Marriage is a concept that society takes extremely inaccurately. It is not something one can fall back from. Once someone enter it there is no way back. In Zora Neale Hurston’s short story “Sweat” she tells the story of Delia, a washerwoman whom Sykes, her husband, mistreats while he ventures around with other women and later attempts to kill Delia to open a way for a second marriage with one of his mistresses. By looking at “Sweat” through the feminist and historical lens Hurston illustrates the idea of a sexist society full of men exploiting and breaking down women until men dispose of them. Delia’s economic state was not the greatest. She had to make a lot of sacrifices just to provide for Sykes and herself. “Sunday night after church, she sorted and put the white things to soak. It saved her almost a half-day’s start… She saw that Sykes had kicked all of the clothes together again… But she walked calmly around him and commenced to re-sort the things… He snorted scornfully. ‘Yeah, you just come from de church house on a Sunday night, but heah you is gone to work on them clothes. You ain’t nothing but a hypocrite. One of them amen-corner Christians – Sing, whoop, and shout, then come home and wash white folks’ clothes on the Sabbath.’” (Hurston 1-3). While Delia has been working all night long; the man of the house arrives and does not acknowledge her exceptionally done work. Instead, he torments her about the fact she’s working on a Sabbath and calls her a hypocrite. He expects her to maintain him and treat him like her overlord. “Early on, the narrative establishes that Sykes both physically and mentally torments Delia. Scolding him for scaring her by sliding across her knee a bullwhip that she thinks is a snake, Delia say... ... middle of paper ... ...nd back on those women. Our society expects women to generally serve men, to please men with their beauty, to be that innocent mind that depends men tremendously depend on, to be the helpmate any men would wish to have, and to be the girly woman we men dream of having. That said, when looking at “Sweat” through the feminist and historical lens, Hurston explains the idea of a sexist society full of men exploiting and breaking down women until they dispose them. Works Cited ➢ Champion, Laurie. "Socioeconomics in Selected Short Stories of Zora Neale Hurston." Gale Artemis Literary Sources (2001). ➢ Hurd, Myles Raymond. "What Goes Around Comes Around: Characterization, Climax, and Closure in Hurston's 'Sweat'." Gale Artemis Literary Sources (1993). ➢ Scott, Cynthia C. "Zora Neale Hurston's Sweat: Character and Metaphor in the Short Story." Yahoo! Voices (2007).
Hurston, Zora Neale. "Sweat." Norton Anthology of Southern Literature. Ed. William L. Andrews. New York: Norton, 1998.
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.
By Zora Neale Hurston. Ed. Henry Louis Gates. New York: Harper & Row, 1994. Vii-Xiv. Print.
Wagner-Martin, Linda. “Sweat: Overview”. “Reference Guide to Short Fiction, 1st ed., edited by Noelle Watson, St. James press, 1994”. Literature Resource Center. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/LitRC?vrsn=3&OP=contains&locID=tall18692&srchtp=athr&ca=1&c=16&ste=16&stab=512&tab=2&tbst=arp&ai=U13004616&n=10&docNum=H1420004188&ST=zora+neale+hurston&bConts=16303
In the analysis of the issue in question, I have considered Mary Wollstonecraft’s Text, Vindication of the Rights of Woman. As an equivocal for liberties for humanity, Wollstonecraft was a feminist who championed for women rights of her time. Having witnessed devastating results or men’s improvidence, Wollstonecraft embraced an independent life, educated herself, and ultimately earned a living as a writer, teacher, and governess. In her book, “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman,” she created a scandal perhaps to her unconventional lifestyle. The book is a manifesto of women rights arguing passionately for educating women. Sensualist and tyrants appear right in their endeavor to hold women in darkness to serve as slaves and their plaything. Anyone with a keen interest in women rights movement will surely welcome her inexpensive edition, a landmark documen...
Zora Neale Hurston. New Masses. 5 Oct. 1937: 22+. Rpt. In Cronin 75-76. Rpt. Gates
Wright, Richard. "Review of Their Eyes Were Watching God." Zora Neale Hurston - Critical Perspectives Past and Present. Eds. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and K. A. Appiah. New York: Amistad, 1993
Hurston adopts a hopeful attitude toward slavery and believes that all her ancestors’ suffering are the price for civilization. She will not feel ashamed of having ancestors as slaves because she believes slavery brings civilization. And also because of this, she treats slavery as a chance for glory because it is able to brings success and civilization. Moreover, she also thinks that she shall get twice as much praise as a result based upon to all the sacrifices and
Hurston counters the argument that black people have been given “a lowdown dirty deal” by nature and that their past defines who they are now. She is colored, but not “tragically colored”—she is unapologetic about her race. She believes that her accomplishments, not her race, define her, but at the same time, she is not ashamed of being black. Her ancestors
All Through the story Sykes will be undermining Delia and illuminating her that he will hit her physically in somehow. Writer of the book, structuring a Straight punch with a bended clench hand, Loren Bruckheimer, will clarify how, "Zora Neale Hurston utilizes depictions of the whip to propose an individuals of masculinity communicated in an over driving nature and profoundly seeded in ethnic oppression" (Bruckheimer 44). This would suggest that Sykes hits Delia simply because the main method for masculinity that he has known is the kind that the white townsmen appear to
Zora Neale Hurston shows many reflections of the Harlem Renaissance throughout her writings. In the Harlem Renaissance, while not accepted now, it was okay for a man to hit his wife, if it meant that she would stay submissive to him. This is shown in Hurston’s writing, Their Eyes Were Watching God, where Janie was hit by Joe, her second relationship, and she was also hit by her third husband, Tea Cake, where he only did it to “keep her in line.” Another idea of the Harlem Renaissance was the amount of gossip in people's lives. The people always found it there right to talk about others and place them in other people's lives. Hurston’s writings reflects these views through the use of townspeople in her stories. In Their Eyes
The moment of discovery occurred when at the age of thirteen she realized what it meant to be black and that the racial dissimilarities played an immense role in American society. What is more, this revelation demonstrates the writer’s concept of being “colored” as a result of social context. Nobody is born black; the society creates the notions of race and how it ought to be perceived by others. When she was living in Eatonville, the thought that she possesses a certain set of characteristics that create racial distinctions has never crossed her mind. Hurston states: “I belonged to them, to the nearby hotels, to the county- everybody’s Zora”. However, leaving Eatonville equaled to the transformation which depended on remote theories of race: “I was not Zora of Orange County any more, I was now a little colored
Readers can see the contrast Hurston make between white and colored people “he is so pale with his whiteness then I am so colored” (540). Not only she is stereotyping the white race for not being connected to Jazz but readers can see her passion for her roots the Jazz music has remain a stereotype for African- American as well. In the beginning we are also given a strong imagery “But the Northerners were something else again. They were peered at cautiously from behind curtains by the timid” (539). Hurston descrives the Black in the town reaction to seeing the Northerners White when they pass through. They were nervous looking somewhat weak, compared to the Southern White how did not show any nervousness or fear. There are many other imagery but perhaps the most intense is “The terrible struggle that made me an American out of a potential slave said “on the line!” The Reconstruction said “Get set!” and the generation before said, “Go!” I am off to a flying start and I must not halt in the stretch to look behind and weep” (539). This shows Hurston courage, the use of analogy of the race represent the struggle and the progression of African-American, she knows she must move forward and not dwell on the pass. The use of this images give more powerful vision of what it was like for her growing up during a time. Where race was all that matter, Yet her tone and
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.
In John Mill 's’ essay, “The Subjection of Women”, Mill evaluates and analyses, the social differences between the sexes of the Victorian era. Mills raises some valid points about the subjection of women pertaining to the 19th century. Mills argues that during this time women are treated by their husbands as slaves to a master, not offered an equal opportunity in terms of employment, and their educational achievements aren’t recognized nearly as much as their male counterpart.