50 pages • 1 hour read
Zora Neale HurstonMules and Men
Nonfiction | Anthology/Varied Collection | Adult | Published in 1935A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Appendix-AfterwordChapter Summaries & Analyses
Appendix Summary
The Appendix contains four sections: “Negro Songs with Music” (251), “Formulae of Hoodoo Doctors” (273), “Paraphernalia of Conjure” (277), and “Prescriptions of Root Doctors” (281).
There are nine songs in the first section, each of which contains lyrics and sheet music detailing the accompaniment. There are several work songs, sung to a rhythm conducive to performing repetitive manual labor; a convict song, which comes from the workers on “chain gangs,” or groups of inmates tasked with performing some type of physical labor; a blues or “social song”; a children’s song; and a gaming song, intended for playing Georgia Skin).
The “formulae” in the second section detail: superstitions “concerning sudden death” (273) and how to rent a home; rituals to affect the outcome of a trial, “to kill and harm” someone (275), and to make someone flee; and several types of love rituals. These formulae correspond to some of the most frequently referenced types of hoodoo rituals in Part 2.
The third section of the Appendix lists the most ubiquitous materials used in hoodoo. The list primarily presents items either according to a common name, such as “white mustard seed” (278), or according to hoodoo terminology, such as “Big John the Conqueror” (279), a type of root. Items also list their intended effect, though to varying specificity: Some items have explanations as to how and why they work, like the entry for “Egyptian Paradise Seed” (278), while others are vague, like entry number 36 that reads simply “Medals. For success.” (280).
The fourth section specifies that not all root doctors are hoodoo doctors, even though nearly all hoodoo doctors practice rootwork. Rootwork refers to the use of everyday materials to treat medical issues; it does not require the use of roots or plants exclusively. In the early 1900s, rootwork was common in many poor communities, as doctors were unlikely to live nearby. The “prescriptions” listed in this chapter are intended to treat: sexually transmitted infections and diseases, lock-jaw, menstruation pains, and common ailments like the flu. There are three sections detailing how to treat “loss of mind,” make poisons, and “make a tonic,” though its intended purpose is unspecified (284).
Afterword Summary
This Afterword written by Henry Louis Gates Jr. was added to Mules and Men in the 1990 republication. Gates is the Director of Harvard’s center of African American studies. In his four-part Afterword, he examines the scope of Mules and Men in the context of Hurston’s life and assesses her impact on Black American literature. This portion extends beyond the scope of this book and references much of Hurston’s other work; the discussion of the Afterword in this guide will remain about Mules and Men.
Gates’s evaluation of Hurston’s life and work aims primarily to illuminate why Hurston, who wrote and published many works in her lifetime, died impoverished and was buried in an unmarked grave. While this detail about her personal life might appear unrelated to this work at first, Gates examines how Hurston’s craft contributed to her falling into obscurity before her death. Hurston, particularly in this work, writes upon the foundational belief “that racism had reduced black people to [...] beings who only react to an omnipresent racial oppression” (291). In synthesizing the Black people and characters encapsulated in her books as whole people who have motives other than acting according to “racial oppression,” Hurston establishes a new type of Black voice in literature unlike many of her contemporaries. Because she refused to synthesize her work for white audiences, her writing largely defied common expectations of literature. In Mules and Men this is particularly evident because it is written from the in-group perspective of someone who already belongs to the Black communities in the Deep South. In this respect, Hurston’s work was not appreciated during her lifetime. Furthermore, Hurston’s complex political beliefs were often at odds with other famous Black figures of her lifetime, creating distance between her and her contemporaries.
It was not until Alice Walker discovered Hurston’s grave in 1973 that Hurston’s work was reintroduced into the American literary canon. Many of the elements that rendered Hurston an outsider during her own lifetime now cement her legacy as a great American author: the deeply intimate tone she cultivates, the authenticity of her characters, and her self-insertion into her work. Mules and Men, therefore, is an excellent example of how she manipulates these elements to establish a Black literary tradition focusing on the feminine experience, which had been largely absent from American literature before her.
Appendix-Afterword Analysis
The Appendix acts as a concise addition to the information presented in Parts I and II of the main work. The inclusion of songs corresponds to Part 1, while the hoodoo traditions correspond to Part 2. Hurston’s documentation of sheet music and lyrics of traditional songs solidifies one of her aims in completing this work: to catalog and preserve disappearing Black traditions. By formalizing these songs, Hurston creates a space in the emerging field of ethnographic anthropology for people of color that had not existed before. The inclusion of hoodoo practices in the Appendix largely accomplishes the same inclusive efforts.
The portions of the Appendix concerning hoodoo use the same in-group style and tone found in Part 2. These entries, therefore, rely heavily on colloquial terms that Hurston does not always explain. Although these sections in the Appendix answer many questions for readers who are not part of these traditions, the vagueness of some entries can create more questions than answers. Though perhaps not intentional on Hurston’s part, this casts a sense of persisting mystery over the discussions of hoodoo, further obscuring an already mysterious practice.
The items and rituals Hurston includes in the hoodoo sections of the Appendix highlight the importance of hoodoo for isolated and marginalized communities. The prescriptions listed in the fourth section are especially illuminating: Because, as Hurston explains, medical doctors are not often accessible in many isolated communities, it is necessary for people to develop their own treatments for common ailments. This offers a somewhat different view into the hoodoo practice than what she discusses in Part 2. Hoodoo is partially a response to the forced isolation imposed on people of color and impoverished people living in the American South in the early 1900s. This perspective gives greater depth to the hoodoo rituals detailed in Part 2 because it illustrates that, for many of the people Hurston observed in her research, hoodoo offers a solution to problems that go otherwise untreated. Overall, the Appendix functions in tandem with Part 2 to anchor hoodoo practices in the southern Black tradition, inextricably linked to slavery and the loss of identity forced upon enslaved Africans.
The Afterword is a hybrid critique-analysis of the work that offers a great deal of contextualization for modern readers. Gates’s assessment of Hurston’s life and work further explain portions of Mules and Men because this book relies so heavily on Hurston’s own past. This is particularly helpful in assessing the intimate register of Mules and Men because Gates provides key details about Hurston’s life and career that explain the purpose of that register. As Hurston reconnects with her past and identity as a Black woman, she reflects this complex journey in her work. Although this contextualization is not necessary for reading and understanding Mules and Men, it offers readers a more complete understanding of Hurston’s motivations.
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