Zora Neale Hurston is an important writer of the Harlem Renaissance. “Spunk” is one of her most well-known short stories. It tells the story of Joe Kanty, a man who is killed by his wife and her lover.
The story is set in the small town of Eatonville, Florida. The town is mostly populated by African Americans. Joe Kanty is a hardworking man who owns his own barbershop. He is married to Lulu, who is not faithful to him.
One day, Joe catches Lulu and Spunk Banks, another man from the town, together. He threatens to kill them both. Lulu and Spunk conspire to kill Joe before he can kill them. They succeed, and Joe is killed.
The story ends with Lulu and Spunk getting married. Many of the townspeople believe that Joe’s ghost hauntstheir home.
In “Spunk” by Zora Neale Hurston, the protagonist Joe Kanty’s death is a plot device that shapes the other characters in her narrative. Following Joe’s murder, the characters are subjected to distinct kinds of guilt, implying Hurston’s conviction that we all have a conscience. The characters develop a guilty conscience as they feel guilty. Bullies, cheats, and murderers are all susceptible to having a guilty conscience, as seen in “Spunk.”
Zora Neale Hurston’s “Spunk” is a story that shows how the characters develop a guilty conscience and the eventual consequences of their actions.
Kanty’s death allows for the development of a guilty conscience in three main characters, Spunk, Lena, and Bob. Joe Kanty’s murder makes Spunk realize the severity of his actions. Up until this point, Spunk had been cheating on his wife with another woman. He justified his actions by saying that his wife was not “good enough” for him.
When Spunk sees Joe Kanty’s body lying on the ground, he realizes that he has done something wrong. This is evident when Spunk says, “I done killed a man.” Previously, Spunk had not seen his actions as being wrong. However, after Joe’s death, Spunk realizes that he is guilty of adultery.
Lena, Joe Kanty’s wife, also develops a guilty conscience after her husband’s death. Lena feels guilty because she did not believe her husband when he told her that Spunk was cheating on his wife. Instead of listening to her husband, Lena accused him of being jealous. This ultimately led to Joe’s death. If Lena had listened to her husband and believed him, he would still be alive. For this reason, Lena blames herself for her husband’s death.
Bob, the man who killed Joe Kanty, also experiences guilt after the murder. Bob feels guilty because he knows that he took a life. This is evident when Bob says, “I killed him. I done killed a man.” Bob’s guilt is different from Spunk’s and Lena’s because Bob actually committed the murder. He is directly responsible for Joe Kanty’s death. Unlike Spunk and Lena, who feel guilty because of their actions leading up to the murder, Bob feels guilty because he actually took a life.
The development of a guilty conscience leads to different consequences for each character. For Spunk, the development of a guilty conscience leads to his own death. After realizing that he is responsible for Joe Kanty’s death, Spunk goes home and shoots himself. Similarly, the development of a guilty conscience also leads to Lena’s death. Lena is so consumed with guilt that she hangs herself. Bob, on the other hand, does not die as a result of his guilty conscience. Instead, he is arrested and put on trial for Joe Kanty’s murder.
The first in the aforementioned group is, ironically enough, the one who feels guilty. They are the townspeople that congregate at the bar and talk nonstop. Their position, on the other hand, is quickly defined when a few of them scold Joe about Spunk being with his wife.
They eventually coerce Joe into going home, and it is here where we see Joe’s guilt manifest. He tells his wife about Spunk being with her, and even though he knows that she was cheating on him, he still feels guilty. This is likely because he still cares for her, despite her infidelity.
The second group is made up of Spunk and his friends. These are the people who actually witness the murder. They are also the people who feel the least amount of guilt. This is likely because they were not directly responsible for Joe’s death. While they may have played a role in provoking him, they did not pull the trigger.
The third and final group is made up of Spunk and his wife. These are the people who are directly responsible for Joe’s death. Spunk killed him, and his wife was the reason why he did it. As such, they are the ones who feel the most guilt. This is likely because they are fully aware of the consequences of their actions and know that they are responsible for Joe’s death.
The mocking continues as Joe sits anxiously taking the verbal abuse until they push him to confront Spunk. He is slain by Spunk right after, and then the character development begins. The following day’s conversation among the townspeople is solely about Spunk and how Joe was the real man for standing up to him.
Only after Spunk’s death is he considered a man and Joe’s widow, Lena, is sought after by the other men. Zora Neale Hurston uses these characters to show how society views men who are considered “weak” and how quickly they are forgotten. Zora Neale Hurston was an African American author and anthropologist who was born in 1891 and died in 1960. She is most known for her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. She was a part of the Harlem Renaissance. Spunk is a short story that was published in 1925. It is about a town gossip, Joe Kanty, who tries to humiliate Spunk Banks by telling stories about him to the other townspeople.
The bar’s inhabitants’ feelings of guilt and pride for Joe might have been left out, and the tale would have flowed similarly as it did by including these remarks. However, because she included these statements of guilt and pride for a guy they had pestered and mocked no less than 24 hours previously, it was obvious that Hurston was attempting to make a point.
She is trying to make a point about the way that people react when someone they have wronged dies. People tend to feel guilty and proud, even if those feelings are misplaced. Joe Kanty’s death was not something to be proud of, but the people in the bar felt pride nonetheless. And while their feelings of guilt were more than likely warranted, it is still interesting to note that they felt guilty for something that they did not do. Zora Neale Hurston is a master storyteller and she uses this short story to show the reader that sometimes people feel things that they should not feel.