comment on style / language

While this story does not often use direct dialogue of its characters, the dialogue that it does use is defined by Hurston’s signature use of local vernacular and dialects. For example, when Joe Clarke converses with Uncle Monday, Clarke says, “I’god, Uncle Monday, aint you skeered to stay way off by yo’self, old as you is?” (109). This focus on accent, dialect, and vernacular persists throughout the story. It is also notable that Uncle Monday’s dialogue appears to be generally more formal, as if to highlight the gravity and depth of his pronouncements: “I have been dead for many a year. I have come back from where you are going” (110).