Tone In Spunk By Hurston

Tone is the attitude of the author uses in the main idea of this short story. Hurston’s tone towards "Spunk," is a mashup of irony and heavy notes of seriousness. The serious tone she uses in the story is because of women, Joe Kanty’s wife who is cheating on her human with what i think is the main antagonist Spunk."Now Joe knew his wife had passed that way. He knew that the men lounging in the general store had seen her, moreover, he know that the men knew he knew." (QUOTE1)Hurston used the hostility to forge a serious tone in the story. Moreover in the larger plot the conflict between Joe and Spunk, "Joe came out there wid a meat axe an’ made me kill him." (QUOTE2) This also sets a serious tone that Hurston used to build the conflict in order

to fuel the following parts of the tones and attitude in the story. There is an irony about the tone in the story, " But Spunk says twan’t no bob-cat nohow. He says it was Joe done sneaked back from hell!" (Quote3) Hurston sets the tone by making the story seem spiritual.

The mood of the story brings the reader to a state of anger. The first time the reader starts to feel this anger towards Lena Kanty when she does nothing "Lena looked at him real disgusted but she doesn’t answer and she don’t move outa her tracks." (quote4). She made a fool of herself and her marriage. She could have made other choices like divorce joe or tell Joe she is leaving, instead of committing a shameful act and making a fool him in public. The second part that Hurston gets under the reader’s skin is when Joe does absolutely except break down and cry, most would feel but some would be livid to see a man do nothing. The audience probably wants to know why Joe would sit back and let Spunk shame him like that