Spunk

Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1925

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Symbols & Motifs

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Symbols & Motifs

Blades

Blades appear throughout the story as symbols of death and danger. The sawmill, where Spunk works, features a circular saw. Spunk takes on the most dangerous position, feeding the lumber to the circular saw, which symbolizes his reckless approach to life. Early mentions of the saw serve to foreshadow Spunk’s death, including Elijah’s mention of Tes’ Miller, Spunk’s predecessor, who died after being “cut to giblets” (55). When Joe follows Spunk and Lena into the woods, he takes a blade described as a “hollow ground razor” or, later, as a “meatax” (56-58), suggesting that he intends to exterminate Spunk like he would an animal. Through the imagery of blades, Hurston depersonalizes the violence that defines the lives of the men in the community. By falling victim to their steely ferocity, the characters can distance themselves from the true progenitors of the violence, like jealousy or even an unsafe work environment. Following Spunk’s death, his body is propped up on sawhorses, as though he is a plank of wood, again depersonalizing his violent death. Like the trees he felled for a living, Spunk is cut down and humbled.

The Bobcat

A bobcat appears on the night that Lena and Spunk move in together, which may or may not be a supernatural manifestation of Joe’s vengeful spirit. The bobcat’s unusual black coloration marks it out as an anomaly, leading Spunk and others to conclude that it is Joe. The timing of the bobcat’s appearance is significant, as it appears when Spunk and Lena are going to bed, potentially to prevent an intimate encounter between them. Thematically, the reader can interpret the bobcat either as the embodiment of Spunk’s own fears and discomfort about the way he treated and then killed Joe or as an agent of justice, sent to administer the punishment that the men of the town and the legal system could not or would not deal out. As natives of the American South, bobcats are frequent characters in its cultural mythology, often used to represent meanings like independence, stealth, or beauty. In this case, regardless of its interpretation, the bobcat is an agent of retribution.

The Store

The general store where the men meet serves a microcosm of their community and a public forum. Within the store, they exchange not only money and goods but also opinions and influence. Except for Spunk’s funeral, every scene takes place at the store, indicating its centrality to the village’s social life. The store’s lighthearted atmosphere sometimes contradicts the story’s heavy subject matter, as when the men laugh at Joe’s receding figure as he travels to his death. With Elijah as ringleader, the men in the store formulate views and opinions that prove damaging or incorrect, demonstrating the danger of taking a negligent, follow-the-crowd approach to decision making. When the men later discuss but fail to act upon their inclination to arrest Spunk after Joe’s death, their inaction is suggestive of a democracy stalled by deference to a tyrant.

Women are notably absent from the store. When Spunk arrives at the store with Lena after Joe’s death, he sends her away shortly after, demonstrating that women’s voices are not valued as equal in the store, as in the community.