Zora Neale Hurston: Story in Harlem Slang
After reading Story in Harlem Slang by Zora Neale Hurston, it is evident how Hurston feels about men, especially in Harlem. The first quote that I chose that represented this idea well stated, “How can I be broke when I got de best woman in Harlem? If I ask her for a dime, she’ll give me a ten dollar bill; ask her for a drink of likker and she’ll buy me a whiskey still. If I’m lying, I’m flying.” Jelly says this to Sweet Back as they are walking down the street. He is full of himself and is disrespecting women at the same time, saying that no matter what he does, all women want him. I think that the author chooses this quote for Jelly to say because this is how she sees men, or in other words, this is how she feels like men treat not only her but other women too.
Later in the story, Jelly was hitting on a girl on the street and she stated, “You barking up the wrong tree. I wouldn’t give you air if you was stopped up in a jug. I’m not putting out a thing.” I liked how Hurston added this part of the story where the girl was catching onto his games and questioning him. I think she included this to show that women began to fight back against men like this and against men in general. Women were done with being used with nothing in return. At this point in time, it wasn’t as radical for women to act this way as it was in other readings that we did previously in the semester. But, it shows that women are gaining more power against men, socially.
Hurston, Zora Neale. Story in Harlem Slang.
I enjoyed reading your post, the quote you chose about Jelly getting denied by that woman was a good choice. I also think that Jelly tended to disrespect women too much in the story, while being arrogant at the same time like in that first quote you chose. Good job!
ReplyDeleteI thought your analysis of both of your quotes were extremely elaborate and allowed me to think about this story in other perspectives. In my blog I also chose the first quote you used and I interpreted it as how both Sweet Back and Jelly we’re constantly bragging about the women they were with thinking it was making them look superior when in reality it was actually making them look silly because of their offensive remarks to women. However, I found it interesting how you dove more into Houston’s actual decision to incorporate this sequence into the story and mentioned that it was most likely because this was the way she and other women had viewed men in real life. We’ve read all these stories this semester that have touched on heavy hitting topics in the realm of women’s history, but it can be easily forgotten that the person writing this can also be facing similar struggles to what’s actually occurring in the story. Oftentimes writing is a way for one to express their true emotions as heavily seen with Maya Angelou, so I was glad to see that you took it from that angle and connected the premise of the story to the ideas and beliefs of the author herself.
ReplyDeleteYou then did a nice job carrying on with this decision to connect a sequence of the story to the author’s reasoning for putting it in there by focusing on an area of the story where a girl was actually figuring out the little trick Jelly was trying to play on her. This was a sequence I noticed when reading the story, but did not think as much into as I am now. Looking back on it this was actually a very prominent part of the story because we got to see a full on reaction for what a female thought about the unnecessary actions both Jelly and Sweet Back were doing. I agree with you when you said that this was a way for the author to show readers that women were fighting back against men. Despite the countless problems women faced back then, a good majority of them had a large sense of confidence, power and determination inside of them because it was the only way to earn just a tad bit of respect in society. Women were already looked down upon, so they had to make up for it by carrying a large sense of confidence. This was a time where women were gradually starting to gain some more power which allowed them to commit actions like calling out men for the little games they were trying to play. Overall, I thought your blog did a very nice job touching on some of the more underrated themes that can be taken away from this text and I really was able to get a lot out of reading this. Wonderful job!
I liked how you discussed the story and what was happening first. And then you took the quotes and explained what you thought about it and what it meant. I liked the quotes that you analyzed because it really described how the girl that Jelly was hitting on response to it. She is fighting back from his games and women back then didn't really stand up for themselves much because it was seen as weird or unusual.
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