"Mules and Men"

From “Mules and Men” by Zora Neale Hurston

I chose to write about 1 quote from the excerpt which describes Zora’s trip to New Orleans and her experience with voodoo.

“One day Turner told me that he had taught me all that he could and he was quite satisfied with me. He wanted me to stay and work with him as a partner. He said that soon I would be in possession of the entire business, for the spirit had spoken to him and told him that I was the last doctor that he would make; that one year and seventy nine days from then he would die. He wanted me to stay with him to the end. It had been a great sorrow to me that I could not say yes.” (Hurston, 421)

This quote comes from the end of the excerpt and describes how Turner wanted Zora to work with him. I thought this was interesting because at the beginning of the except Turner wanted nothing to do with Zora. I think that the spirit influenced and changed his mind because once the spirit believed in Zora, so did Turner.

I also thought it was interesting that Zora used a lot of dialogue in her writing. Most of the excerpts that we have read this semester did not include this much dialogue. With that being said, it allows for the reader to get to know and understand Zora’s personality. I think that you can tell a lot about a person by the way they talk, and I think the use of dialogue showed Zora’s personality.

Word Count: 269