Spunk

by Zora Neale Hurston

Spunk: Genre 1 key example

Genre
Explanation and Analysis:

“Spunk” is a realist short story. Realist literature—unlike romantic literature—is characterized by realistic portrayals of everyday life. In “Spunk,” Hurston uses personal knowledge of what it was like to live in an all-Black community in rural Florida to realistically depict such a community. For example, she intentionally uses dialect in dialogue between the characters, capturing what Black people in rural Florida really sounded like when they spoke. She also has the men in the story work in the lumber industry, an industry that was active in Florida in the early 1900s.