When Malindy Sings By Zora Neal Hurston: Poem Analysis

The exhibit of the facade Dunbar included in his work, lead to Howell to praise his work for the audience of those that were White and it lead to national attention. Dunbar by no means was able to escape the stereotype for his dialect poetry. As a result, it limited his influence towards the African American community. The final poem to be addressed is Dunbar’s most highly praised dialect poems, “When Malindy Sings.” Keeling suggests that Dunbar’s use of dialect should be defined, “We must show how Dunbar’s mask of dialect can be a powerful active force rather than a self-defeating retreat into a fantasy world”(29). Keeling advises the reader to look at Henry Louis Gates reading of Zora Neal Hurston. According to Keeling, “Gates does not focus on Hurston’s explcit subject matter, nor her social politics.

That is to say her characters are their differences in an indirect manner because they do not have the opportunity-nor, perhaps, the conventions to do so otherwise”(29-30). “When Malindy Sings” is a dramatic monologue that confronts the labels given to African Americans. Keeling points out that “we see Dunbar’s dialect poems as affecting the overwrought comedy and pathos of Plantation Tradition as a way to undermine their stereotypical effectiveness. In other words, Dundars use of irony turns the blues inside out: his overt theme in some ways mirros that of the Plantation Tradition, but the listener distracts us from the narrative and effect points of to another reality” (Keeling, 34). Dunbar’s narrator addresses Miss Lucy in the opening