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MARRIAGE: ZORA NEALE HURSTON'S SYSTEM OF VALUES

Author(s): Lillie P. Howard

Source: CLA Journal , December, 1977, Vol. 21, No. 2 (December, 1977), pp. 256-268

Published by: College Language Association

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/44329351

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MARRIAGE: ZORA NEALE HURSTON'S

SYSTEM OF VALUES

By Lillie P. Howard

Now that literary buffs are enthusiastically discovering or rediscovering Zora Neale Hurston 1 (1903-1960), a black woman novelist and folklorist who, like many of her black contempo- raries, failed to realize the bright promise of the Harlem Renais- sance, a critical look at certain aspects of her fiction may be in order. During her lifetime, much of Hurston's erratic and short-lived fame rested on the publication of her two books of folklore, Mules and Men (1935) and Tell My Horse (1938), though she also published short stories, plays, essays, four novels - Jonah9 s Gourd Vine (1934), Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) , Moses , Man of the Mountain (1939) , Serwph on the Suwanee (1948) - and an autobiography, Dust Tracks on a Road (1942) . Part of her relative obscurity can be attributed to ill-founded criticism like that of Richard Wright who, in his review of Their Eyes Were Watching God, charged Hurston with being unconcerned with the race or class struggle or with the revolutionary traditions of black people in America. To- day's readers, having found that Hurston's works deal not only with black problems, but with problems common to all human beings, are puzzled by Wright's charges. Though her fictional landscape differs radically from Wright's her works clearly convey the idea that people, regardless of their color or their peculiar burdens, must inevitably struggle with some of the same life problems. Although several of life's problems in- terested Hurston, she seemed particularly interested in the problems that beset the state of marriage.

1 Robert Hemenway's book, Zora Neale Hurston : A Literary Biography, has recently been published by the University of Illinois Press; Alice Walker published an article, " In Search of Zora Neale Hurston," in the March, 1975, issue of Ms. Magazine and she is currently preparing a Zora Neale Hurston Reader; and the Modern Language Association featured a Hurston seminar at its 1975 Conference in San Francisco, California.

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Zora Neale Hurstons System of Values 257

Critics have agreed that a writer's system of values can be determined by a close reading of that writer's works. We can normally determine what qualities an author admires or detests in a character, for instance, by how that writer makes us feel about that character. We can also determine how an author

values a character by what he/she allows to happen to that character. Hoyt Trowbridge uses this process to determine that Jane Austen values intelligence, morality, feeling, beauty, and worldly condition (rank and fortune) in her characters.2 We can use the same procedure to determine what qualities Zora Neale Hurston who, like Austen, confined her studies to small, country villages, considered essential to a good marriage - what qualities she valued in the marriage partners and what qualities she detested.

The marriage relationship and the problems that emanate therefrom are themes in four of Hurston's short stories and in

three of her novels. Instead of portraying marriage romantical- ly - all cape jasmine bushes and sweet potatoes - however, Hurston presents it frankly, replete with infidelity, jealousy, violence, and hatred. Of the eleven marriages in the seven works, only three succeed. By looking closely at these three, we can reasonably conclude that Hurston considered courage, honesty, love, trust, respect, understanding, and a willingness to work together essential to a successful marriage. By looking closely at the unsuccessful marriages, we can see that for those who did not subscribe wholeheartedly to Hurston's formula, the consequences could be disastrous.

" Spunk/' published in Opportunity in June, 1925, is one of the unsuccessful ones. Told in Poe-like fashion, the story ex- amines infidelity, jealousy, violence, and hatred. It is set in an all-black community in Florida where Spunk Banks, Joe and Lena Kanty form a love triangle. Banks, an audacious character who " ain't skeered of nothin' on God's green footstool," woos Lena from her husband and parades around town with her on his arm. Kanty, the weak, cuckolded husband, is shamed and spurred by town gossip to confront Banks and demand his wife back. When he foolishly does so with a mere pocket knife he

2 Hoyt Trowbridge, From Dry den to Jane Ausiem, (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1977), pp. 275-276.

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258 Lillie P. Howard

is killed by Banks. When Banks prepares to marry Lena a few days after Joe's death, he is mysteriously troubled by his con- science. He sees a black bob-cat that " walked round and round

that house and howled like forty," which he cannot shoot, and he imagines that someone is pushing him into an electric saw at work. Before very long, he is mysteriously caught in the saw - pushed by Joe, he swears - and killed.

Because Joe and Lena Kanty are relatively flat characters and because the narrator is rather closed-lipped, the reader is not privy to information that would explain how the Kanty marriage came to its present state. He does know, however, that Lena is taken with Banks because of his spunk - his deter- mination to conquer and reign over the world - a blatant con- trast to Joe's lack of prowess. Too, the reader gets some indica- tion of how he is to feel about the characters by the way each character is portrayed. Spunk Banks, for instance, is described as "A giant of a brown skinned man . . ." who " ain't skeered of nothin' on God's green footstool - nothin'! He rides that log down at the saw-mill jus' like he struts 'round wid another man's wife - jus' don't give a kitty." He is the kind of man who would " go after anything he wanted " and he tells Lena that " Youse mine. From now on Ah works for you an' fights for you an' Ah never wants you to look to nobody for a crumb of bread, a stitch of close or a shingle to go over yo' head, but me long as Ah live." Spunk is clearly a man's man, an absolute necessity in the Hurston world. After he kills Joe, however, he loses some of his spunk, too much to remain one of the chosen. Not only is he so " nervoused up " that he can't shoot the black bob-cat but he believes the cat is Joe " done sneaked

back from Hell! " At work, where he had always reigned supreme, he is now " cussin a blue streak 'cause he 'lowed dat saw wuz wobblin' - almos' got 'im once . . . claimed somebody pushed 'im but 'twant nobody close to 'im." Later, when he is indeed caught in the saw, he claims that " he pushed me - the dirty hound pushed me in the back! ... It was Joe - the dirty sneak shoved me ... he didn't dare come to mah face . . . but Ah'll git the son-of-a-wood louse soon's Ah get there an' make hell too hot for him . . . Ah felt him shove me. . .

Curiously, as Spunk declines in manliness, Joe Kanty in-

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Zora Neale Hurstons System oj Values 259

creases in it. While Banks had been a "giant of a brown skinned man," Kanty had simply been a " round shouldered figure in overalls much too large." And while Banks " sauntered up the one street of the Village/' Kanty " came nervously in the door" of the local store. After seeing his wife clinging to Banks' arm, Joe " swallowed several times painfully and his lips trembled. . . . He stood there silent with his Adam's apple twitching nervously up and down his throat. One could actual- ly see the pain he was suffering, his eyes, his face, his hands and even the dejected slump of his shoulders." One of the townsmen refers to him as that " rabbit-foot colored man " and another

says that he's "timid 'bout fightin'." While Banks loudly proclaims Lena as his, Kanty " sorter whines out ' Lena ain't I yo' husband?' " When Joe does challenge Spunk, he sneaks up and tries to stab him in the back. Clearly there is no com- parison between the two.

After Joe is dead, however, one of the townsmen wonders if Joe wasn't a braver man than Spunk:

Lookit whut he done; took a razor an' went out to fight a man he knowed toted a gun an' wuz a crack shot, too. 'Nother thing Joe wuz skeered of Spunk, scared plumb stiff! But he went jes' the same. It took him a long time to get his nerve up. ť Tain't nothin' for Spunk to fight when he ain't skeered of nothin'.

And when Banks is killed, the same man says: "If spirits kin fight, there's a powerful tussle goin' on somewhere ovah Jordan 'cause Ah b'leeve Joe's ready for Spunk an' ain't skeered anymore - yas, Ah b'leeve Joe pushed 'im mahself." Obviously it is easier to attribute qualities of strength and bravery to Joe Kanty when he is not around, swallowing, slumping, and trembling, to refute the claims. Ironically, both men are quick- ly forgotten. At Spunk's wake, " The women ate heartily of the funeral baked meats and wondered who would be Lena's

next. The men whispered coarse conjectures between guzzles of whiskey."

By Hurston standards, Joe Kanty is not a MAN; he's one of those puny characters who are more of a nuisance than any- thing else. Although Banks is a MAN, on the other hand, he is a wrongheaded one, the tragic hero with too much hubris who, by imposing his will upon others (the whole town is

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260 Little P. Howard

frightened of him) without proper regard for their feelings, brings about his own downfall. Too, after Banks kills Kanty, he loses his spunk and thus becomes less than a man. At this point, he would not make an ideal spouse. Lena Kanty does not go unpunished for where she once had two men, she now has none. She at least remains to try again, however. A good marriage for her still remains a distinct possibility. " John Redding Goes to Sea," published in Opportunity in

January 1926, is a melodramatic story of dreams deferred, of ambition, determination and expectations mocked to death by time and an unhappy marriage. Its main character, John Redding, like the main character in Their Eyes Were Watching God , anticipates the horizon, but never achieves it while alive. Whereas the protagonist of Their Eyes is limited by her grand- mother and her first two husbands, John Redding is limited by his mother and his wife.

From his early childhood John has known the pain of being limited and shackled. He dreams but can never realize his dreams. When he grows up and wants to explore the horizon, he is hindered by his mother who believes that he should marry, settle down, and forget about wandering, seeking. To Matty Redding, marriage is the solution to everything. Per- haps to please his mother, John does marry, but he soon be- comes restless again. He begins to " saunter out to the gate to gaze wistfully down the white dusty road; or to wander again to the river as he had done in childhood. To be sure he did not send forth twig-ships any longer, but his thoughts would in spite of himself, stray down river to Jacksonville, the sea, the wide world - and poor home-tied John Redding wanted to follow them." John quickly discovers that marriage does not make happiness; it cannot pacify that urge to wander. Sometimes it brings pain and chains.

As John explains to his wife, he obviously errs by marrying when he really wishes to be free to search: " I know I should never have married with my inclinations, but iťs done now, no use to talk about what is past. I love you and want to keep you but I can't stifle that longing for the open road, rolling seas, for peoples and countries I have never seen. I'm suffering too, Stella, I'm paying for my rashness in marrying before I

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Zora Neale Hurstons System of Values 261

was ready." Because neither his wife nor his mother under- stands or encourages him, his life is wasted. He is a stifled free spirit, Sterne's startling trapped in the cage of an unhappy marriage. He begs his mother to " let me learn to strive and think - in short, be a man." Ironically, though appropriately, Redding is killed in a storm and his body floats out to sea where he is free to search, explore and realize his dreams. Be- cause his marriage lacks most of the qualities essential to a successful marriage - respect, understanding, courage, trust, and a willingness to work together - John's death implies that the wrong kind of marriage can literally and figuratively deny life. John Redding is a good man who wishes to please his mother, his wife and himself. He cannot do both. By the time that revelation comes, he can do neither.

In November 1926, Hurston published Sweat in the infamous Fire . " Sweat " is a story of hard work, adultery, hatred and death - a story of marriage gone sour. Set in Florida, the story explores the relationship between a married couple, Delia and Sykes Jones, and the hatred that emanates from their marriage after love has disappeared. Although the couple appear to be in love when they marry, Sykes soon tires of his wife and seeks companionship with various women of the town. Delia stays home and does the laundry of white folks to earn a living for herself since her husband spends his money elsewhere. When Sykes becomes so enamoured of one of his ladies that he wishes to marry her, he plots to kill his wife by leaving a poisonous rattle snake in her clothes hamper. Delia escapes, Sykes him- self is bitten - " hoist with his own petards," as it were - and dies. The marriage is over and Delia is free.

The story itself is not as simple as the plot summary sug- gests. One of the reasons that Sykes cannot bear the sight of his wife, for instance, is because her work makes him feel like less than a man. He resents her working for the white folks, washing their dirty laundry, but he doesn't resent it enough to remove the need for her to do so. Or perhaps his wife's work has removed the need for him to be a man. Clearly Delia is an independent woman, having worked for 15 years to support herself and her husband, and having even paid for the house they live in. Whether she needs Sykes at all is ques-

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£62 LiUie P. Howard

tionable and perhaps he senses this and looks elsewhere for someone who does need him.

Though Sykes' vulnerability and uncertainty about his own masculinity is understandable, he is still contemptible. He has not loved, trusted, understood and appreciated Delia but has instead hated, tricked and beaten her. As one of the towns- men noted, Sykes had " beat huh 'nough tuh kill three women let "lone change they looks." He is one of those men " dat takes a wife lak dey do a joint uh sugar-cane. It's round, juicy an' sweet when dey gits it. But dey squeeze an* grind, squeeze an' grind an' wring tell dey wring every drop uh pleasure dat's in 'em out. When dey 's satisfied dat dey is wrung dry, dey treats 'em jes lak dey do a cane-chew. Dey throws 'em away. Dey knows whut dey is doin' while dey is at it, an' hates their- selves fuh it but they keeps on hangin' after huh tell she's empty. Den dey hates huh fuh bein' a cane-chew an' in de way." Like Spunk Banks, Sykes obviously deserves and brings about his fate.

Hurston first deals with marriage in novel form in Jonah's Gourd Vine. John Pearson, the preacher-protagonist, is un- usually susceptible to the charms of women and he marries three times before the novel ends. Though married, however, he drifts from one extramarital affair to another. His first

wife dies after a lengthy illness which was aggravated by her unhappy marriage; his second wife - a despicable character in her own right - divorces him because he beats her; and his third wife is widowed when after a final fling, John drives his car into the path of an oncoming train. John's inability to control his sexual urges leads to his destruction.

Although Hurston seems to want her readers to think kindly of John - she said in a letter to James Weldon Johnson (April 16, 1934) that a preacher ought to be allowed to " follow his bent as other men " - she herself handles him harshly. She allows him to prosper and to even become Moderator of the State Baptist Association, but when his affairs become too numerous, she strips him of his power, possessions and friends, makes him a picaresque hero and sets him on the road to make his own way. When after a brief period of prosperity he again succumbs to temptation, Hurston allows him to be killed.

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Zora Neale Hurstons System oj Valúes 263

John is both innocent and guilty. At one point, he genuinely loves, respects and appreciates his first wife, Lucy Potts. She is a help-meet to him, propping him up on every side and urging him on to bigger and better heights. She also protects him from the harsher realities of life bearing the brunt of most of their problems herself. She is John's gourd vine. Like Jonah, how- ever, John forgets her true worth, attacks and mistreats her. Later, when he is able to compare his marriage with his second wife, which was brought about mainly through her conspiracies with the local voodoo doctor, with his first marriage, he regrets his actions but it is too late.

The third marriage seems workable, but because John cannot resist the temptations of a prostitute, it seems to have been headed in the direction of the first. John is eliminated before his infidelity can gnaw away at his marriage. The third wife is left with good, though not entirely accurate, memories.

Of the successful marriages, the ones in "The Gilded Six- Bits " and Their Eyes Were Watching God are the most striking. Set in Eatonville, Florida, " The Gilded Six-Bits " is the story of a beautiful marriage beset by difficulties. Having as its theme the old adage that all that glitters is not gold, the story centers around the married life of Missie May and Joe Banks, the force which tests and threatens their relationship, and their subsequent attempts to allay this force. The narra- tive falls logically into three parts, each of which centers around the welfare of the marriage. We see the marriage in a state of health, in a state of ill-health, followed by a long but successful convalescence.

At first the marriage between Missie and Joe is a happy one. They show their love in small but significantly generous ways. Missie keeps a spotless home for Joe and cooks his favorite food while Joe buys her little tokens to show his love. They are so happy that there is even " something happy about the place " where they live. Their life together seems perfect, the Garden of Eden. When the serpent arrives in the form of Otis D. Slemmons, however, the Banks begin their fall.

Otis D. Slemmons is a city slicker- womanizer who sports gold teeth, a five-dollar gold piece for a stick pin and a ten- dollar gold piece for a watch charm. He and his gold impress

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264 Lïllie P. Howard

Missie so much that she wants some of the same for her hus- band and takes Slemmons into her bed as a means of getting it. Although her intentions are naively good - Joe has admired Slemmons and expressed his desire to be like him - they pre- cipitate the deterioration of the marriage.

When Joe returns home earlier than usual from work one

night and catches Slemmons awkwardly trying to get into his pants, he attacks him, accidentally grabbing the gold watch charm as Slemmons makes a timely escape. In spite of his discovery, however, Joe remains with Missie. She becomes hopeful when Joe makes love to her after three months of abstinence, but when she finds Slemmons's piece of money under her pillow the next morning, she is confused. A close examination of the money reveals that it isn't gold at all; it is a gilded half-dollar. What disturbs Missie most, however, is that Joe has left the money under her pillow as though he were paying her for her services - " Fifty cents for her love." Misery.

When Missie becomes pregnant and bears a fine boy who resembles Joe, shadows slowly lift and happiness once again becomes possible. Determined to let bygones be gone, Joe goes shopping for the first time since the Slemmons incident and buys fifty cents worth of candy kisses with the gilded money. The marriage has come full circle, but it will never be the same. The carefree innocence which characterized the early marriage has been replaced by painfully-gained maturity and knowledge. The lesson has been costly but because the foundation upon which the marriage was built has been strong, the marriage has survived. Missie and Joe genuinely love each other and both have enough courage, determination and trust in each other to weather the storm. Thanks to their joint efforts, their marriage is well on its way to recovery.

In Hurston's best novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, marriage dominates. The marriage that is finally achieved there is the happiest and most ideal in Hurston's canon. Published in 1937, the novel has universal implications for women in that it protests against the restrictions and limitations imposed upon women by a masculine society. Like the women of most societies, the females in Janie's town are expected and en-

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Zora Neale Hurstons System of Values 265

couraged to marry for security and economic advancement. The greatest wish of Janie's grandmother, for instance, is that Janie find a respectable husband with property. After dutifully marrying the old farmer with sixty acres and a house her grand- mother has chosen for her, Janie, dissatisfied, strikes out like Huck Finn for the territory in search of that better life beyond the horizon.

Like John Pearson of Jonah's Gourd Vine, Janie actually marries three times. When she is 16, she marries the propertied farmer, Logan Killicks. Killicks is middle-aged, dirty (he does not believe in washing his feet) , unloving and too set in his ways to treat Janie like a real woman. Instead he treats her like the livestock on his farm and measures her worth in terms of how much work she can do and how much time she spends doing it. Neither really loves the other, but Janie naively hopes that love will come in time. When it doesn't, she runs away with the man who is to become her second husband, Jody Stārks.

Stārks is an ambitious young man on his way to make his fortune in the small, all-black community of Eatonville, Florida. To Janie, he is a knight in shining armour. When stark reality replaces blind romanticism, she realizes that he is only a youn- ger version of Killicks who feels that she should be proud and grateful for his removing her from the valley to the mountain top. He insists that she hold herself above all the towns- people - be the bell cow for others to follow. Janie is neither proud nor grateful, however; she is simply biding her time until she can see her way clear of this bull.

All her life, Janie has been interested in people and love while all the people who have controlled her life thus far - her grand- mother, Logan Killicks, and Jody Stārks - have been interested in property and wealth. They have insisted upon prose while Janie herself prefers and seeks poetry. When Janie is nearly 40 years old, Starks conveniently, though not incredibly, dies, thereby setting Janie free to search again. When she meets Tea Cake (whose real name is Vergible Woods) a few months later, she finds her poetry.

Tea Cake is a young, happy-go-lucky black man who worries very little about money or material possessions. He is a hedon-

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266 Lülie P. Howard

ist, living life to its fullest. He makes Janie feel alive, vital, wanted and unlimited. The two leave Eatonville, marry and set up frenetic but blissful housekeeping. They work together and play together, and while Tea Cake does not bring the security or ambition of the first husbands, he brings her the joy of simple things in simple ways. There are fleeting periods of distrust and jealousy, but the marriage is essentially a happy one.

Unfortunately and rather melodramatically, Janie is forced to shoot Tea Cake in self-defense after he is bitten by a rabied dog during an Everglade storm. Janie is only tem- porarily saddened, however, for she has seen and explored that horizon that had beckoned to her years before. Tea Cake can never be dead as long as she herself lives. As James Giles sug- gests, " Janie will now develop a new method of coping with time - reflective hedonism. She will cultivate memories of sexu-

ality and drama. She needs no new experience because her cup is full."3 She has stored up enough memories to with- stand the loss.

The marriage has only lasted about two years but it has been intense and happy. The two have lived dramatically, each loving, fulfilling and understanding the other. They have braved criticism and gossip because of the differences in their ages and they have triumphed. They have enjoyed a real marriage. As Janie herself says, " If you kin see de light at daybreak, you don't keer if you die at dusk. It's so many people never seen de light at all."

Arvay Henson of Serœph on the Suwanee (1948) is one of those who have trouble seeing " de light at all." The novel itself puzzles readers because it differs from Hurston's other works in such noticeable ways. Not only is the style controlled and detached, but the novel concerns itself with white characters instead of the usual folksy black people. The subject, however, as in most of Hurston's works, is still the coming of age of the individual, and the social context is the marriage relation- ship.

Arvay Henson, the heroine, is a poor white woman who for

8 James Giles, " The Significance of Time in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God " Negro American Literature Forum, 6 (Summer, 1972), 52.

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Zora Neale Hurstons System of Values 267

very complex reasons, has a poor self-concept. Even though she does marry a handsome ambitious man who loves her, her self-doubt gnaws away at the relationship, incredibly for about twenty years. Then the husband, grown miserably tired of the constant bickering and tension, leaves his wife and waits for her to find herself. While he is " as hungry as a dog for a knowing and a doing love/5 Arvay loves "like a coward. Don't take no steps at all. Just stand around and hope for things to happen out right." Arvay must take the initiative for once in her life and go after what she wants. After much soul- searching and confrontation with the past, she does just that, finally feeling that she deserves to be loved and appreciated. She has consciously decided to work with instead of against her husband. All the possibilities of the marriage relationship can now be realized.

Because her struggle goes on through most of the 311 pages of the novel, Arvay shows that having a successful marriage is often a graillike quest. She also shows that one cannot love, respect, and accept another until one loves, respects, and ac- cepts one's self. Just as Janie Stārks and John Redding dis- cover that marriage does not necessarily make love or happiness, so Arvay discovers that marriage cannot improve one's value to one's self. Only time, courage, and a deliberate and con- scious effort to set things right can do that. It helps, of course, to have a loving, patient mate like her husband, but she must do the final self-assessment and self-adjustment her- self. When the marriage is at its best, Arvay is as much of an individual as her husband. Like Missie May, she has grown and matured, and she has come down safely from the clouds and found her place in the world.

Clearly, then, a successful happy marriage does not come easily but it can, and sometimes does, happen. In each of the three discussed here, both partners have been willing to work together to realize the best they have to offer each other. Dis- trust, doubt and dishonesty figure in each marriage, but each is overcome as the couples mature and come to grips with themselves and reality. Curiously, in the unsuccessful mar- riages, the male is always eliminated, i. e., killed - an unusual and hard fate - and the woman is left intact, available, as it

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268 Liūie P. Howard

were, for another, hopefully happier marriage. A flawed man is obviously less forgiveable in the Hurston world than a flawed woman. When the woman is at fault, however, as in " Spunk," " The Gilded Six-Bits/' and Seraph on the Suwanee, she is made to suffer, though her punishment is mild when compared to that of the men. Lena Kanty loses both of the men in her life within a few days; Missie May is taunted and tortured by her conscience and her husband for almost a year; and Arvay Henson torments herself throughout most of the novel, through- out most of her life.

Though Hurston herself did not find marriage palatable - she married twice, divorced twice, after spending only a few months, maybe less, with each husband - she did advocate it highly for her characters. She recognized that for some, finding a suitable mate who will love, cherish, respect, trust, under- stand and encourage is the " be-all 99 of life, just as she realized that for others, like herself and John Redding, marriage wasn't meant to be. In her works, she presents marriage as varied and realistically beset by hardships. To her, it was an im- portant institution capable of various possibilities which she explores sometimes beautifully, sometimes unmercifully.

Wright State University Dayton # Ohio

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