Columbia University
Where was Zora Neale Hurston born?
Eatonville, Florida
What was the name of Hurston’s first published piece and in what year was it published?
Fire!! (1926)
What movement is Hurston most commonly associated with?
Harlem Renaissance
How does Hurston write dialogue in her stories in order to make it more authentic?
Her dialogue is written in dialect, preferring truth in how people speak over grammatical correctness; many times even the dialects differ somewhat to show that the characters are not using a stock dialogue. She interjects singing, like when Delia is doing her work.
How does the location of “Sweat” relate to Zora Neale Hurston’s life?
It’s set in Florida, where she grew up—she probably based the issues in the story off issues faced by many back home.
In the beginning of “Sweat”, what does Sykes do to his wife Delia in order to frighten her?
He surprises her with his bullwhip, which out of the corner of her eye looks like a snake.
One of the biggest symbols in “Sweat” is that of the flower and tree-surrounded house. What does it represent?
The Garden of Eden, but like a corrupt version or what would have happened to Adam and Even if they hadn’t been forced from the garden for eating from the tree and gaining knowledge. Delia and Sykes have all the knowledge they need—that they hate each other and would prefer not to be together, but neither will leave their ‘garden’ and it ultimately leads to Sykes’ demise.
What type of symbol is the bullwhip?
A symbol of male authority over women—Freud’s quintessential phallic symbol—Sykes has power because he has a “whip”; Delia is powerless because she doesn’t.
What is in the crate that Sykes leaves for Delia near the end of the story?
Rattlesnake
What happens to Sykes and Delia by the end of “Sweat”?
Sykes gets killed by his own rattlesnake; Delia must now deal with the knowledge that she let him die by not stopping him from going into the house or warning him where the snake had been when she fled outside or even offering the lamp, knowing there were no lights inside.
What two elements did Hurston directly drawn on from her culture in “Sweat”?
Dialect (as discussed above) and segregation (how Sykes hates Delia working for whites; how Sykes hates Delia for her looks)
Select any three (3) of the themes below related to Hurston's short story "Spunk" and discuss...ensure you provide examples from the text and are complete in your thoughts...
- Double meaning of title
- Dialect
- Gender roles
- Gothic elements (ghosts can fight)
- Bobcat = dead guy *
- Spunk died “too wicket-died cussin’"
- Traditions
- Lamentations over the dead
- Funeral feast
- Gender Issues
- Spunk and Lena
- Woman as property and prize *
- “Spunk’s crazy ‘bout Lena..don’t want folks to keep on talkin’ ‘bout her”
- Women wonder who would be Lena’s next man *
In “Spunk”, Hurston presents women as property of men with no real self-determination. Spunk believes Lena is his because he went after her and she eventually showed preference for a man who went after what he wanted over a man who would let himself be walked over. However, it is obvious that now that he has won her, Spunk isn’t going to let Lena think she can change her mind—he claims “A woman knows her boss an’ she answers when he calls”, but just a few lines later, he “takes hold of her arm an’ says: ‘Lena, youse mine.’” He will take care of her, but she is not allowed to make any decisions. It is as though she is a pet on a leash and while she could go anywhere she wants, she’ll always be pulled back in, willingly or not, by the man holding the leash.
Perhaps, Lena is therefore left alone at the end of the story with the townswomen wondering who she’d go for next because she is seen as property. Joe was too weak to properly care for her, lost her, and was never able to recover her—he was a bad “owner” and therefore removed from the equation. Spunk obtained her through dishonest means (theft) and wasn’t planning on fully committing to ownership (through marriage) until the townspeople wouldn’t stop gossiping about her. He was a false, unworthy owner and, once again, removed from the equation. The women in town seem to think Lena needs a man (an owner) and are speculating if there are any that are good enough to fairly obtain and properly keep her that can stand up to Joe’s spirit’s standards, and maybe even Spunk’s own afterlife manifestation.
Joe’s return as the bobcat may be nothing more than a manifestation of a guilty conscience. Spunk stole Joe’s wife, killed Joe when he could have just as easily wounded him, and then took Lena into his own home. Of course the timing and location would indicate a sign to a superstitious man; then again, it could just be a wacky coincidence. However, if it was Joe’s spirit manifesting back on earth, it would give later credence to Spunk’s accusation that Joe manifested physically enough to push him into the saw and kill him. Spunk’s threat to go after Joe in the afterlife does give rise to questions about whether Spunk will also manifest himself on earth when Lena takes up a new man.
In Hughes's essay "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain", What does Hughes see as the greatest obstacle to the Negro artist? Why does it trouble him? According to Hughes, who is responsible for this obstacle?
Trying to get past the notion that white is the ideal, so black artists should aspire to be more like white artists and write with white-culture themes. It troubles him that to aspire to fame in America, African Americans would have to deny their own culture and its multitude of themes and experiences; he knows no artist can become great by denying his own identity. Hughes blames blacks and whites in this struggle: blacks for trying to influence artists to show their culture as “respectable”; whites for bribing artists with fame if they do not rock the boat. Generally, the aforementioned blacks are upper-class, somewhat affluent members of society that mix with whites on a daily basis and aspire to the white lifestyle.
Is Hughes pessimistic or optimistic about the future of black artists?
Optimistic—he sees in himself and other like him a movement that will glorify black culture through realism, as a real race with virtues and flaws; he even expects a movement in the theaters to begin soon after the publication of this piece. He is only pessimistic about black artists that would rather deny their own culture and write for others.
In Hughes's poem "The Negro Speaks of Rivers", How does the speaker establish the idea of heritage?
His poem runs off the idea of cellular memory—that our bodies and spirits remember the past, as having been part of what came before (following the conservation of energy theory—energy cannot be made or destroyed, only changed—the energy that drives humans today is merely a continuation in some way of what came before). That he says “I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins” indicates that his story must be a continuation of what came before, a heritage of memories at a basic, cellular or energy level. Also, in using certain rivers he suggests a movement through history (see below).
Why do you think the speaker chose the four rivers mentioned in the poem?
Each river has special connections to African American history as well as human history in general. The Euphrates flows from the Biblical Garden of Eden; he starts the poem’s list there because that’s where (biblically) life began. The Congo harkens back to his black heritage while the Nile and pyramids evoke images of the slavery in Africans’ past. It ends more recently at the Mississippi River, which slaves were sent down, but also which Abraham Lincoln went down when he freed the slaves.
What elements of the poem do you think made Fauset describe it as "dignified" when he read it?
It evokes emotions about slavery without once mentioning the institution by name. He talks about the Egyptian pyramids and Abraham Lincoln, but does not have to explicitly state “this poem is about our slave past”. It evokes a sense of suffering, as one generally only gains character through suffering (thus his deep and ancient soul), but does so by invoking grand and serene images (golden sunsets and being lulled to sleep). Hughes can bring up the horrors of the past as though he is above having to say what his race has been through to the beginning days.
What sensory images dominate the poem?
Much of the poem seems to contrast light and dark imagery. “Deep rivers”, “dusky rivers”, and “muddy” waters work alongside images of rivers turning “golden in the sunset”, young dawns, and the brilliant Egyptian pyramids. Also, his constant invocation of the rivers almost creates a soothing flow of words to accompany the image of softly flowing rivers.
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