Lucy supports his rise and gives him advice eventually, John is elected mayor of the town. In his new life John discovers his calling-"God done called me tuh preach"-and becomes pastor of Zion Hope Church. After he assaults his brother in law, who seeks money from him and accuses him of cheating on his wife, John flees to Florida and later sends for Lucy and their three children. It takes Lucy longer to realize that her husband is a philanderer who can't control his desires for other women. After a "month of love," they marry much to the disapproval of her parents, who clearly see John's flaws. She inspires him to go to school, so that he can get to know her better. He falls in love with a rich girl, Lucy Potts, who calls him a "big yaller bee-stung" man. The hero of the story, John Buddy Pearson, is a big, powerful man, "a living exultation," who is born "over de Big Creek," on the wrong side of town. The novel provides an inside view of African-American life just after slavery as families try to adjust to freedom. Jonah's Gourd Vine is Zora Neale Hurston's first novel and the semi-autobiographical account of her parents' lives as they migrated from their birthplace in the Old South of Notasulga, Alabama, to the New South of Eatonville, Florida.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |