Chapter 3, Figure Wandering (cs. 5 & 6 inclusive) Summary and Analysis

In Figure and Fancy, chapter 5, she begins by noting that Joe Clark, who is the Mayor of Eatonville, owns and runs a store as well as being the Mayor of an all "Negro" town in Florida. The area in front of the store was known as Joe Clark's porch. Zora explains that it was a cultural vantage point onto the town and upon the adult world from her juvenile perspective. Everything, ranging from gossip to being able to tell a man was a proud husband who provided well for his wife, turning over his income to her control to how the whole community could tell a man who was cheating on his wife by who else he spent money on. Women's reputations were openly discussed and described, although typically through allusion and idiom...