Sonny's Blues By James Baldwin And Sweat By Zora Neale Hurston

Perhaps the most important event in the story occurs when Sykes brings home a huge six-foot living snake. Fear once again overcomes Delia and she pleads, “Syke! Syke, mah Gawd! You take dat rattlesnake ‘way from heah! You gottuh. Oh, Jesus, have mussy” (360). Sykes, on the other hand, stands in amusement almost as if he loves to see Delia psychologically abused. His cockiness unravels as he acts like he is invincible and like anyone and anything should and will comply with him. In regards to the enormous snake, Sykes boasts, “…He wouldn’t bite me cause Ah knows how tuh handel ‘im” (360). He makes sure to instill fear into Delia by telling her to be careful because the snake would have no problem coming after her. Hurston also has Sykes portray his own death. In this same scene, Sykes’ reply to

In the story Sweat Delia is a very religious woman who believes god will handle anything possible and this why Delia is able to deal with her Sykes evil jokes. Sykes knows Delia is terrified of snakes and he knows even a toy snake will have her jumping out of her skin like a cricket. Delia believed the snakes were considered evil and poison. "Sykes, what you throw dat whip on me like dat? You know it would skeer me – looks just like a snake, an' you knows how skeered Ah is of snakes" "Course Ah knowed it! That's how come Ah done it". This showed Sykes had no sympathy for Delia's scare of snakes and he gets a kick out of her being scared.

Earlier, Sykes exploited Delia’s fear of snakes, and this knowledge provided him with the perfect way to scare her into leaving the home. “Sykes, what you throw dat whip on me like dat? You know it would skeer me-looks just like a snake, an’ you knows how skeered Ah is of snakes.

Ice is a symbol to express fear, dread and anxiety during the story. “He felt a great block of ice was sitting is his stomach, it sent little trickles of water up and down his veins, but never got less.” The narrator feels guilty that he didn’t help Sonny in his time of need. Another example of the ice is when Sonny’s childhood friend asks the narrator if he has “heard any bad news.” Sonny’s friend tells the narrator that if Sonny feels the ice again, he will go back to doing heroine once he has been released from rehab. The symbolism of ice represents one of the reasons Sonny is addicted to

“Sonny’s Blues” starts as Sonny is being picked up by the police and is now being taking away from all his outside sources. “A great block of ice got settled in my belly and kept melting there slowly all day long, while I taught my classes algebra. It was a special

Sonny is blues musician, who has struggled to have a relationship with his brother, the narrator, for most of the pair's adult life. The factor that significantly distanced the two, however, was Sonny's addiction to heroin. Although he claims that his propensity for the blues was not what should be blamed for his substance abuse, the fact still remains that drug

The snake in the story symbolizes evil which portrays domestic violence. Sykes tried getting rid of Delia so he could go and be with Bertha, his mistress. He knew how afraid Delia was of snakes so he decided to bring one home. “Then, moved by both horror and terror, she sprang back toward the door. There lay the snake in the basket!” (Hurston 8). He really wanted the snake to bite Delia so he could get rid of her. Leaving the snake in the basket where he knew was the easiest place for it to bite her. Sykes knew that the snake would bite her. He was pure evil. The snake however did not bite Delia but it bit Sykes. “He crept an inch or two toward

Symbolism is the use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities. Symbols in literature can be anything. If something holds symbolistic characteristics then it is most likely symbolic. If an item is repeated, out of place, logical in thinking it is a symbol, and if the author states it is symbolic, it is therefore most likely to be symbolic. From the two excerpts, one from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s

THEMES-the subject of a talk, a piece of writing, a person's thoughts, or an exhibition; a topic.

Symbolism is a literary technique that is used to clarify the author's intent. Sometimes it is used to great effect, while other times it only seems to muddle the meaning of a passage. In "Young Goodman Brown," Nathaniel Hawthorne uses objects and people as symbols to allegorically reveal his message to the reader.

Symbolism is a major literary device that helps people see a book through symbols that often have a deeper meaning. A symbol is used to explain something in a different way, using images, objects, etc. instead of just saying it in words. As you search for a deeper meaning in a work of art or literature it can help you understand the author’s intentions and the deeper significance of a work. In Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, symbols help reinforce the major themes of the book.

Sykes uses the snake to scare Delia, and this demonstrates his evil ways. In two instances Sykes uses the whip and the snake to terrorize Delia. The first instance is when he rubs the bullwhip on Delia to scare her, making her think it was a snake. Poor Delia is deathly afraid of snakes, and of course Sykes knows this, he then takes delight in using it to terrorize her. She screams at him with anger, "Sykes, what you throw dat whip on me like dat? You know it would skeer me--looks just like a snake, an' you knows how skeered Ah is of snakes” (621). The second instance is when Sykes decides to place a real rattlesnake just outside the front door of their house with the intention to frighten his wife, Delia. This is a great example of a biblical allusion like Satan forming into a snake in the story of Adam and Eve. It could be said that Sykes is acting as the Devil, trying to get Delia to leave her home. The snake is the symbolism that illustrates Sykes, and Sykes is an evil character. The name Sykes even has a weird pronunciation to it, kind of like a snake-like sound. Sykes is the snake, an abusive husband that cheats on Delia with Bertha, and does horrid things purposely to make her life difficult. Delia is the representation of a good character in the story. Throughout the story Sykes tries to antagonize Delia to do something that will cause her to leave the

Symbolism in literature is using an object to portray a different, deeper meaning in a story. Symbols represent ideas or qualities that the author has maneuvered into his or her story that has meaning. There can be multiple symbols in a story or just one. It is up to the reader to interpret the meaning of the symbols and their significance to the story. While reading a story, symbols may not become clear until the very end, once the climax is over, and the falling action is covered. In William Faulkner’s, “A Rose for Emily,” there are multiple examples of symbolism that occur throughout the story.

a range of associations beyond itself. In literary works a symbol can express an idea, clarify meaning, or enlarge literal meaning. Select a novel or play and, focusing on one symbol, write an essay analyzing how that symbol functions in the work and what it reveals about the characters or themes of the work as a whole.

Symbolism refers to the use of symbols to suggest concepts and possibilities by attributing to them symbolic references that are far removed from their literal meanings. Symbolism takes diverse forms. Symbolism supplements double levels of implications to a work: a literal one that is irrefutable and the symbolic one whose meaning is far more intense than the literal one. Symbolism makes the plot, characters and the motifs of literature universal. Though the symbol has its origin in the world of fairy tales and myths and it permeates the literature of the ancient and the medieval ages, the conscious use of symbolism in literature began with the symbolist movement that took place in France in the second half of the nineteenth century. Though they were initially the part of a literary group called Parnassians who were as materialistic as the