Dust Tracks on a Road: An Autobiography by Zora Neale Hurston

Dust Tracks on a Road: An Autobiography by Zora Neale Hurston

Between Cape jasmine bushes and chinaberry trees, Zora Neale Hurston’s childhood, was a warm sweet memory illustrated in an extract of Dust Tracks on a Road: An Autobiography. In this excerpt, diction and point of view jump from the page to give the reader a lucid and realistic view of life “down there” in the farm, sheltered from society to protect the plentiful love, food and company of the Hurston home, compared to “way up north” where “rare” apples are abundant and gardenias are sold for a dollar, but where reality is a universal cry for equality and justice. Hurston’s juxtaposition of these two environments compliments her parents’ idealistic differences when it comes to raising their children. Metaphorical language, separation, position and repetition of words; flowers, fruit and struggle imagery create an atmosphere of home-like neighborhood versus the world outside the chinaberry trees.

At the beginning of this piece, we are quickly introduced to the different lifestyles between the farm she lived in and the one she encountered when she left to New York. Easily distinguished is the contrast made by the use of the word “folks” when she mentions her relatives from “down under” but calls the New Yorkers “people.” The North is seen as a literature archetype as an unknown lucrative place, a strange place where “the flowers cost a dollar each.” This is positioned as a welcome mat to a world of differences betwe...