In the short story “Sweat,” Zora Neale Hurston describes the final months of marriage between Delia Jones and her husband Sykes. Delia’s hard work supports both her husband and their small home, but Sykes takes Delia’s earnings and spends as he pleases. He is also known within their Florida town for his extramarital affairs. Delia’s life is one of managed goodness, and Sykes is Delia’s opposite in all ways. In an attempt to drive Delia from their marriage, Sykes brings a large rattlesnake into their home. Although the snake ultimately ends the pair’s marriage, it is not in the manner Sykes had envisioned. Zora Neale Hurston’s tale depicts the classic struggle of good versus evil, but she also illustrates that evil is pervasive and tempting, leading good people to succumb to evil.
Delia Jones is a churchgoing, hardworking woman who spends her entire week, beginning Sunday nights, washing the townspeople’s clothing. For fifteen years, Delia’s hard work has provided for her home, which she plans to have “for her old days” (Hurston 293). She and her husband Sykes are locked in a struggle over the home, which is Delia’s prized possession. Her “sweat…paid for this home,” and she has created life here by planting trees around the home (293). However, Delia’s plan to keep her home is compromised by her husband. Sykes promises his current lover, Bertha, that she “ ‘kin have dat li’l ole house soon’s [he] git dat ‘oman outadere’ ” (296). Hurston creates sympathy for Delia through this struggle. Sykes is the evil within the marriage, and Delia is the good counterpart.
Although Delia is marked by “habitual meekness” (293), she stands up to Sykes one evening. After he tramples her sorted laundry and “step[s] roughly upon the whitest pile of ...
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...sgressions against his wife, Delia must also face the consequences of her decision. It is here that the reader must decide Delia’s fate. Hurston illustrates Delia’s struggle throughout the story, and the reader’s sympathy for Delia increases. Both the mood and the tone of the story are very dark, and Hurston uses this to bear down on the reader, pushing the reader to ‘root’ for Delia. When the snake attacks Sykes, the reader feels triumphant for Delia and may believe that good has prevailed over evil. One must question if relishing in Delia’s victory implies that one would also give in to temptation as Delia did. Hurston poses the question to the reader to consider if he or she is strong enough to resist the temptation of evil.
Works Cited
Hurston, Zora Neale. “Sweat.” Backpack Literature. Eds. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. Boston: Longman, 2010. 291-301. Print.
...lia Jones endured fifteen years of violence, disrespect, and infidelity, and only in those last few months was she able to muster some form of resistance. Until Sykes threatened all that she had, her home and her job, she was content enough just sweating it out. However, Sykes made that grave mistake on his own accord, and when leaving Delia with nothing to lose, he found that he had set himself up for a losing battle. Delia had surrendered to him in all those years, but Sykes had finally found a way to bring out the worst in his wife, and her aggression was finally realized by defending all that she had. After such pain and endurance, one can easily recognize how Delia Jones played the lead role in a short story called "Sweat."
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God: A Novel. New York: Perennial Library, 1990. Print.
Zora Neale Hurston's writing style in Dust Tracks on a Road is one of her greatest advantages. She easily and humorously show cases southern African American dialect. Examples of this southern African American dialect is when she shares with her readers co...
Zora Neale Hurston has been married and divorced twice, which assisted her in developing Joe and Missy May’s marriage. Hurston’s rocky marriage occurred just prior to the writing of “The Gilded Six-Bits” which portrays a marriage replete with infidelity and hatred. Missy May’s infidelity tests the strength of her marriage with Joe, which ultimately succeeds the trials and tribulations. Perhaps Hurston spared Joe and Missy May’s marriage to prove to herself that marriages can stand through infidelity, because neither of her marriages continued through the hardships. Hurston saw marriage as an important commitment capable of forgiveness and recommitment. Hurston creates Joe, as the character that forgives and forgets, possibly this is what she expected or desired in her own husbands. Hurston uses her own life experiences to depict her characters a...
Zora Neale Hurston's "Sweat" embodies some aspects that are found in Walker's and Marshall's essays. Delia, the main character, has an identity that is found through her hard work and spirituality. She also finds her freedom and independence in her home.
Zora Neale Hurston’s short story “Sweat” is about a woman, Delia who is physically and emotionally abused by her husband, Sykes, whose actions she struggles to overcome towards her. Through all the abuse, Delia takes pride in her hard work and her religion. In this story, Hurston uses religions and moral symbolism that controls the character’s actions throughout the plot.
The major idea I want to write about has to do with the way Mrs. Hale stands behind Mrs. Wright even though it seems like everyone else especially (the men) would rather lock her up and throw away the key. We see this right away when she gets on the County Attorney for putting down Mrs. Wright’s house keeping. I find this to be wonderfully symbolic in that most women of this time usually allowed the men to say whatever they wanted about their sex, never standing up for themselves or each other
It was so much neater than a number of bundles lying around.” (Hurston 731). This quote shows that Delia is the clothes that are in the hamper because it was neater than the other bundles. We see that neatness being disrupted from the mess when Sykes antagonizes Delia because of her work. Hurston, yet again, breaks another gender role stereotype and shows that Sykes, the “man” of the relationship, is immature and most likely provides nothing to their relationship. Hurston shows readers that Sykes is not the breadwinner and he has a very rude and outlandish personality and leaches off of
The devil tempted Tom to become a “slave trader,” but he would not accepted this offer so his other option was “open a broker’s shop” where he would “drive merchants to bankruptcy” (Irving). Tom fell into a trap, and from that moment hope was vanished and he was drawing close to his desire that would never come true. The ingenious blend of “seriocomic pathos” helps highlight the increase corruption of money distribution and reitterates the importance of Tom’s new life that was graciously given to him (Mintz). Tom “starved the horses” and the “ungreased wheels” squealed and growned it is as if you could hear “the souls of the poor debtors he was squeezing” (Irving). This is parallel to the first depression where people were in chaos and felt disconnected to the government and world. Through Irving’s simile, he comapres the “ungreased wheels” to “the souls of the poor he was squeezing” (Irving) which helps create a “vein of humor” (Mintz). Tom alwasy carried a Bible in his coat picket and desk, but one day he frogot his Bibles which were under his pocket and buried “under the mortage” he was soon to close. Th black man “whicked him like a child into the saddle” and they gaolloped away in the midst of a thunder storm (Irving). His minor sin of not carrying his Bible lead to his death where his hope for Kidd’s treasure was lost. It also shows how minor government spending could lead to a great amount of trouble like an economic depression. Irving’s ideal readers should make fun “at the fictional audience” who think that Tom was carried away to his “fate” in a “carriage driven by a black horse” (Piedmont-Marton). His “seriocomic pathos” makes this incident ironic because he sets it up in a serious tone, but has a dark sensor of humar that the reader should pick
1. c.Robert E. Hemenway, in his Zora Neale Hurston: A Literary Biography, University of Illinois Press, 1977, 371 p.
When one thinks of the general concept of home, a house, a family, or a general sense of belonging may appear in one’s mind. However, in Frost’s poem “The Death of Hired Man” and Zora Neale Hurston’s short story “The Gilded Six-bits,” home is not restrained to being just a family or a certain place; it is a place or person that shows unconditional care, love, or forgiveness. Home is expressed not only through words, but also in actions. The character of Mary is the one who shows unconditional care for Silas, and Joe shows unconditional forgiveness and love for Missie May even after she betrays him. Also, unconditional grace is widely shown to both Silas and Missie May. Either person does not earn this grace; this grace is freely given.
Hinton, Kip Austin. "Zora Neale Hurston." Zora Neale Hurston Web Site. Kip Austin Hinton, ed. 07/16/2003. Available at www.1.am/zora
Appiah, K.A. and Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. eds. Zora Neale Hurston: Critical Perspectives Past and Present. New York: Amistad Press, Inc., 1993.
Wright, Richard. “Between Laughter and Tears.” In Zora Neale Hurston: Critical Perpectives Past and Present. Edited by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and K. A. Appiah., 16-17. New York: Amistad Press, Inc., 1993.
Sykes had a mistress named Bertha who he spoiled all the time, but the people in town always wondered why he never paid attention to Delia. Walter Thomas, one of the men from the store, said, “Ah 'd uh married huh mahself if he hadnter beat me to it.” (Hurston) All the men in town were jealous of Sykes because of Delia. But Sykes, on the other hand, didn 't see what he had right in front of him. The plotting of Delia 's death was all done by Sykes. He went out of his way to get a rattlesnake and place it in the clothes hamper with the lid on, hoping it would strike her while washing clothes. When Delia saw the snake, she scurried outside and hid in the barn until Sykes arrived home. Delia calmly stated, “Ah done de bes ' ah could. If things aint right, Gawd knows it aint mah fault.” (Hurston) After the freak accident of Sykes being struck by the rattlesnake and suffering a long and painful death, Delia, hearing all the screaming and moaning coming from inside her “broken” home, sat under a Chinaberry tree that was in the front yard. She felt a sense of relief after she heard Sykes crying for her help and her knowing that she could not do anything to help. Her fear of their relationship and of him that went on for 15 years, was finally over and she felt as if she achieved her