Hurston’s exposition, in the first sentence, is one of setting, and symbolism and metaphor are subtley rampant within the story. “It was a Negro yard around a Negro house in a Negro settlement that looked to the payroll of the G and G Fertilizer works for its support.” This draws quite a picture of a “neighborhood” obviously one in which people have their own homes, and all are gainfully employed. How simple a sentence, but used to describe the lifestyle of the characters and those around them.
The next two paragraphs indicate a sense of pride in ownership as everything is described as well taken care of: “mess of homey flowers…blooming cheerfully”, “Everything clean from the front gate to the privy house. Yard raked so that the strokes of the rake would make a pattern.” And, since Hurston has already established that this yard is like all the rest, we get a picture of all the houses on the street. But something else is happening here, an underlying theme that sets up the story: “The fence and house were whitewashed. The porch and steps scrubbed white.” Here we see that the “ideal” is related to “white” and “clean.” This will be repeated in Joe’s description of Slemmons’, perversely the Devil in this neighborhood Garden of Eden.
In the very next paragraph where Missie May is introduced, she is bathing: “Her dark-brown skin glistened under the soapsuds,” as she prepares for her husband to come home from work. As a matter of fact, when Joe arrives, one of the first things he does is take a bath. In retrospect, this bathing can be seen as a baptism, or cleansing of original sin.
From here the story establishes the love between the pair, brought out in teasing and playfulness as Joe presents Missie May with coins—nine dollars’worth that would seem to be a healthy sum for the times, and it is also evident that this is a routine the couple enjoys, which indicates the absence of poverty or struggle. This is central to the theme of temptation, as they are not suffering extreme hard times, but rather want for more.
Joe’s description of Mister Otis D. Slemmons is one of wistful envy. Although young and well built, Joe associates Slemmons’ physical appearance with success, and here enters the previously hinted at value of “white” as he tells Missie May, “Wisht Ah had a build on me lak he got. He ain’t puzzle-gutted, honey He jes’ got a corperation. Dat make ’m look lak a rich white man. All rich mens is got some belly on ’em.” (Oddly enough, Missie May has already met Slemmons, and while she seems to hold her husband above him in looks and style, we wonder if she has not already formed a relationship with him).
Joe proceeds to describe “a five-dollar gold piece for a stick-pin and he got a ten-dollar gold piece on his watch chain and his mouf is jes’crammed full of gold teethes. Sho’ wisht it wuz mine…And womens give it all to ‘im.”
The sexual symbolism of Adam & Eve’s apple is openly described by Slemmons’ sexual prowess with the ladies, which is envied by Joe and desired by Missie May, although it is of secondary concern to Slemmons’wealth to Joe, and merely a means to the end for Missie May.
And with this, Hurston hands us the biblical apple.
(NEXT: Original Sin)
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology