Straightforward
Give It To Us Straight, Zora
The voice of the narrator likes to spout her version of the truth with little frills or fuss. We get lots of background info, setting, and pertinent details without any danger of being confused:
It was a hot, hot day near the end of July. The village men on Joe Clarke's porch even chewed cane listlessly. (30)
Easy to tell what's going on, right? A bunch of dudes on a porch, chillaxin' and hanging out. Hurston doesn't hesitate to get straight to the point.
Colloquial, Playful
Lyrical Masters
Almost every word of dialogue in "Sweat" sounds like it comes straight out of the mouth of someone born and raised in small-town, central Florida in the early 1900s. Their words have a musical and even mythical effect:
Ah jus' wisht Ah'd a' caught 'im 'dere! Ah'd a' made his hips ketch on fiah down dat shell road. (37)
And:
Dat niggah wouldn't fetch nothin' heah tuh save his rotten neck, but he kin run thew whut Ah brings quick enough. Now he done toted off nigh on tuh haff uh box uh matches. (88)
Although we definitely have a few "what did she say?" moments, we still admire Hurston's style for its creativity, playfulness and authenticity to Southern dialect—even more specifically, the African-American dialect.
In fact, now that we think about it, isn't it kind of true that even though we all speak English, we don't always understand each other? Life, like fiction, is all about interpretations.