9. Importance of use of vernacular dialect. Full question inside

[Jen]

9. How important is Hurston's use of vernacular dialect to our understanding of Janie and the other characters and their way of life? What do speech patterns reveal about the quality of these lives and the nature of these communities? In what ways are "their tongues cocked and loaded, the only real weapon" of these people?

[Jan]

The use of vernacular language must have been shocking to readers at the time, especially because it is used to reveal the true nature of the people who speak it, rather than turn them into a cartoon version that people might have felt more comfortable with. The characters in the book are real. They're not 'Mammies' or 'Sambos', but human beings with the same loves, hopes and frustrations as anyone. There's an honesty about their language and their patterns of speech that allows us to feel we are hearing truth of thought and feeling from them.

I don't know how to assess the way speech patterns reveal the quality of life, other than regional accents are often used as false indicators of a lack of education or intelligence. Perhaps vernacular language indicates familiarity, because it's a shared language that can keep others outside your community. In relation to the people in the book, they have no real power, and so their words become their weapons to bring somebody down. They can destroy someone's reputation with the things they say about them.

[[deleted user]]

I think the use of language emerges the reader fully into the world of Janie and her peers and makes it clear that this is a book about black culture and traditions.

Oddly enough I am learning German and a lot of the language is German sounding weird coincidence

[Lynn]

The use of the vernacular language was jarring for me at first. But through the course of the novel i found it became easier to decipher. The use of the language helps us to "listen" to the characters as the author wanted us to know them.

[Anna]

The first chapter was really difficult for me. I had to work really hard to figure out what as being said in the dialogue. The second chapter was easier. However, any time I took a break from the book, I had to work hard to understand the dialogue. It is interesting because although it is English it is like their own unique version of it.

[Diane]

The language didn't bother me but helped me immerse into another time and place.

[Book Concierge]

Anna wrote: "The first chapter was really difficult for me. I had to work really hard to figure out what as being said in the dialogue. The second chapter was easier. However, any time I took a break from the b..."

The first time I read this, I found that if I read it aloud I began to "hear" the dialogue. I only had to read aloud for a few chapters (or dialogue scenes) ... by then I could "hear" it in my head clearly.

The second time I read it, I listened to the incomparable Ruby Dee perform the audio version. Fantastic!

[Book Concierge]

I think Hurston's use of the vernacular dialogue made it "legitimate" in literary circles. Gave the poor, Southern black dialect as much credence as Mark Twain gave to Huck Finn's speech.

[Pip]

I was fascinated that I found the vernacular easy to follow and that is why I rated the book so highly. Usually I struggle with dialect, in Cloud Atlas, for example, I found it quite incomprehensible, but I could hear these voices so clearly I was impressed. And this is from a woman who finds interviews with American Black basketballers absolutely mystifying! The conversations sounded absolutely authentic to me.

[Patrick]

I agree with Book Concierge: this novel would not have been legitimate if "normal" literary English had been used for the characters.