Write a critical appreciation of this passage, relating your discussion to your reading of American Literature 1880-1940.

The setting of this extract seems to indicate a narrative voice based in one of the southern states, a rural town where work has finished for the day and action has been replaced by a kind of interior observation. Soon after Hurston has established her scene, our attention is focused to the movements of a nameless female character. The woman entering the scene happens simultaneously to the group of male workers entering, who are presumably of the same class - workers amongst who this woman is an outsider. (Show your understanding of the extract, contextualise it and remember to distinguish the narrative voice.)Within this extract, Hurston creates a sort of cinematic view point of the woman entering and exiting the scene or ‘stage’. The extract appears to encapsulate one long panoramic view, beginning with the establishing(The best way to approach these questions in an exam, is to work your way through the extract linearly) description such as, “The sun was gone, but he had left his footprints in the sky.”(Short, relevant quotations which best support your point) This metaphor not only sets the scene, but also holds an endearing, almost childlike tone to it, implying that the harsh realities of the laborious day are over. Also, the fact that the sun is personified as a male, shows Hurston subtly introducing the preoccupation of engrained, gendered perspectives and how, considering the context of 1937, the male was still seen as superior.(Always try and relate your points back to context) Following this, Hurston cuts the paragraph and brings the narrative focus solely onto the woman.(Note shifts in the extract structurally and linguistically) We follow her undulating walk in front of the men and acknowledge the evident inequality (Try and notice a tension)between them, causing her movements to be breaking some sort of societal rules that generations of men have placed on her. Despite the woman’s rather mundane motive, simply to get home, she is lured at and helplessly sexualised. Hurston uses similes such as, “her firm buttocks like she had grapefruits in her hip pockets;” to not only draw attention to her enhanced sexual appeal to the watching men, but also imply that these men perceive this sexuality as flaunting. Her ‘pugnacious’ breasts implies that she is in some way threatening to these men and that the way they feel about her is some sort of defence mechanism protecting their masculinity. There are boundaries that she appears(remain cautious in your observations) to be breaking, as not only is she wearing work clothes similar to the men, indicating that she has utilised the day with hard work, but also has her own space and garden gate which is “slammed behind her.” Willa Cather is known for forging strong willed female protagonists, such as Ántonia Shimerda and Alexandra Bergson. Some resemblances can be seen between Hurston’s female figure here and Cather’s, as they all break down the barriers between themselves and the men around them, in terms of the societal expectations they are presumably going to fulfil. Ántonia, the Bohemian farm girl is described by the narrator Jim Burden numerous times as someone who stands apart from the other hired city girls. She thrives off the land and could be seen as trying to fulfil her deceased father’s conception of the American Dream. Although others around her are at first shocked by her rowdy, rough boyish spirit, they cannot deny that her sweet, amiable character and unique beauty still shines through.(ref to wider reading) Hurston seems to present a similar idea however there is a tone of resentment within her depiction. Instead of having other local people observe her and applaud her independence, Hurston’s female is picked apart by the watching men, projecting the common sentiment within all males that they resent her for having both merits; a strong workman’s spirit, paired with incredibly feminine appeal. Therefore, Hurston’s narrative focus allows a progression to be shown within the mindsets of the men, one that is established by preconceived hostility, distracted by her sexual attraction and tainted by fear once her gate has closed.