The Functional Device of Afro - American's Figurative Language

The Functional Device of Afro - American's Figurative Language

Due to a sense of insignificance and inferiority with respect to white American culture, the discipline of Afro-American folk culture embedded in American society was never seriously considered by any Afro-American writers in their literary works. Afro-American male writers have focused on common, ordinary matters involving the lives of Afro-Americans as the most relevant motif for them to explore. Throughout most of the twentieth century, Afro-American male writers strongly believed that any serious writer had to address the social, political, and economic struggles of Afro-Americans in a collective sense. By realizing the importance of embracing genuine Afro-American folk culture, Zora Neale Hurston stirred the romantic imagination of black women living in the rural South. The main purpose of this paper is to reinterpret and reevaluate Hurston's treatment of Afro-American folk culture that is woven throughout her work. Hurston strongly expressed her interest in preserving the African heritage as she triumphantly incorporated Afro-American figurative language in her writing. This paper describes how Hurston protested black male hegemony as she embraced Afro-American figurative language throughout her literary work, such as the metaphor of the mule. This use of figurative language functioned as a means of resistance to the oppressive society of the American South and as a means of survival in that same society.