Man vs. Woman

The character, Delia Jones, in Sweat and the narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper are personalities that are significantly persuaded by what their societies considered to be acceptable roles and behaviors for married women. However, throughout both works, both personalities opposed these norms to overcome the obstacles in their respective lives. Delia in Sweat was a washwoman, which made her the sole financial provider of her household. Her husband, Sykes, did not work at all and also challenged the era’s social standards by carelessly spending Delia’s hard earned money. Delia wanted to wash her clothes when she came back from church on Sunday. Although it was

The short story “Sweat,” by Zora Neale Hurston, seems to exemplify the epitome of a bad marriage. Hurston uses foreshadowing and irony to demonstrate the disintegrated relationship between the abusive husband and the diligent wife. Throughout the story, it becomes obvious that the husband does not oblige by the motto, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Hurston’s use of irony and foreshadowing helps reveal the fact that “the good will prevail” and Sykes will finally get what he deserves.

In Zora Neale Hurston’s short story, Sweat, Delia finds herself stuck in an unbearable marriage. Her husband, Sykes, mistreats her, leaves all work to her, and is unfaithful. After being married to Sykes for 15 years, Delia has lost all hope in the marriage. The countless beatings and painful acts of Sykes have brought her over the edge. She is forced to go against her strict religious beliefs because of the life in which she has been leading since her matrimony to her husband. One passage that sums up many factions of Delia and Sykes’s relationship is as follows:

The main character in Zora Neale Hurston’s “Sweat” is a black woman who resides in the South that clutches on to her belief in God to help her get through the suffering that she endures from her abusive and adulterous husband, Sykes. “Sweat” is full of religious symbolism that demonstrates that Hurston was using the theme of good vs. evil in the short story.

Delia represents the good in the story. She remains calm, level-headed, and spiritually in tune despite her husband‘s determination to make her miserable. Once a "right pretty li'l trick," Delia is now worn and dried out like sugar cane that's been chewed to no end (“Sweat” 43). However her soul remains strong as she turns to her spirituality for comfort and hope. She has smarts although uneducated and the fact that she built her own house and now supports her and her husband by washing white

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.

Not only does he drain her financially, but he has also abused her mentally and emotionally for the most of their marriage. Delia reminds Sykes that all she does is "Sweat, sweat, sweat! Work and Sweat, cry and sweat, pray and sweat!" from the fifteen years she has been washing laundry and laments (Hurston 278). However, despite all the cruelty that is happening, the author still portrays her persona with great compassion. Delia has enormous love, but soon discovers that she has the capacity to hate as much as she loves which has developed from her long-suffering life with Sykes. The author creates Delia based off her own life of being a Christian woman, therefore, in the story "Sykes is clearly wrong throughout the story, and Delia is right in living out the principles of Christian love, tolerance, and humility" (Banks). The importance of this quote is that it puts Delia's character into perspective and reveals why the way she is. The author's beliefs and practices are demonstrated through Delia and explain her actions in the story.

In reading the story it is easy to see that Sykes becomes somewhat jealous of Delia. At first, he did all that he could to win Delia’s heart and keep it. As said by Walter Thomas, one of the minor characters in the story, “he useter be so skeered uh losin’ huh, she could make him do some parts of a husband’s duty” (Hurston 4). Yet somehow, Sykes falls out of love with Delia early in their marriage and that’s when his oppression over her began. He not only wears her down by beating her and ultimately changing her appearance, he also abuses her mentally. He resented not only the fact that Delia was the only one of the two that was financially stable within the household, but he mostly resented her job and the reality that she was comfortable with washing clothes for the “white folks”. Time and time again he tried everything in his power to make sure she didn’t finish her days work as a wash woman. For example he shows his disgust with her job when he comes home in the beginning of the story an sees his wife working, “he stepped roughly upon the whitest pile of things, kicking them helter-skelter as he crossed the room” (Hurston). He blatantly disrespects her and sends the message that no matter what he

Although this angers Delia to hear, she simply reminds Sykes that she spends all of her time supporting them, and has done nothing but work, sweat, and pray for the fifteen years that she had been married to him. Delia eventually tells Sykes “Dat’s de reason Ah got mah letter from de church an’ moved mah membership to tuh Woodbridge – so Ah don’t haftuh take no sacrament wid yuh” (Hurston 569). Before she falls asleep that night, she reflects on the events of the evening, and finds some peace through her faith that Sykes would eventually get what is coming to him when she says aloud “Oh well, whatever goes over the Devil’s back, is got to come under his belly” (Hurston 565). It is also important to note that rather than give Sykes exactly what he has coming to him, Delia’s beliefs, both moral and religious, prevent her from taking action because she trusts that eventually God will take care of Sykes for the wrong he has done. We can see a bit of foreshadowing as to the fate of Sykes in the story when he assures everyone he is a snake charmer and can charm the deadly diamondback and says “Ah’m a snake charmer an’ knows how to handle ‘em. Shux, dat ain’t nothin’” (Hurston 568).

Hurston deliberately labels Sykes as the patriarchal male head of the household. In a typical household a man is labeled as “strong”, “protective, and “decisive” one in the family while a woman is typically “Emotional”, “motherly”, and “submissive” (Hurston 85). Sykes physical and emotional abuse can be seen as an outlet to remain a part of the patriarchal rule in which a man subsides and as an outlet to enforce gender rules within the household. An example of his verbal abuse is “Well you better quit gettin’ me riled up, else they’ll be tottin you out sooner than you expect. Ah’m so tired of you Ah don’t know whut to do! Gawd! How ah hates skinny women!” (Hurston 2). Sykes seems to have no sense of empathy for Delia and continues to physically and emotionally abuse her through violence. He frightens her terribly, condemns her, and doesn’t give one penny to the family. His only concern is keeping her emotionally and physically hurt as he knows that as a woman she is vulnerable.

In the readings about men and women, there were two stories that stuck out for me. Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” and "Shiloh," by Bobbie Ann Mason. To me these stories had many peculiar similarities. I felt that there were so comparable that there seemed to be a true connection between these two novels.

Meanwhile, in the end Sykes accomplishes his mission to scare Delia. Scaring her to the MAX! Furthermore, Delia goes off to church, and does not return home until later that evening. Once arriving and entering the house, she passes the soap box, noticing the snake was no longer in the soap box. Thinking perhaps Sykes has taken her seriously, when she threatened to seek justice from the white community. While finishing the laundry, she spots the snake in the basket with the laundry. Delia flees the

Through external conflict exhibited by three significant occasions with the antagonist and husband, Sykes Jones, Zora Neale Hurston takes her leading character, Delia Jones, through an internal change from a submissive character to an aggressive and defensive character in her short story, "Sweat." When the story opens, one finds Delia Jones on a Sunday evening washing clothes, as was her profession, and humming a tune, wondering where her husband had gone with her horse and carriage. Little did she know that within the week she would stand against her abusive husband and watch him die of the situation he would create.

Modernism is a literary style of American literature that begins in the 1920s and was ongoing until World War II. World War I, industrialization, The Great Depression, and World War II influenced many authors. These authors exemplify disillusion, loss of faith, loss of hope, and feeling of futility within their works. Hurston’s literary work, “Sweat”, a story of a black woman and her abusive husband describes Delia’s struggles against society, and the little power she has against her husband Sykes. Searching for comfort and happiness is a main focal point of Modernism within this story. Sykes does this and tries to be a snake by his evil qualities, physical abuse, and being unexpected like a rattler.

In Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”, and Zora Neale Hurston’s “Sweat”, the main characters in both of these short stories are the making of male influence, in this case negative influence, and much of their anger and hatred is intermixed with occasional feelings of adoration8. For these two female characters in "A Rose for Emily" and "Sweat", their troubles are the outcome of male control, and even though their anger is showed and solved in different ways, these two characters delve into despair and isolation because of the male influence and control in their lives; the affect it has on them is their anger and hate towards these male influences.