Spunk By Zora Neale Hurston

During the 1930’s, women were expected of nothing more than to lean on a man’s arm and look pretty. Women submitted to their husbands and looked like trophy wives among the public every single day. The evolving world would soon need women to stand up and become the leading voices for many who deemed themselves silent in the gender patriarchy. Therefore, Zora Neale Hurston was one of the most notable feminist writers of the time period. Although Hurston was never the first female associate justice of the Supreme Court nor was she the first woman to fly across the United States solo and nonstop, she made her name by writing literature that everyone else was too afraid to write, the feminist truth. It is clear that throughout many different novels,

Much like Janie Crawford, Lena Kanty is the “pretty, small town” female character that longs for passionate love and to be affectionate with a partner rather than confined to the kitchen or to the other specific gender roles expected of women at the time in society. Hurston clearly preaches through the story of “Spunk” that women are more than just a wife to be working the household. Hurston believed that women had more purpose than what was expected of them which is why Lena Kanty went to another man who made treated her with passion and with a strong, wealthy arm to lean on. Lena was tired of submitting to Joe, so she moved on to the next man in hopes of escaping her patriarchal imprisonment which was a common theme throughout multiple of Zora Neale Hurston’s literary works. When Joe begs for Lena’s attention saying “Lena, ain’t I yo husband?,” she refuses in disgust for she already mentally moved on to the next man with hope for a change in her own heart and for happiness (Hurston 4). Eventually though, Lena learns that even Spunk’s attitude towards her is commanding and aggressively in control, therefore bringing her to tears in fear of the parallel life she’s embarking on compared to her previous marriage with Joe Kanty. Through the characters of the short story “Spunk,” Zora Neale Hurston teaches many lessons and passively preaches the importance of a woman finding her own security and independence for her own