Whose Story Gets Told at Joe Clarke’s Store in “Spunk”

By Jade Harrison

In fiction, the places where people gather often decide whose version of events the reader gets to hear.

In Zora Neale Hurston’s “Spunk” (1925), that place is Joe Clarke’s General Store. Four fifths of the story’s dialogue is spoken there, all of it by men. The store is public, so what happens between Spunk Banks, Joe Kanty, and Lena Kanty becomes the town’s story to tell.

Elijah Moseley re-tells most of it. He speaks 53 percent of the story’s dialogue, and the key events reach readers only through him. When Lena answers Spunk with “Thass mah house” and “Papa gimme that,” Elijah repeats her words to the men in the store. After Spunk dies at the sawmill, Elijah repeats his dying words to Walter Thomas as the two walk down the street.

Joe changes across Elijah’s story. At first, the men in the store talk about Joe as timid. By the end, Elijah believes Joe’s ghost pushed Spunk into the saw, “Joe’s ready for Spunk an’ ain’t skeered anymore.” In death, Joe has the nerve Spunk is known for among the men at the store.

Hurston reminds us that in fiction, where people gather shapes the stories they tell and the stories readers hear.

Related: 

• Black Short Story Findings