Delia Compare And Contrast Essay

“Basically, I hate conformity. I hate people telling me what to do. It makes me want to smash things. So-called normal behaviour patterns make me so bored, I could throw up!” American musician Wendy O. Williams uttered these words to express how she detests being controlled. This is the point that authors Zora Neale Hurston, Chinua Achebe, Jamaica Kincaid, poet Maya Angelou, and director Raoul Peck assert in their various works. In said works, each creator proves that one needs not always conform or be submissive in certain situations. In the pieces of the creators stated above, characters undergo situations where they are expected to do something they do not want to or do not believe is right. However, they do not conform to these

Protagonist Delia is a working woman who is married to Sykes, a jobless, broke man. One evening while Delia was washing the white people’s clothes, Sykes walks in and purposefully walks all over the clean clothes. In response Delia “... seized the iron skillet from the stove and struck a defensive pose, which act surprised him greatly, coming from her” (Hurston, 2). Sykes has been without a job for over 15 years and treats his wife like crap. At this point, Delia has had enough of Sykes and wants to take actions in her own hands. After several years of her not responding or acting out of line toward him he was shocked. Similarly, this message is conveyed in her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. Protagonist Janie Crawford journeys to find the perfect husband. In all of her marriages she is in someway forced to be submissive. However, she eventually gives up being submissive and does her own thing. This is the case when she tells her first husband that she will not be his slave. She says “ ‘Scuse mah freezolity, Mist’ Killicks, but Ah don’t mean to chop de first chip" (Hurston, 26). Logan because he expects Janie to do as much work as he does and on top of that, carry out her duties as a wife. Janie has been