Introduction
“The Mule-Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life in Three Acts” is a play written by Zora Hurston and Langston Hughes, revolving around African American rural life. Although the primary plot is based on the fight for a woman’s heart between two men, the play touches on essential social themes such as religion and friendship. The literary devices used in the text include symbolism, similes, allusion, and metaphors. Authors utilize these devices to highlight the essence of racial segregation within American society, urging the central message to eliminate this inequality and deliberately developing humor about its socioeconomic backgrounds.
Allusion and Vernacular Language
From the play’s beginning, the authors allude to the ethnic and racial backgrounds of its characters. Allusion is a literary device used to refer to some phenomenon without directly mentioning it within the text. The play is based on African-American vernacular English slang, which differs significantly from Standard English due to its many shortened, combined, and blended words.
For example, phrases such as “gimme a jint or two of dat green cane—dis ribbon cane is hard” are full of deviant language (Hughes and Hurston). Since the play is a comedy, the authors use such phrases to disguise their characters through humor. This allusion helps establish that the characters in this village are African Americans.
Implicit Commentary on Racial Desegregation
Although the authors do not explicitly mention racial desegregation within society, their allusion applies to this social issue. This allusion to the racial background in “I thought y’all was ’bout to git married” highlights the primitivism of black culture through their language use (Hughes and Hurston). Authors may unintentionally incorporate racial prejudices that might humiliate their agents while focusing more on humor and writing style rather than considering the audience’s inclusiveness. Despite the authors’ similarities with the character’s racial background, their play with such mocking allusion focuses on a “white audience whose chauvinistic tastes [they] know how to satisfy” (Ribeiro 299). Therefore, allusion highlights the play’s characters’ racial belonging and its creators’ degrading attitude.
The play mentions its literary symbol advocating racial inequality during the first act. This symbol is a mule, an offspring of a mare and a male donkey, representing African subjugation throughout history. African-American literature frequently mentions mulattos derived from the mule, which is considered offensive toward black people and people of color (Koy 93).
Hurston and Hughes are no exception, noting that the mule “was so skinny you could do a week’s washing on his ribs for a washboard and hang ’em up on his hip-bones to dry” (Hughes and Hurston). This simile, based on the mule’s symbolism, illustrates the socioeconomic challenges that most African Americans used to experience, applying to lower-class groups (Koy 95). Therefore, the mule, an animal of hard labor, is the text’s symbol associated with similes to highlight racial inequity.
The most exciting point about the symbol’s role within the text arises during the plot’s climax. When two men, Jim Weston and Dave Carter, fight for Daisy’s heart, Jim throws a mule’s bone at Dave (Hughes and Hurston). The symbol becomes the weapon and the primary reason for disagreements between the two parties during the trial of Jim’s actions.
The bones of an animal associated with slave labor determine the person’s freedom during the trial. The authors use this to highlight the necessity of freeing African Americans from racial stereotypes and divisions (Koy 95). They enhance the mule’s role within the small society, giving the audience hope for equality and escape from stereotyping.
Tone and Conflict in Character Dialogue
The distinct feature of the Mule-Bone is its tone, affecting how the audience reacts to each character. Since the plot considers enmity between two past friends after falling in love with a woman, the author’s tone is primarily violent. It is justified by the similes that men emphasize while communicating. For example, Jim laughs sarcastically after pointing out that Dave dances like a monkey, which is an offensive remark.
Meanwhile, Dave refers to white people by saying, “If it wasn’t for these white folks throwin’ me money for my dancin’, you would be thin as a whisper right now” (Hughes and Hurston). It highlights the outsized role of white people in saving African Americans, which is the implicit hyperbole. Such phrases with negative connotations due to similes and hyperboles add a harsh and rough tone to this comedy.
The fact that the main characters perform on the scene for the white people also helps to establish the play’s central message as the authors try to convince the audience that African-Americans should continue enjoying their lives and building their resilience against the whites. For example, Jim and Dave play the song “Rode Some,” which utilizes literary repetitions to highlight that the black person rides on the train (Hughes and Hurston). Although he is caught, he still repeats that he “rode some” and could circumvent the whites’ dominance, which is a small victory for the marginalized groups. This repetition sung by the main characters provides the audience with a hope to fight back and reach their destined freedom for African Americans.
Conclusion
“The Mule-Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life in Three Acts” depicts the lives of African-Americans who utilize vernacular English Slang, alluding to their lower socioeconomic statuses. The authors deliver their message truthfully without hiding any sarcastic or humiliating points about being African-American in the 1930s. Such similes, hyperboles, and repetitions create a brutal, unusual, and brilliant tone for the comedy, urging the audience to destroy racial inequality.
Works Cited
Hughes, L. and Hurston, Z. The Mule-Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life in Three Acts. CourseHero, 1930. Web.
Koy, C. “The Mule as Metaphor in the Fiction of Charles Waddell Chesnutt.” Theory and Practice in English Studies, vol. 4, no. 1, 2007, pp. 93–100. Web.
Ribeiro, O. “Racial Complexities in the Work of Zora Neale Hurston.” Revista de Letras, vol. 11, no. 6, 2007, pp. 297–304. Web.