1.) Sweat portrays Sykes as a mean, hateful, abusive husband who showed no care or affection for Delia. He is always talking about her and belittling her at every turn even going as far as to scare her with snakes knowing how terrified of them she is. Delia encounters a change from a terrified, uninvolved lady to a solid, disobedient one. Toward the beginning of the story, she holds her head down and buckles down; she is horribly apprehensive when her significant other, Sykes, drops his whip on her shoulder, imagining it is a snake. The main sign that Delia is changing is the point at which she holds up an iron skillet as though she will strike her husband. She does this since he dirties the clothing she just cleaned. As the story advances, …show more content…
Rather, it was acclimating and suited her grandmother's optimal marriage much more. Jody's concealment of Janie's voice was the clearest since he required the ability to feel like a man. He strived on making Janie his ideal spouse, one who was quiet and looked lovely. A prime case of this is Jody fending off Janie from the yard where all the talk and discussions in the town occurred. One of the principal indications of Janie's voice crawling out is after Jody slaps her out of the blue. A while later, "She stood there until something fell off the shelf inside her." (pg. 72) that night was the first occasion when she participates on a yard discussion and the beginnings of her newfound voice. At the point when Teacake tagged along, Janie had officially discovered her voice. I think he basically helped her formed it more into something she could use to shape her existence with. With Teacake, the greater part of the cutoff points and traditions Janie had known with Jody were no more. This is connoted by their unconstrained midnight angling outing and Janie working along Teacake in the fields. I think the court scene is essential in Janie's adventure. In spite of the fact that we don't hear her voice straightforwardly does not imply that she never discovered it. I think Hurston deliberately makes Janie calm to underscore the significance of control. I think it returns to the plain start of the novel when Hurston separates amongst people. She may endeavor to state that for men, having a voice implies showing it so anyone can hear for everybody to hear while ladies can saddle that voice to pick up control over their lives. This is precisely what Janie does in the court. She is quiet, yet she is intense. I think to some degree the novel substantiates Janie's announcement. In any case, I don't imagine that Hurston is
In this quote, Jody stifles Janie’s speech and prevents her from speaking and having a mind of her own. In this quote, we can see Jody’s interruption with the dash Hurston uses to represent him preventing Janie from talking and being an active part of the conversation. To Jody, Janie is his possession and does not need to hear her opinion. Jody also treats Janie like his employee. In this passage the reader can infer from her diction that Janie does not want to work at the store when Jody is not around. As a result, when Jody leaves the store, Janie feels helpless. Janie’s hatred of him stems from this suppression of her individuality. Tea Cake, on the other hand, engages her speech, conversing with her and putting himself on equal terms with her. Janie’s diction changes when she is with Tea Cake, she is no longer interrupted or stutters. This use of diction is intended to show that Janie feels helpless in her current marriage and is
But Janie is young and her will has not yet been broken. She has enough strength to say "No" and to leave him by running away with Joe. At this point, Janie has found a part of her voice, which is her not willing to be like a slave in her husband's hands. After Janie marries Joe, I think that she discovers that he is not the person she thought he was.
...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."
Janie does so by choosing her new found love with Joe of the security that Logan provides. Hurston demonstrates Janie's new found ‘independence’ by the immediate marriage of Joe and Janie. Janie mistakenly chooses the pursuit of love over her pursuit of happiness and by doing so gave her independence to Joe, a man who believes a woman is a mere object; a doll. By choosing love over her own happiness Janie silences her voice. The realization of Janie's new reality is first realized when Joe states, “...nah wife don’t know nothin’ ‘bout no speech-makin’. Ah never married her for nothin’ lak dat. She’s uh woman and her place is in de home()" Joe is undermining Janie, cutting short any chance for Janie to make herself heard. Joe continues to hide Janie away from society keeping her dependent and voiceless. As Janie matures, she continues to be submissive to her husband, “He wanted her submission and he’d keep on fighting until he felt he had it. So gradually, she pressed her teeth together and learned to hush (71).” Though Janie ‘learned to hush’, and suppress herself, Janie still urges for her voice. When the opportunity came for Janie to reclaim her voice, "But Ah ain’t goin’ outa here and Ah ain’t gointuh hush. Naw, you gointuh listen tuh me one time befo’ you die. Have yo’ way all yo’ life, trample and mash down and then die ruther than tuh let yo’self heah ‘bout
Unlike weak female characters such as Mattie from 'Ethan Frome ' Janie is a strong one willing stand for her beliefs. Despite that Jaine was in abusive relationships, she was able to escape them, she also force Joe to listen to her when he was about to die. It’s important to recognize feminism as woman make up a large percent of our society, though in today society we still limited women maybe not as terrible as in the past though we can 't denied women are still limited. Women don 't have equal pay, unable to choose to have a abortion, women still have the damsel in distress stereotype plaster on them it’s a stereotype that limits our society not improves it. Though 'Their Eyes Were Watching God ' is a novel that refutes to have a damsel in distress cliché character. Everything Janie did was by her actions alone she didn 't need Tea Cake helping her farm beans, she it by herself and by choice. In Zora Hurston own way she wanted people or mostly men know that women can take care of themselves, that they didn 't need a man to help them crop I believe this was shown through of Janie talk aggressive when other characters doubted her or how she killed Tea Cake defending herself instead of screaming and running. Zora Hurston wanted to make a character that gave women the confidence to stand and fight for civil and social rights during the 1930 's and I
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.
When Janie became the mayor’s wife things have change for her. In the beginning of chapter 7 Hurston describes Janie as being a ‘rut in the road’ ever since she has gotten that title of being the mayor’s wife. “ For a while she thought it was gone from her soul. No matter what Jody did, she said nothing. She had learned how to talk some and leave some. She was a rut in the road. Plenty of life beneath the surface but it was kept beaten down by the wheels. Somethings she stuck out into the future, imaging her life different from what is was, But mostly she lives between her hat and her heels , with her emotional disturbances like shade patterns in the woods-come and gone with the sun. She got nothing from Jody except what money could buy, and she was giving away what she didn’t value” (pg 76). This metaphor shows how the relationship between
Jody’s treatment towards Janie really shows the male dominance that is expected “Jody stifles Janie's development as he silences her and keeps her from participating in the town's talk on the porch of their store” (Diane Telgen and Kevin Hile). Jody barely give Janie any freedom and publicly talks down to her. Even Tea Cake who is so different from Jody tries to prove that he is the dominate in the relationship. This is shown what Tea Cake says”Ah didn’t whup Janie ‘cause she done nothin’. Ah beat her tuh show dem Turners who is boss.”
Besides physical and emotional abuse Delia had to put up with mental abuse from her husband. At one time, Sykes put a snake into a soap box to scare Delia. Knowing that Delia had an enormous fear of snakes, not to mention anything as small as an earthworm. Other mental and emotional abuse was that Sykes ran another woman in town, making it known to Delia and everyone else in town. He made it no secret when he was going to see Bertha, his mistress. The only thing Delia ever said about his affair was, 'that ole snaggle-toothed black woman you runnin' with ain't comin' heah to pile up on mah sweat and blood.
The first time Janie had noticed this was when he was appointed mayor by the town’s people and she was asked to give a few words on his behalf, but she did not answer, because before she could even accept or decline he had promptly cut her off, “ ‘Thank yuh fuh yo’ compliments, but mah wife don’t know nothin’ ’bout no speech-makin’/Janie made her face laugh after a short pause, but it wasn’t too easy/…the way Joe spoke out without giving her a chance to say anything on way or another that took the bloom off things” (43). This would happen many times during the course of their marriage. He told her that a woman of her class and caliber was not to hang around the low class citizens of Eatonville. In such cases when he would usher her off the front porch of the store when the men sat around talking and laughing, or when Matt Boner’s mule had died and he told her she could not attend its dragging-out, and when he demanded that she tie up her hair in head rags while working in the store, “This business of the head-rag irked her endlessly. But Jody was set on it. Her hair was NOT to show in the store” (55). He had cast Janie off from the rest of the community and put her on a pedestal, which made Janie feel as though she was trapped in an emotional prison. Over course of their marriage, he had silenced her so much that she found it better to not talk back when got this way. His voice continuously oppresses Janie and her voice. She retreats within herself, where still dreams of her bloom time, which had ended with Joe, “This moment lead Janie to ‘grows out of her identity, but out of her division into inside and outside. Knowing not mix them is knowing that articulate language requires the co-presence of two distinct poles, not their collapse into oneness’ ” (Clarke 608). The marriage carries on like this until; Joe lies sick and dying in his death bed.
Though Janie had three marriages in total, each one drew her in for a different reason. She was married off to Logan Killicks by her Grandmother who wanted her to have protection and security. “Tain’t Logan Killicks Ah wants you to have baby, its protection.” (Hurston 15) says Janie’s grandmother when Janie said she did not want to marry Logan. Though Janie did not agree with her grandmother, she knew that she just wanted what’s best for her. Next, she married Joe Starks, Janie was unsatisfied with her marriage to Logan so Joe came in and swept her off her feet. Janie did not like the fact that Logan was trying to make her work, so Joe’s proposition, “You ain’t never knowed what it was to be treated like a lady and ah want to be de one tuh show yuh.” (Hurston 29) was too good to pass up, so she left Logan and married Joe. Janie’s last marriage was to Tea Cake. Fed up after having been treated poorly by Joe, Janie finally found someone who liked her for who she was. “Naw, ...
Janie represents all of the independent women of her time because she never gave up her happiness. The one moment that brought the whole story together and the one moment that really showed Janie as one strong woman, was the moment she let down her hair. After many years and multiple men burdening her of societal expectations she finally became a woman that she wanted to be. The moment quoted when she became herself was, “She went over to the dresser and looked hard at her skin and features. The young girl was gone, but a handsome woman had taken her place. She tore off the kerchief from her head and let down her plentiful hair. The weight, the length, the glory was there”(Hurston 86), was the climax of the story, and the beginning to Janie’s
Jody believes that Janie has poisoned him, illustrating the magnitude of both of their unhappiness. Almost immediately after Jody dies, Janie “starches” and “irons” her face, which could also imply how the headrags represent a facade that she unwillingly dons in public. Janie goes to the funeral inundated in loneliness and grief. However, after she emerges from the funeral Janie burns all of her head rags. Hurston states: “Before she slept that night she burnt up everyone of her head rags and went about the house the next morning..her hair in one thick braid”(pg 89). Fire represents the destruction of something; by burning the very tool that was facilitating the suppression of her identity, Janie is making a vow to never sacrifice herself to others. The long, nimble braid the reader is introduced to in the first chapter reemerges. It is important to note that as she lets her hair down, her circumstances change for the better. Janie meets Tea Cake, her playful new husband. Hurston describes Janie as the curious, vibrant child she was under the pear tree similar to how she is presently with Tea Cake. Therefore, Hurston reveals the overarching theme that when one unwillingly enshrouds their identity, their circumstances become unpalatable. This theme is conveyed through JAnie: As she sacrifices herself to tie her hair up, her happiness devolved into loneliness. However, once she crosses the threshold to her true self, she fully exuded the vivacious Janie that she truly is. All of this is manifested through her
Janie still manages unhappiness when marrying Jody. At first, “Jody told her to dress up and stand in the store all evening. Everybody was coming sort of fixed up, and he didn’t mean for nobody else’s wife to rank with her. She must look on herself as the bell-cow, the other women were the gang. So she put on one of her bought dresses and went up the new cut road all dressed in wine-colored red. Her silken ruffles rustled and muttered about her. The other
... Janie is free-spirited and unconcerned about what others think of her. When she returns to Eatonville after Tea Cake’s death, she shows no shame for what she has done or where she has been, because she is finally able to live the life she always wanted to lead. Hurston’s own struggles in life for individuality and an outlet for her suppressed spirit clearly contribute to the development of Janie’s character. Just as Hurston struggled for recognition, equality, and purpose in the literary world during the Harlem Renaissance, Janie’s struggle for the recognition, equality, and purpose in her relationships.