Hurston's language reflects her complete admiration of
African American folk culture. In her essay,
"Characteristics of Negro Expression" (1934), she discusses
the African American's "will to adorn" his language.
In his use of metaphors and similes, verbal nouns, and the double
descriptive, African Americans have contributed greatly to the
language. According to Hurston: "The stark, trimmed phrases
of the Occident seem too bare for the voluptuous child of the sun,
hence the adornment. It arises out of the same impulse as the
wearing of jewelry and the making of sculpture--the urge to
adorn."
According to Sterling Brown, "Miss Hurston's forte is the recording and the
creation of folk-speech."
