After reading the beginning of Zora Neale Hurston’s memoir,
I was a bit nervous because I really didn’t understand where the memoir was
going. However, when Hurston starts focusing on Polk County and the lovable,
Big Sweet, the memoir begins to take off. I thought it was interesting that
Hurston let us know what she was doing there but after reading about the fight
in the end, I thought she could have just jumped us into the scene more.
Big Sweet was the best character in the section of this
memoir. One thing I noticed about Hurston’s writing is that she seems to hide
details from you, but then later reveal them throughout the memoir. For example
on page 392, as soon as Hurston tells us the name of Big Sweet, she doesn’t describe
her at all (other than saying she was the sworn enemy to Lucy), which at first
kind of disappointed me because right away I wanted to know more about her:
what she looked like, how big she was, how strong, etc. But later on in the
memoir she does a fantastic job of giving the reader the picture and attitude
of Big Sweet. On page 393 Hurston’s landlady tells Hurston, “Tain’t a man,
woman, nor child on this job going to tackle Big Sweet. If God send her a
pistol she’ll send him a man. She can handle a knife with anybody. She’ll join
hands and cut a duel.” She continues, “Dat cracker Quarter’s boss wears two
pistols round his waist and goes for bad, but he won’t break a breath with Big
Sweet lessen he got his pistol in hand. She ain’t mean. She don’t bother
nobody. She just don’t stand for no foolishness, dat’s all,” (393).
We continue to read in the memoir that Hurston and Big Sweet
became friends and Big Sweet swears to protect Hurston from Lucy, another crazy
knife woman on the job who didn’t like Hurston.
The fight scene I thought was incredibly well written and I
wish I had read it before doing my own memoir last time on a fight I had. It
definetley would of gave me more ideas on how to describe it to my readers. She
first sets the scene by telling us, “Several weeks went by, then I ventured in
the jook alone.” Unknown to Lucy who follows in Hurston, Big Sweet follows
behind her. Hurston describes Big Sweet protecting her, “My friend may have
been large and portly, but extremely light on her feet. She sprang like a lioness,” (394). Then
Hurston describes what she is watching and it paints a vivid picture in our
minds. She says, “The man who came with Lucy tried to help her out, but two
other men joined Big Sweet in the battle. It took on amazingly. It seemed like
anybody who had any fighting to do, decided to settle up then and there.
Switch-blades, ice-picks, and old fashioned razors were out,” (395). When I was
reading this part of the memoir I could just see this brawl taking place and I
thought Hurston did a nice job of creating and describing this scene.
One other little part of the story that I found particularly
interesting was all of the southern slang used in this memoir. I thought it
helped put us into the deep south and some of the lingo I still hear nowadays.
For example Big Sweet tells Hurston to look out because Lucy might “steal” her,
which means sucker punch pretty much. It’s a slang word that I heard a lot
throughout high school, funny how some things never change.
Hurston's memoir reminded me a little of the Eisley, in that her anthropological work was so intertwined with the memoir. This stuck out most to me through the use of dialect in the language of the different characters. Hurston relies heavily on dialogue throuout the piece, and it helps her characters come alive for the reader. In a way appropriate for an anthropologist, she includes many words and phrases that help preserve the culture of Polk County. One example of this is on page 392 where she discusses Big Moma and her "specifying" though she never outright defines this word, the reader understands its meaning through its use in dialogue.
ReplyDeleteZora Neale Hurston starts this excerpt of her memoir, Dust Tracks on a Road, by saying that she is going on a folklore search, and she is being sent by her anthropology professor. Though she is sent to Polk County to collect songs, she clashes with Lucy, a woman who accuses Hurston of stealing her man away from her, even though Hurston went to Polk County months after they broke up. I like Hurston's descriptions of Lucy; she really goes into Lucy's motives for being angry at her. However, she doesn't explain why Lucy and Big Sweet are enemies. This, like the fate of Lucy and Big Sweet at the end of the memoir, remains ambiguous. I also liked how Hurston hears about Big Sweet before she actually meets her, but knows she has to be friends with her. Though she initially wants to befriend her so she can protect her from Lucy, Big Sweet and Huston become close friends; Sweet even helps her with some of her research. I also liked how Hurston uses a lot of the dialect and local terminology that she heard in Polk County (“specifying,” for example). It really brings the reader into the setting. Though there wasn't much reflection in her memoir, it was an entertaining read.
ReplyDeleteI think this is one of the most interesting selections of a memoir that we have had to read so far. The beginning of said selection starts off with how Zora Neale Hurston started her anthropological journey in Florida, yet it is not just a summary. Hurston presents a small amount of background and then quotes a song she was researching and presents a paragraph that makes her seem like she was part of the culture she was researching. It is a change of pace to read from the perspective of someone besides the author. I mean, I know that memoirists write about other people but Hurston writes like she is inside those people. Basically, the whole thing is very cohesive from start to finish. Her story outlines her experience with the locals in a kind of “southern drawl” that makes her seem like a local as well. Hurston also quotes the character of Big Sweet perfectly. The articulation she inserts for her accent practically puts one in the sultry Polk County setting. I also think it was a good idea for the selection to be so short. One did not need excruciating details, but rather precise ones that led her to make friends and gather the information she needed in order to leave and gather more information.
ReplyDeleteI've read Hurston's "Gilded Six Bits," and this compares, though non-fictional. She uses the same treatment when describing the characters from her life that she does when describing those that populate her stories; that is, through their reputations 'round town, and what they say in the vernacular. The structure emulates a short as well; there is no "character development" or "zen-like, soul-searching," there is only what happened, and what happened described colourfullly. In the heading text it states that Zora Neale was an anthropologist, and I believe her works clearly show that: The living, observable actions of people are important, not speculative mentalities, local colour and culture is emphasized as what's rich, and people's actions and their place in the strata of society hold as much value as they would in an anthropological work. Also, there's a big difference between, "...Putting your foot up ON a person," and just, "...Putting your foot UP a person." Also-times-two, in case anyone's wonderin', a "jook joint" is a "juke joint" and a "juke joint" is "bar with a jukebox."
ReplyDeleteAttempting not to mention something similar to what other people have written, I’ll try to focus on how this memoir can assist in our memoirs. I believe it was last week, when Dr. Archibald said that we need to find our voice as a writer. Readers want to know our personalities through the way that we present our work; a twang about us, if you will. From reading the memoir, we get a feel about her personality and the area she grew up in from the one liners (“He was a bitch’s baby out of a buzzard egg” 392). This memoir focused a lot on the people she came in contact with, versus the story line. Personally, I feel like this is where a majority of the growth comes as people; not necessarily our adventures, but the people we meet during those time periods that either help or hinder us.
ReplyDeletePerhaps I bypassed this section, but I didn’t find as much reflection as we normally do in the memoirs we read. It’s very subtle, like reading in between the lines, for the reflection in the piece. The reflection isn’t your typical sort, more so of how she feels about small bits of the people in her life.
I do appreciate how she is able to write a section/feel inspired by a seemingly small part of her life—collecting songs. By collecting the songs, she is able to experience more in her life. Overall it’s an interesting piece—especially due fact to the voice of the Zora Neale Hurston.
I wanted to read more of Hurston's memoir because I did not feel like this selection was a complete picture or a complete chapter from her memoir. I noticed that this selection is very broken, as in it was taken from a few different parts of her overall memoir. I definitely heard Hurston's voice in this piece, however. She seems to have this intellectual air about her, but she also humbles herself in situations she isn't familiar with, such as in a fight where someone is coming at her with a knife. Big Sweet points this out to her: "You don't know how to handle no knife. You ain't got dat kind of a sense" (394). Hurston does not argue with this and she seems to simply accept it. Her voice of humility and acceptance that she is naive of the situation is clear in this passage.
ReplyDeleteBack to the completeness of this selection: I wish Hurston would have gone back to what she found as far as anthropologically (if that's a word!). I just think that that would have made this piece come full circle. I know I want to try to make my memoir pieces come full circle and make it clear how I've changed or what I've learned in the situation.
I won't harp on it because it seemed to get the attention of my peers, but I need to point out the first aspect of Hurston's writing that drew me in was her use of slang. It felt authentic. At some point I forgot I was reading a memoir and felt more like I was sitting around a camp fire hearing tales of her youth. The slang would've been distracting had she not explained the phrases, such as when she translated her landlady's meaning of "putting your foot up" (392). Hurston's writing style is more straight forward than that of the other authors we've read so far this semester. In some ways, it's rather inviting for the reader. It keeps the pages turning. In fact, I was disappointed that her excerpt was only a handful of pages long. While her writing style is pleasing in many ways, her excerpt left me wanting more. As I struggle to form my own stories into memoir form I look to these writers as a model. I'm not sure Hurston captured the essence of reflection we've been discussing all semester. Above everything else, I think it's the reflection I'm struggling with most as a writer. I wish Hurston would've included more, so as a writer I had another example to draw from. Her description of the fight between Lucy and Big Sweet left something to be desired as well. She gave a convincing play-by-play of the action, which left me feeling like I witnessed the event. The fight scene Wolff described, however, left me feeling like I was somehow involved in the fight. Nevertheless, Hurston provided a new linguistic take on the memoir, one which I can hopefully add to my current memoir as I continue to draft and revise it.
ReplyDeleteAs many of my classmates noted already, Hurston’s use of a specific dialect is fantastic. I think that is really helps to put the reader in the moment. Hurston doesn’t go into a lot of detail about the characters, physically, so I enjoyed that she gave them (especially Big Sweet) their own voices.
ReplyDeleteI think that this piece showed us Hurston’s emotions, like scared at the end, but I didn’t see a lot of reflection from Hurston. I kind of feel like because this was such a short section that we, as the reader, aren’t really given a chance to figure out what question Hurston was exploring. Perhaps we don’t see it in this short section but maybe Hurston uses this incident to explore her career choice. Obviously I understand why this incident stands out for Hurston, but because the section ends so abruptly, we aren’t given a proper chance to see how this event impacts Hurston or to get any real reflection on it.
I also agree with Shannon. Hurston comes across as book smart, but street stupid. Big Sweet doesn’t want her to carry a knife because Big Sweet knows the knife would do more damager to Hurston than to any potential attackers. What I found so interesting about this was Hurston’s willingness to just throw herself into a totally unknown situation without any hesitation.
The two things in this memoir that stuck out me were always what drew me in, the Southern style and the immediate sense of excitement.
ReplyDeleteWhere most memoirs seem to lead us into the story slowly, letting us learn about the life of the author, Hurston opens with the Southern word choice, and the alliteration in the first paragraph. Where most memoirs seem very serious in their descriptions, Hurston has a bit of fun, even when describing near-fatal situations. She seems infatuated with finding fun ways to phrase things, and it shows in her writing, which spread to my enjoyment.
By opening a paragraph with the line "It was in a saw-mill jook in Polk that I almost got cut to the death", she may as well have been saying "Hi, you're going to read this." Opening with such a strong statement, "I was almost cut to death" immediately drew me in, and I would absolutely love something similar to open my own memoir with a sense of "THIS WILL BE INTERESTING" even half as strong as her's.
A similar tactic is used on 398, with the sentence "Mary Catherine Batesome was born on December 8, 1939, and looked very much herself...". By giving us only as much as she must to further the story, and then letting the character grow on us, if almost feels like we're being introduced and meeting someone, instead of simply hearing about them. It's just as engrossing as the earlier sentence referenced, but in a much more subtle way.
For some reason, this memoir read more like a piece of a novel rather than a memoir. I didn't find it to be very reflective in the sense that Hurston doesn't reveal much about her thoughts throughout the selection. She just sets up the scene for the readers, but doesn't really let the reader get to know who she is in the process. That being said I think she sets up the scene and injecting dialogue in there to get a sense of the characters, like with Big Sweet. In the scene where Hurston suggests she carry a knife, her reply demonstrates the wise, tough woman she is.
ReplyDeleteI thought the memoir was also a little too brief-like Shannon said, we don't get a clear idea of Hurston as we're reading this.