Mules and Men (Maxnotes Literature Guides)

by English Literature Study Guides, Zora Neale Hurston, Christopher Hubert

Book Overview

REA's MAXnotes for Zora Neale Hurston's Mules and Men MAXnotes offer a fresh look at masterpieces of literature, presented in a lively and interesting fashion. Written by literary experts who currently teach the subject, MAXnotes will enhance your understanding and enjoyment of the work. MAXnotes are designed to stimulate independent thought about the literary work by raising various issues and thought-provoking ideas and questions. MAXnotes cover...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0878912282
• ISBN13: 9780878912285
• Release Date: July 1999
• Publisher: Research & Education Association
• Length: 112 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.4" x 8.3"
• Age Range: 16 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 11 and higher

Customer Reviews

Hurston's Mules and Men

I read Zora Neale Hurston's novel "Their Eyes are Watching God" and wanted to read more. Hurston (1891 -- 1960) had studied anthropology at Barnard with one of the founders of modern anthropology, Franz Boas. With Boas' encouragement and funding from a private source, Hurston travelled South to collect African-American folklore. Her first stop was Eatonville, Florida, an all-black community where Hurston had spent much of her childhood. She then went South to Polk County, Florida and its sawmills and the Everglades. She went further South to Pierce and Lakeland gathering folk materials before heading to New Orleans to study Hoodoo. In 1927, she rented a small house in Eau Gallie, near Melbourne, Florida where she organized her extensive notes. Her book, "Mules and Men" was published in 1935. "Mules and Men" is an outstanding source of information about the folk-tales, called "lies", of rural Southern African-Americans. (Florida was a gathering place for African-Americans throughout the South because of the economic opportunities it offered.) She visited old friends in Eatonville, and won the confidence of people in the other communities she visited. The tales include animal stories ("why dogs and cats are enemies", "how the snake got poison," for example) stories of pre-civil war days involving a slave named "Jack" and his master, stories of the battle between the sexes, contests between "Jack" and the devil, bragging contests, and much else. Hurston also collected songs and lyrics, including "John Henry", sermons, and hoodoo formulas while in New Orleans. But this book is much more than a compilation of folk materials. Hurston brings her material to life by bringing the story-tellers and the communities she visited to life. She writes with deep and obvious affection for the rural African-American communities of the South in the mid-1920s. Hurston's folk-tales are embedded in a fascinating story of their own as she introduces the reader to the small towns, the parties, the sawmills, the jooks, and the life of her story tellers. One of the characters that Hurston befriends is a woman named Big Sweet who lives with a man named Joe. Joe cheats on Big Sweet, and Big Sweet puts Joe right in no uncertain terms. Big Sweet and her enemy, a woman named Lucy, draw knives with potentially fatal consequences in a fight in a jook that involves Zora. Big Sweet is a strong and convincingly drawn character in her own right. The characters and communities in the book were for me even more convincing that the stories. The first part of Mules and Men describes Hurston's collecting of folk tales, while the second, shorter part discusses her experiences with Hoodoo doctors in New Orleans. Hoodoo played a large role in the lives of some African-Americans. I was reminded of Memphis Minnie's blues song "Hoodoo Lady" and of Muddy Waters' "I got my mojo working". The founder of Hoodoo was a woman named Marie Leveau. Hurston describes how she gained the

Wonderful book

?I note that one reviewer speaks about "questionable ethics" but fails to state specifically what they find questionable. I can only reply that the comment is pure nonsense. I further note that the reviewers address is NY, which may explain the comment. As someone who grew up in the South at the tail end of the era recorded in "Mules and Men" I can only be awed at how accurately Zora Hurston captured the people and culture, the sights, sounds, smells . . .it’s all there. This is a superb book of folktales, an amazing recreation of a vanished or almost vanished way of life . . .on so many levels this is an astonishing work of art and science. Believe anything good you read about the book and author, ignore the rest. A bargain at the price and a lot of fun to read at the very least. An education beyond price for anyone who reads with a little thought.

A Triumph

This is a genuine book on Hoodoo as is practiced by many in New Orleans today. Not every HooDoo practioner works the root in the same way and this book details several root doctors and their varied practices. What this book will NOT give you is the "new age" weak willed bull about karma and ethics. HooDoo has no karma, karma is a hindu concept which somehow made it's way into a whole bunch of "new age" groups and beliefs. In HooDoo, the spirits you employ may either do the work or not, its up too them, based on your offerings and sacrifices.

A Folklore Classic

Although she really was born in Georgia, Hurston considered Eatonville, Florida her hometown. She originally wrote this work as a play with Langston Hughes. They had planned to call it "Mule Bone," but the two had a falling out prior to staging the work. The theater world's loss was actually the literary and folklore world's gain, and this book is a terrific study of black folklore from Florida and Louisiana. The book has wonderful folktales and descriptions of rootwork, and once the reader becomes acclimated to Hurston's use of black English, it is a pleasure to read. Hurston provided rich commentary by embedding the texts into a narrative about doing fieldwork in the 1920s. It's worth noting that Hurston compressed the amount of fieldwork time in this book as she had spent much more time in Florida than she presents in this work. It's important to keep these types of literary devices in mind when reading her book as she includes lots of allusions, hidden meanings, and clever wordplays to develop fascinating commentary on folklore.

Classic Black Folk tales at there greatest

A fantastic collection by Zora Neale Hurtson. Includes spells, and superstions, witch craft, and some of the best short stories around. She gathers up the urban legends of the 1930-40's rural south and connects you to a culture and way of thinking that is both delightful and intriguing. At times amusing; it is written in the way of oral tradition, where people gather around and tell stories, the more outlandish, the more unique the better. Her work is simply wonderful. A great book, and good for those bad weather days.