Jonah’s Gourd Vine (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Zora Neale Hurston
- First Published: 1934
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Historical realism
- Time of Work: The post-Civil War period through the early
- Setting: Alabama and Florida
- Genres: Long fiction, Social realism
- Subjects: African Americans, Power, personal or social, Sex or sexuality, Biracial people, South or Southerners, Twentieth century, Nineteenth century, Education or educators, Poverty or poor people, Ministry or ministers, Farms, farmers, or farming, Adultery, Death or dying, Florida, Alabama, Carpentry or carpenters, Judges
- Locales: South (U.S.), Alabama, Florida
Characters Discussed
John Pearson, a black minister and carpenter. He grows up on a Southern sharecropper’s farm with his mother, his stepfather, and his two younger brothers. Increasing difficulties with his stepfather force John to leave the farm when he is sixteen years old. On the advice of his mother, he goes to Judge Pearson, who employs him and gives him clothes, along with changing John’s last name from Crittenden to Pearson. John is tall and light-skinned, with gray eyes and curly hair. He is powerfully built and handsome. Soon he discovers that he is unable to...
[The entire page is 1051 words long]
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