Sweat Zora Neale Hurston Analysis

“You get what you give, whether it’s good or bad,” says author Sandra Bullock. This is evidently portrayed in the story “Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston. It focuses on the marriage life of an African American woman Delia Jones and her husband, Sykes Jones. Hurston is known as a famous American writer, she writes about real life stories as it was during the years when she wrote the stories. The story is about Delia Jones, who is a nice, hardworking, and religious woman, who marries Sykes and has been living in a strained marriage life for fifteen years. Although they have been married for fifteen year, the relationship has been abusive. Although, Sykes knew that Delia was afraid of snakes he scares her with the bullwhip. Throughout the story, Sykes torture Delia numerous times to get rid of her so that he can bring in her lover Bertha in their house. Eventually, he brings in the rattlesnake to kill Delia. However, at the end of the story, Delia gets her revenge on her husband who planned to kill her and for his abuse over the

She says, “Whatever goes over the Devil’s back is got to come under his belly. Sometime or ruther, Sykes, like everybody else, is going to reap his sowing.” This was her belief and prediction she made in the beginning of the story, which comes true at the end. Sykes was tired of being with Delia, so he plans to put the snake in her pile of washing clothes as if it might bite Delia. Delia realized it while sorting the clothes and she ran out of the house, and sit under the Chinaberry tree. Sykes comes home and he is finding the matchbox to turn on the light. At the same time, the snake bites him with the poisonous fangs. Sykes plan get backfired. The snake that he sets up to kill Delia ends up biting himself. Sykes start screaming and calling Delia, and she can hear Sykes voice, but she did not try to seek for help from the doctor. Delia justifies her revenge watching her dying