I thought Isis was a phenomenal character, she had me laughing aloud numerous times in the short section. Zora has a flair and a hilarity that I have not seen so far in the literature of the renaissance, it was very refreshing to read Drenched In Light. The whole part about shaving grandma and then wearing grandma's table cloth as a dress is so funny, it is hard not to love the characters or the plot. I want to know more about the white couple, what is their story? Their instant attraction to Isis makes me think that they tried to have kids of their own and failed. The wife even says at the end "I want a little sunshine to soak into my soul. I need it." There is definitely some tragedy of her past and she tries to use Isis to forget it.
Why was grandma so easy to lend Isis to the white couple? Was she really so enamored by the 5 dollars that they gave her that she willingly gave her granddaughter to them for the night? Obviously things were different back then. People were more trusting. Kids were given free reign to run around and get into trouble. The childish innocence that dominates this piece is so endearing. This quality is something that the Harlem Renaissance lacks on the whole, that Zora Neal Hurston lends to the period.
"Color Struck" really does strike the issues of skin tone, similarly to "The Blacker the Berry." Emma deals with an inferiority complex because her skin tone is very dark. She is so jealous of the mulattoes that she loses the love of her life in her crazy assumptions that he would leave her for someone of a lighter skin tone. At first she just appears as a jealous psycho, fearing any woman the John spoke to was a threat, but eventually it becomes evident that she only fears the mixed race women because she thinks that they are more attractive.
No matter what John tells her, she cannot get over her jealousy. He tells her "the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice," but she pays no attention to his adoration. She is consumed in her jealousy of Effie, the mulatto woman who attended the cake walk with them.
When twenty years pass and John returns to her in hopes that she will see that he has loved her all along. She returns his love, but her obsession with skin color prevents them from reconnecting. Her daughter, who is half white, is deathly ill when John returns. Why doesn't she go to the doctor? Why is she so afraid to leave her daughter in order to make her better? John begs and begs her to go and all she can think about is if he is going to leave her again. We aren't told details about the daughter, but it is strange that Emma would have born a child with a man of lighter color, knowing her jealousy issues. She is jealous of her own daughter, and she hates the color of her skin so much, she cannot imagine why anyone would think it beautiful. When the doctor finally arrives he admonishes her, why didn't she call sooner? She may have allowed her daughter to die by her stubbornness. She sees John giving her daughter water and comforting her and she slaps him, outraged thinking that he wants to be with her daughter because she is so fair. She has gone beyond the breaking point, the daughter is near death, and still she is 'color struck' and can think of nothing but those shades that separate her from her daughter. John leaves realizing that she never could get over her color issues.
Works Cited
Hurston, Zora. "Drenched in Light." The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader. Ed. David Lewis. New York: 1995. 695-728.Hurston, Zora. "Color Struck." The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader. Ed. David Lewis. New York: 1995. 695-728.
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