Zora Neale Hurston’s “Sweat” is one of the well-renowned stories in the American literature. As an extraordinary American writer, Hurston’s writing emphasizes on depicting the real-life events. Hurston’s famous story “Sweat” is the story of an African-American wash women Delia Jones, who has been physically, verbally, and emotionally abused and cheated by her husband. Throughout the story, Hurston used different symbols, setting and climax in order to explore the idea of hard work and justice. Hurston uses symbolism as a key understanding of the story. The vivid use of the objects plays the vital role to give the deeper meaning and enlighten the readers about justice. The title itself “Sweat” is regarded as the most apparent symbol used in …show more content…
The story is set in a rural town in Florida in 1920. It was the time of racial division and gross inequality in the deep south of America. Black people consider white people are considered as devils. In the story, Sykes, calls Delia hypocrite for washing devil’s (white peoples) clothes and quarrels with her. Delia as a washerwoman presents the socioeconomic condition of black people. In addition to this, the story portrays the unmatchable marriage system and women as a domestic worker in that time. Delia works hard just to buy foods and pays bills however she gets abused and tortured by her unsympathetic husband who doesn’t even think of the family but sleep with other women. This is the scenario in the 1920s where the women were suppressed in the society. Eatonville is a rural part where Hurston grew up. According to Laurie Champion, “Hurston's choice of Eatonville as setting reflects one of her major artistic philosophies, central to which is her need to celebrate African American culture”. In the springtime, rural Eatonville is famous for the land of snakes, gators, and oppressive heat. Hurston beautifully matched up the presence of rattlesnake in the springtime. In the story, Hurston describes the daily life events of the Eatonville’s people from her personal …show more content…
Hurston’s creative writing approach is the major factor to make the story more appealing and believable. The major turning point of the story occurs when Sykes died of a snake’s bite. At this point, it can be relatable that Sykes death is because of his karma. It’s the consequences of his injustice to Delia. Although Delia saw Sykes struggle and hears his scream, she sits in the shade of Chinaberry tree and waits for Sykes to die. “A surge of pity too strong to support bore her away from that eye must, could not, fail to see the tubs” (Hurston pp. 1030). Delia’s unwillingness to help Sykes is because she desperately wants to release from him. Linda Wagner- Martin stated, “Later Sykes brings a snake to the house, still trying to frighten her away from the valuable property; but the resolution of the narrative lies in the way the snake works justice upon Delia's husband”. Hurston beautifully ends up the story with the reptilian match and penalize for wrongdoing. Sykes is punished exactly what he deserves to get. It is the result of his laziness, exploitation, betrayal, and unhuman activities. Finally, the justice is given to victimized Delia, who is paid off for her loyalty and hard
...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."
In “Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston, the protagonist Delia is “double-colonized,” living in a society where African Americans are oppressed by whites, while her husband Sykes is also oppressing her. Delia is living in Florida in the early 20th century, when Jim Crow laws kept the black community segregated and oppressed. Delia washed clothes for the wealthier white community to make her living. She even had to work on Sunday night just to get all the washing done every week. Sykes tells Delia “Ah done tole you time and again to keep them white folks’ clothes outa dis house” (Hurston 137). He then goes on to call Delia a hypocrite for praying at church then coming home and doing laundry for white people, before stomping on the whitest pile of clothing. Hurston illustrates the hatred that manifests from racial oppression. Delia tells Sykes “Ah been married to you fur fifteen years, and Ah been takin’ in washin’ fur fifteen years. Sweat, sweat, sweat! Work and sweat, cry and sweat, pray and sweat!” (137). This epitomizes Delia’s existence; she works constantly,
In all, Tademy does a great job in transporting her readers back to the 1800s in rural Louisiana. This book is a profound alternative to just another slave narrative. Instead of history it offers ‘herstory’. This story offers insight to the issues of slavery through a women’s perspective, something that not so many books offer. Not only does it give readers just one account or perspective of slavery but it gives readers a take on slavery through generation after generation. From the early days of slavery through the Civil War, a narrative of familial strength, pride, and culture are captured in these lines.
In Zora Neale Hurston’s “Their Eyes Were Watching God” and “Sweat,” Hurston uses the characters Janie Crawford and Delia Jones to symbolize African-American women as the mules of the world and their only alternative were through their words, in order to illustrate the conditions women suffered and the actions they had to take to maintain or establish their self-esteem.
"Sweat" by Zora Neale Hurston is filled with symbolism ranging from images that are easily captured to things that require a little bit more insight. Religion has apparently played a major role in Hurston's life, readily seen in "Sweat" with the references to a snake and Gethsemane. Symbolism plays a big part of this story and after analyzing these, they give the story a deeper meaning and can enlighten the reader as to the full meaning of "Sweat".
In “The Gilded Six-Bits,” Zora Neale Hurston uses several techniques to characterize Joe and Missy May, the main couple throughout the story. Hurston uses her own life experiences to characterize Joe and Missy May and their marriage. She also shows their character development through her writing styles and techniques, which show reactions and responses between Joe and Missy May to strengthen the development of their relationship. Hurston supports her character development through her writing style, her characters dialect, and includes experiences from her own life to portray a sense of reality to her character’s personalities.
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.
Just like any other narrative, “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,” by Harriet Jacobs is a narrative telling about a slave 's story and what slaves go through as they execute the socioeconomic dictates of their masters. It is important to note that more than five thousand former slaves who were enslaved in North America had given an account of their slave life during the 18th and 19th centuries. Many of their narratives were published on books and newspaper articles. Most of the stories of these slaves were centered on the experiences of life in plantations, small farms owned by the middle class natives, mines and factories in the cities. It is undeniable that without those slave narratives, people today will not be able to know how slaves
The story begins with Delia, a working Black woman in Florida, who is a wash woman. It is a warm spring day and she is sorting and soaking the clothing she washes for the white residents of her town. Her husband walks into the house and is immediately looking for a confrontation. It is throughout this confrontation that the exploitative and abusive nature of Delia and Syke’s relationship becomes clear.
Hurston does not concern herself with the actions of whites. Instead, she concerns herself with the self-perceptions and actions of blacks. Whites become almost irrelevant, certainly negative, but in no way absolute influences on her
Hurston describes Eatonville not in a negative way, but more as a place that is not beneficial to an independent woman like Janie. Janie Starks, the wife of the mayor, is sentenced to spend her days as a worker in the town store, hair tied up, and silent. She must deal with money and figures without being able to enjoy the “lying sessions” on the porch, or attending such impressive town events like the “muleogy.” To the reader, Eatonville represents all that is repressive in life. Janie’s nature is restricted not by the town itself, but by her status in the town.
Mrs. Hurston not only uses the vernacular of the Deep South she also uses Southern traditional legends. One example of this is how the book refers to death. Death is called the, "Square-toed one," that comes from the West. Even if the reader is not familiar with referring to death as the, "Square-toed one," the use of traditional legends helps to make us feel like we are where the book took place.
Both Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes were great writers but their attitudes towards their personal experience as an African American differed in many ways. These differences can be attributed to various reasons that range from gender to life experience but even though they had different perceptions regarding the African American experience, they both shared one common goal, racial equality through art. To accurately delve into the minds of the writers’ one must first consider authors background such as their childhood experience, education, as well their early adulthood to truly understand how it affected their writing in terms the similarities and differences of the voice and themes used with the works “How it Feels to be Colored Me” by Hurston and Hughes’ “The Negro Mother”. The importance of these factors directly correlate to how each author came to find their literary inspiration and voice that attributed to their works.
Zora Neale Hurston’s writing embodies the modernism themes of alienation and the reaffirmation of racial and social identity. She has a subjective style of writing in which comes from the inside of the character’s mind and heart, rather than from an external point of view. Hurston addresses the themes of race relations, discrimination, and racial and social identity. At a time when it is not considered beneficial to be “colored,” Hurston steps out of the norm and embraces her racial identity.
In literature, the significant themes of a story can sometimes be developed within dramatic death scenes. With that being said, Zora Neale Hurston 's presents an unappreciated housewife and her high-class husband 's sinful ways which ultimately lead to the husband 's unplanned death, in her short story “Sweat”. The concluding death scene can best be described as illustrating the theme as “what goes around comes around”. Sykes was abusive and tried plotting his wife, Delia 's, death by using a rattlesnake, but his plan backfired and it was Sykes that was killed in the end.