Spunk: Themes | SparkNotes

The Power of Collective Perception

Throughout the story, Hurston develops a theme of the power of collective perception. Even as the loungers are the main storytellers guiding the reader’s understanding of the characters, their opinions have the power to elevate or dismantle individual men. Their gossip illustrates their shared perception of masculinity, and their shifting approval and disapproval of both Spunk and Joe indicates which man has the upper hand in their competition, and also drives the conflict to greater intensity. At the beginning of the story, the loungers all agree that Spunk is the more appropriately masculine of the two. Spunk seems to embody power and bravery. In the first words he speaks, Elijah declares Spunk and Lena to be “brassy as tacks,” a play on the expression “bold as brass.” While there is an element of disapproval in his declaration, or at least an acknowledgment that their behavior is outside of social expectations, there is also admiration. Elijah makes this clear in the same scene, when he praises Spunk’s fearlessness in all areas of life, from the courtship of a married woman to riding logs at the sawmill. Spunk’s courage makes a striking contrast with Joe’s timidity. The loungers’ perception of Joe’s weakness leads Elijah to raise the stakes of their conflict by goading Joe into confronting Spunk again, an action that ultimately results in Joe’s death.

However, in the second half of the story, the loungers’ perceptions of the men shift, as Joe’s ghost seems to intimidate Spunk in ways his living self never could. Not only do the loungers enjoy the spectacle of the ongoing competition, but they also come to retroactively revise their definition of courage. Courage continues to serve as a proxy for manliness, only now Joe is considered the braver man. The bobcat and the invisible force at the sawmill are understood to be manifestations of Joe’s spirit, which has found after death a daring he could not muster in life. The loungers see Joe as having found his fighting spirit after death, an idea that spawns new respect for him. On the other hand, Spunk quails at the bobcat’s visit and seems shaken by the incident at the sawmill. With these changes in mind, the loungers reevaluate Joe’s character while alive. Walter convincingly argues that of the two, Joe was always the braver since he faced Spunk in spite of his fear. Hurston leaves some ambiguity as to the cause of Spunk’s death, never definitively stating whether Spunk’s misstep was caused by an actual push from Joe’s ghost or by a failure of his own nerve. This humiliating end completes Spunk’s fall from grace among the men. As Spunk heads off to fight Joe in the afterlife, the loungers now look forward to what they now view as a fair fight between equally macho men.

The Nearness of the Spirit World

In this story, the spirit world is never far from the living. The first half of the story involves only living people, and when Spunk kills Joe, their conflict seems settled. However, the story has only begun, as Hurston develops the theme of the nearness of the spirit world throughout the second half of the story. Spunk, who was previously impervious to fear, becomes harassed by and afraid of various manifestations of Joe’s ghost. Spunk’s fearful reactions to the ghosts, as well as the loungers’ easy acceptance of his claims, are affirmations of the idea that the spirit world can touch and affect the world of the living. Although the men know how easy it is to have an accident near the saw blade, no one questions Spunk’s assertion that a ghost pushed him toward it, and when he dies in a similar incident, the men agree with Spunk that Joe’s ghost is to blame. Elijah’s discomfort at the idea of sitting up with Spunk’s dead body because of his fury at the moment of his death also shows the characters’ belief that the spirit world can easily interact with the world of the living.

By presenting Joe’s ghost first in the form of a black bobcat, Hurston sets up a comparison between the spirit world and the untamed world of nature that surrounds and sometimes permeates the town. This small town is in constant contact with wildlife, existing as a human incursion into nature more than an entity that has pushed nature back. Hurston demonstrates this aspect of the town in her depiction of nightfall, which she describes as dusk creeping in from the woods, followed by the swarming of candle-flies around the lantern humans light to push back against the dark. The bobcat image associates the permeation of the spirit world with the same quality of the natural world. When Elijah tells the loungers about the bobcat, he repeatedly points out that it was a black bobcat. Since bobcats are usually a mottled light brown, he is telling them that this was not an ordinary predator, one Spunk would have shot without a second thought, but a supernatural presence. By embodying Joe’s spirit in a form of a wild animal, Hurston suggests that the nearness of the spirit world is comparable to the ubiquity of nature.

The Pitfalls of Entitlement

Both Spunk and Joe experience the pitfalls of entitlement, as both men discover that the assumption that they are owed the things that they want leads them to ignore their vulnerabilities. As Lena’s husband, Joe begins the story with a sense of entitlement to Lena’s affections. The assumption that she should belong to her husband causes him to ignore the qualities she actually finds attractive in a male companion. When he confronts her and demands she return to him only because he is her husband, she looks upon him with disgust. The loungers agree that women do not want a man who acts like Joe, but at this point in the story, Joe has not considered what Lena wants. His sense of entitlement to her affection has led him to lose her.

Spunk begins the story not only assured of his entitlement to Lena, but also generally convinced that the world will bend to his will. He has created a hypermasculine persona that he believes guarantees his ongoing dominance. Despite seeing another man killed at the sawmill, he has no fear of the blade, even when the other men are wary. Although his killing of Joe is clearly murder, he confidently declares it an act of self-defense, certain that he will face no punishment. However, the arrival of Joe’s ghost destroys Spunk, because he has never prepared himself for conflict with a powerful force that opposes him. Joe’s ghost is unmoved by Spunk’s macho presentation, and without that persona to shield him, Spunk is left defenseless. In short order, the previously unflinching Spunk surrenders to the perceived orders of a ghost and is ultimately killed by the same blade he faced fearlessly in the first part of the story. His sense of entitlement has created a pitfall that leads to his death.

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