Previous
Literary Devices
Key Examples in Spunk
Dialect
Explanation and Analysis—Black Rural Southerners:
In “Spunk,” Hurston employs the use of dialect, meaning that she tries to capture the particular vernacular of her characters—Black people living in the rural American South near the beginning of the 20th century. The following passage—in which Elijah shares Spunk’s dying words—demonstrates Hurston’s use of dialect:
“The fust thing he said wuz: ‘He pushed me, ’Lige—the dirty hound pushed me in the back!’—He was spittin’ blood at ev’ry breath. We laid him on the sawdust pile with his face to the East so’s he could die easy. He helt mah han’ till the last, Walter, and said: ‘It was Joe, ’Lige—the dirty sneak shoved me . . .”
Related Themes:
