would be Lena’s next. The men whispered coarse conjectures between guzzles of whiskey."

In these final sentences of the short story, Hurston is characterizing the general men and women of the town, giving the reader a clue as to what may be in store for the characters beyond the death of 🤬, and demonstrates the dangers of community gossip. Lena is mourning the death of her second husband, and all the town's people seem to care about is not her mental stability or sorrow but her next man. Hurston has not described Lena in any way that would make her seem like an indecent women yet the everyone cannot see her humanity in the end because throughout the story, Lena has only been considered in the way one would view the hot gossip: one-dimensional. They cannot see the woman behind the plot device that came between two men.

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"Oh, I hope so, Harry...like that a lot."
Hurston describes the way that the white people interact with the young girl in strange language - every display of positive emotion is preceded by a warping descriptor: the smiles are furtive, hidden, their laughs are harsh, even the way the woman looks ahead is  hungry. Isis, however, is drawn to them because of her fear of her grandmother; willing to go along with their snide hospitality over the more familiar beatings waiting for her at home.

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"But he sho is got uh heap uh gold on 'im. Dat's de first time Ah ever seed gold money. It looked good on him sho nuff, but it'd look a whole heap better on you."

Missie is astonished at the amount of gold on Slemmons and this is where the reader can begin to tell something is sinister about this "man from Chicago" with an ice cream parlor.

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Hurston alludes to the innocence in white motif with this story. The tablecloth she used for her dress, the shaving cream her brother put on her and their grandmother. Isis takes the tablecloth to imitate the dancers she sees in the parade.

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Hurston has a message within this story, had Sykes been kinder to Delia she might have helped him.
“Sykes, what you throw dat whip on me like dat? You know it would skeer me–looks just like a snake, an’ you knows how skeered Ah is of snakes.”
"Delia and Sykes fought all the time now with no peaceful interludes. They slept and ate in silence."
“How Syke kin stommuck dat big black greasy Mogul he’s layin’ roun wid, gits me."
“Syke! Syke, mah Gawd! You take dat rattlesnake ‘way from heah! You gottuh. Oh, Jesus, have mussy!”

“Ah aint gut tuh do nuthin’ uh de kin’–fact is Ah aint got tuh do nothin’ but die. 🤬 no use uh you puttin’ on airs makin’ out lak you skeered uh dat snake–he’s gointer stay right heah tell he die. He wouldn’t 🤬 cause Ah knows how tuh handle ‘im. Nohow he wouldn’t risk breakin’ out his fangs ‘gin yo’ skinny laigs.”
Sykes had mistreated Delia with beatings and tormented her with things similar to snakes and an actual snake towards. He was always with some random woman who wasn't his wife, Delia. The two of them argued and it got to the point where they'd hardly talk to each other. It seems that all Sykes can do is agitate Delia and him bringing an actual snake was the last straw for her. So when he actually needed Delia's help, she stood by and let him die because, what had he done for her in the past few years let alone weeks or days.

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"I am in the jungle and living in the jungle way. My face is painted red and yellow and my body is painted blue...Music. The great blobs of purple and red emotion have not touched him. He has only heard what I felt...He is so pale with his whiteness then and I am so colored."

Zora Neale Hurston utilizes jazz music in order to highlight the disparity between her and her white friend. However, instead of taking the negative connotation of the word "colored", she creates a more positive imagery of her body being filled with bright colors in reaction to the music. Her white friend, however, is not as interested. He is colorless.

This piece, along with most of Hurston's work is focused mostly on black positivity and empowerment. She is full of emotion and color - making "colored" into a positive descriptor.

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"Dat make ’m look lak a rich white man. All rich mens is got some belly on ’em.”

In this story, and in many of Hurston's stories, the characters speak with that certain accent and dialect. Hurston is writing these stories, inspired by the where she grew up and how these people speak is important to their characterization. Despite having a "whitewashed" house and wanting to look like a rich (white) man, the characters are staying true to themselves through their language. While not the focus of the plot, Hurston is illustrating how southern African Americans were navigating race-relations in the early 1900s.

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Through Helen's dialogue, Hurston establishes Isis as the light of the story. However, this comparison does not come until the end. Throughout the stoyr, the reader can see that Isis is a lively and joyful child by her actions. Yet, her grandmother does not see her in that light. Her grandmother sees playing and dancing as disobedience that needs to be contained as it is not the traditional behavior of a "good" girl. Two people in this story saw the same actions by this girl and through of them in two opposing ways: lightness and darkness. By developing each character's perspective on Isis's actions, Hurston is showing how people will have their own opinions on others, but these do not define who that person is.

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pg 167 "this struck the child sorely ........that white shell road was her great attraction"

symbolism

The author uses the road to symbolize that Isis has a vivid imagination unlike her elders, and longs for knowledge of the outside world.

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Throughout this story, Hurston uses Isis and the white woman to show that money cannot buy happiness. Isis is a poor black child but seems to have a better life than the richer white woman. The white woman is jealous of Isis's "light" even if it seems from the outside that she has more than the child.

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"syke! Syke, mah gawd! You take dat rattlesnake 'way from heah!"

the snake in this scene is an allegory for Delia's relationship with her husband. Syke skulks around the house hurling insults at Delia like venom and because she is too scared to do anything about it she sits in contempt. A snake is often associated with the 🤬 which shows how Hurston likely feels about Syke and Delia's relationship.

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Quote: “Alone to herself, she looked at the thing with loathing, but look she must. She took it into her hands with trembling and saw first thing that it was no gold piece. It was a gilded half dollar. Then she knew why Slemmons had forbidden anyone to touch his gold.”

Slemmons lied to Missy about his gold, just how Missy lied to Joe. Along with feeling the shame of cheating on her husband, Missy now realizes that it was all for nothing because the gold wasn’t real. This is karma coming back to her after betraying Joe. Even though he eventually forgives her, she will now always be reminded that she was not only a cheater, she was a fool. It goes to show that being greedy often times does not end well for people.

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Quote: “She realized she couldn’t dance at the carnival. Her dress was torn and dirty. She picked a long-stemmed daisy.”

This quote calls attention to the fact that Isis makes the best out of every situation, and doesn’t let anything stop her from living her life to the fullest. Even though she had a torn dress, she came up with a solution fast and didn’t dwell on it. Her grandmother saw this as disobedience, but Isis just sees it as bringing light into a situation.

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Quote: “He said this calmly and stalked towards the gun rack; but his anger was too large to be contained in one human heart.”

This quote is important because it shows how Bentley being angry his whole life didn’t help him at all. If he would have just calmed down and accepted John, then he wouldn’t have died. It goes to show that being resentful doesn’t help you in the long run.

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Before telling the story, the river states "listened to those things that are uttered more with the breath than with the lips . . . flung themselves upon the soft couch I keep in my bosom, and slept" which gives light to the pessimistic view the river has on human love. It only talks of the sorrows that come of love, so in reading the story of Magnolia and John, a sad ending is expected. By the end of it, "Soon Swift Deer died . . . passed from the hearts of the people who had known her" the river leaves the story on a solemn note. Even though Magnolia escaped with John, the town behind them decayed, and the river made it sound like the people mourned Magnolia's disappearance with the ending sentence. Promptly after this, Magnolia and John show up, content and still in love, shocking the reader and the river, and ending the story on a more hopeful and happy note.

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The story and Isis are introduced when she is yelled at for fooling around instead of doing her chores, and this along with the use of words such as "gleaming" gives readers the hint that Isis is the one that is drenched in light. The use of the word drenched is peculiar, in that this word has connotations tied to flooding or drowning, both of which have negative connotations. This would insinuate that Isis is so submerged and enraptured in light that something unfortunate befalls her, but as the story progresses, no such event happens. This leaves the reader to question the choice of the word, or to infer what might happen to Isis now that she is with the white couple. This could be hinted through the wording of these last few sentences: "short, harsh laugh", "put her arm around the red-draped figure . . . and drew it close", and "looked hungrily ahead of her and spoke into space rather than to anyone in the car." It almost leaves an ominous feeling to the otherwise cheery, radiant story.