Rootwork: Arthur Flowers, Zora Neale Hurston, and the "literary hoodoo" tradition

One important "signal difference" in Flowers' text is that both Lucas and Melvira have established professions when they meet. These professions afford them individual identity, status within the African American communities of the Delta, the means to contribute to that culture, and a connection to their African heritage. Unlike Hurston's Janie, who spends most of her life known primarily as someone's wife, Melvira Dupree is a well-respected conjure woman in her own right when Flowers' novel begins, an herbalist who communicates with trees, walks the woodlands without crushing living things, sends her "traveling spirit" to gather information. Known for doing good throughout the community, Melvira earns a reputation even among fellow "conjures" as a "true hoodoo of considerable power" (126). She thus meets Lucas Bodeen on equal footing when he arrives in her hometown of Sweetwater, Arkansas. He introduces himself to her as" 'a bluesman... and a good one too,'" to which she replies, "'Melvira Dupree, conjure'" (2).

Bodeen's status as a bluesman also gives him a sense of purpose and a community standing that Tea Cake never quite attains. Like Tea Cake, Lucas enters the world of his novel as an engaging itinerant, an outsider who wins the heart of a prominent local woman, to the town's initial disapproval. Also like Tea Cake, he is described in lavish natural images: "He smiled at her, a bright warm sunny day in the middle of March, a hint of springs to come" (3). Most of all, Lucas offers Melvira the same zest for living that Tea Cake brings to Janie. We are told that, although Melvira is a serious person who rarely laughs, Bodeen could "make a laugh out of any old thing, good times and bad. Blues training. A magic she found hard to resist" (12).

It is this very "blues training" that differentiates Lucas from Tea Cake and makes Lucas's individual development and relationships with others (Melvira and the community) possible and positive. Madelyn Jablon has noted that Another Good Loving Blues "traces the history of the blues from the lone traveling blues man to the big bands and race recordings" (59), documenting the "increasing professionalism" of blues musicians like Lucas (70). Tea Cake, in contrast, plays a guitar simply for pleasure. Interested primarily in good times, he spends just as much time rolling dice as he does "pick[ing] the box" (199). As SallyAnn Ferguson observes, Tea Cake is less like a blues musician than a character in a blues song (such as Stackolee), because he steals Janie's money, gambles, parties, boasts, and fights (193).

"SweetLuke" Bodeen is not immune to such dissipated habits, and spends several years in a drunken, drug-addled slide to homelessness and despair before he reaches rock bottom. From there, he gets sober, reclaims himself as a bluesman, and wins back Melvira's love. His profession as a blues piano player redeems him. During the course of the novel we see him gradually develop from a ragtime player into a blues innovator, learn to read music, and discover the survival lessons that the blues teaches. Furthermore, Bodeen's immersion in the blues offers him a way to connect with and strengthen the community. Watching some dancers move to his music one night, "Bodeen couldn't help but smile. Blackfolks and the blues. Finessing the hardtimes and celebrating the goodones. Extracting strength from adversity. His eyes misted. It made him feel good to do for blackfolks. To be able to" (40). Clearly Lucas's blues musicianship provides him with a sense of self-worth and a lifeline to his people.