Zora Neale Hurston Zora Neale Hurston kept busy sharpening her oyster knife not to prepare for any violent confrontations with white society but quite the opposite, to extract the raw materials from her own culture and cultivate them into priceless treasures. She didn't wait for the white culture to place its stamp of approval on the subject matter she knew and loved so well. Throughout Their Eyes Were Watching God , Hurston indicates that to refuse one's heritage is cultural suicide, and the loss of laughter represents an early symptom. De nigger woman is de mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see. Nanny tells her that the white man dumps on the black man and he, in turn, dumps on the black woman.
Laughter can be due to a strong point being made in the story.
This is the brilliant writing that Hurston has demonstrated, using comical vernacular language and an ironic twist to allow justice to reign in the end, lightening the intensity of the subject matter. In the story, we have a black woman who was quite desirable as a young lady until her husband destroyed her body with abuse. She loved this man and continues to do all the right things by him. She even turns her head and closes her ears and eyes to the infidelity her husband is committing. Through the use of the vernacular speech of the men on Joe Clarke's porch, we hear a description of how Delia looks after years of abuse and what kind of womanizer her husband is.