“Her tongue is all de weapon a woman got”
The segment “Why Women Always Take Advantage of Men” which is included within the text is very insightful and enlightening, especially for many men who have never read it. The metaphor of tongue as weapon refers, of course, not to the physical part of the body itself, but rather to the powers of manipulation, subtlety, nuance and subtext have allowed women to counter the sheer physical power of the male to keep from being completely dominated.
“A world is somethin' ain't never finished.”
The metaphor here is in reference to the folk tale of why butterflies exist, but the deeper meaning as it applies to people is related to what God says after admitting that a world is coincident with a perpetually unfinished project. God almost seems to be breathing an anguished sigh when he admits that the reason a world is never finished is because once you finish something you realize something is missing and you have to take care of that. It is a grand metaphor for everything from writing an essay to decorating a room.
“You young folks is just like a passle of crows in a corn patch.”
On the other hand, what happens here is a simile that is very limited in application simply because most people would not have the slightest idea what it is supposed to mean. Just how are young people like a murder of crows in the cornfield? Fortunately, the metaphorical meaning is explained immediately and this is precisely what gives it power. This is an example of figurative language that provides a glimpse into another culture. It is an example of what is known as “local color” or “regional humor.” And, for the record, here is what the speaker is driving at: “Everybody talkin' at one time. Ain't nary one of you tried to learn how to eat a fish right.”
“The air was as tight as a fiddle string.”
If you do an internet search for this simile, you will quickly (or inevitably) discover that in the state of Texas this saying is synonymous with being cheap. (Technically, “tight” is a synonym for cheap, and the string on a fiddle must be pulled taut in order to produce the required so, this would be a synonym for very cheap.) Hurston was neither from nor ever moved to Texas, however, so one must apply contextual clues to figure out that this particular regional meaning does not apply:
“Ella Wall flung a loud laugh back over her shoulder as she flourished in. Everybody looked at her, then they looked at Big Sweet. Big Sweet looked at Ella, but she seemed not to mind. The air was as tight as a fiddle string.
Ella wrung her hips to the Florida-flip game. Big Sweet stayed on at the skin game but didn't play. Joe Willard, knowing the imminence of forthright action, suddenly got deep into the crap game.”
“A fresh egg in the hand of a murder victim will prevent the murderer's going far from the scene. The egg represents life, and so the dead victim is holding the life of the murderer in his hand.”
A fascinating section of the text is concerned with hoodoo (voodoo) superstitions related to dead. This particular superstition is metaphorically rich with its connection between the literal and the symbolic. An egg is, after all, an encasement holding the processes of the creation of life within in and as such it is a very appropriate entity to symbolically represent life. The metaphorical image of a dead person symbolically holding onto the life of a living person is majestic in its complexity.
