Irony In Spunk By Zora Neale Hurston

Sylvestor Stallone once said, "There is a natural law of people, who go out of their way to hurt other, will end up broke and alone." In the story Spunk, A man name Joe is fighting to have his wife back. However, his wife is having an affair with another man named Spunk. Doing their battle for love one man dies and one man is still standing, just to later die at the end. "Spunk" by Zora Neale Hurston's uses irony, conflict, and symbolisms to express the theme of revenge and karma.

Zora Hurston uses irony when Joe attempts to kill Spunk with a " hollow ground razor" but instead he gets shot. Ironically, later in the story Spunk gets killed by a much bigger blade. " ...the saw got him in the body" (Hurston). This irony shows reflects the

One of the conflict is man, vs man. Joe vs Spunk, let the better man win. Joe and Spunk fight over the lady of the hour, Mrs. Lena. Even though Lena was married to Joe she was having an affair with Spunk. Joe tries to go and confront Spunk about being with his wife. However, Joe dies in trying to win over his wife. Another conflict is man, vs environment. Spunk vs "Joe's spiritual", Spunk thinks Joe is out to get him. So, spunk constantly have this mental battle that Joe has come from hell to mess with him. He thinks Joe is the bob-cat and that he was the one that push him to caused him to fall of the carriage, "he claimed somebody pushed 'im but 'twant nobody close to 'im"(Hurston). The different conflicts in the story show the theme of revenge. Joe or the ghost of Hoe is out to get Spunk for taking his wife and killing him. This conflict between Spunk and the ghost of Joe represent the karma in the

Deborah G. Plant stated that her stories had, "Heterosexual relationships and their inherent misogyny, as well as female empowerment, are predominant themes in these early works." "Hurston presented black folklore of the south as a language system used to empower the black self in a cultural milieu where blacks were subordinate", Emery stated. Hurston used dialect to emphasize and help her bring out her theme of revenge. "...Ah'm going goin' an' fetch her back. Spunk's done gone too fur." This was stated that he has gone too far, and Joe was coming back to talk revenge on Spunk. Some critics think Hurston's position on voodoo is celebratory, making the victim or victims vulnerable. Hurston's knowledge of this was shown in her writing. (Emery,327). Bobcat played a role in the story that make the victim, Spunk vulnerable. No, this is not necessary voodoo, but it is a spiritual haunting Spunk. Making Spunk the victim and making him vulnerable cause him to lose