ZORA
ZORAZORA NEALE HURSTON
In the excerpt from Dust Tracks on a Dirt Road: An Autobiography by Zora Neale Hurston, she uses powerful diction allow readers to get a good, clear sense of her culture during her childhood. Also, she uses manipulations of points of view to present the differing opinions within her household, which give the readers another strong sense of her childhood. Instead of generalizing those early years, Hurston elaborates on specific highlights of her childhood that were imprinted into her mind.
We see Zora Neale Hurston’s use of diction really come out when she talks about the rarities that were in her life. Hurston mentions many things that were “too common”, but only briefly. She recounts the blooms of Cape jasmine bushes on the sides of the walks and the big chinaberry trees “shading the front gate.” She remembers the “fleshy, white, fragrant blooms” of the bushes like it were yesterday. Hurston’s clear memory of her yard is instilled in the reader, allowing him or her to get a clear, visual representation in their minds by triggering the senses. The reader is able to smell the fragrant blooms and actually see the big trees.
Hurston uses imagery when she describes the recollection of the leftover eggs and grapefruits that were used as missiles and hand grenades against the neighbor children. A battle scene with grapefruits and boiled eggs flying everywhere can be depicted in the mind of the reader. When read, Hurston’s friendly egg battles and her greatly foliated outdoors have readers think of the fun it must have been back then; it makes them want to jump right into her story and have fun too. Throughout the passage, readers see Hurston describing the little things from her youth, such as the kind of grass outside of her big barn. These descriptions are the ones that enrich our sense of her culture and her childhood.
Language between her and her family is a key aspect in Hurston’s cultural life. Readers see that language differs between the individual and another individual along with the generations of the two. With her friends, readers see Hurston using expressions like “chick-mah-chick” and “hide and whoop” to distinguish between the games she played with her friends. Her expressions allow readers to understand her more and really see into her cultural childhood. A lot of times, just observing the way a person speaks with others without ever even talking to that person before will give the observer insight to the type of person the individual is. Hurston’s mother, being from a different generation, uses expressions like “jump at de sun.” Her mother simply wants the best for her children, and by saying jump at de sun, she is telling her children to go for their goals and aim high. The meaning behind an expression is another key that will help an individual understand another, and in this case, readers receive a stronger understanding of the way Hurston lived because it was evident from the passage that she respected and appreciated her mother. How Hurston interprets her parents’ expressions depends on how she manipulates their points of view.
Hurston uses manipulation of point of view to state her interpretation of something her parents or any other individual said. She does this in order to explain her interpretation so that the reader can get the true meaning of it, and realize yet another aspect of her childhood—Hursto