Summary Of Sweat By Zora Neale Hurston

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.

The Harlem Renaissance marked the coming out of many brilliant black authors and thinkers. Names like Jessie Redmon Fauset, Alain Locke, Ralph Waldo Ellison, Langston Hughes, and Zora Neale Hurston marked the scene. Hurton portrays many messages in her stories without having to explicitly spell it out. This among other reasons make Hurston's writing so rich. Two of her almost fable-like stories, "Sweat" and "The Gilded Six-Bits", each portray powerful messages individually. In "Sweat," you get a message of "whatever goes over the Devil's back, is got to come under his belly." You will reap what you sow among other messages. In "The Gilded Six-Bits," you learn that time will heal, money is the root of all evil, and other morals. These

Zora Neale Hurston’s short story "Sweat" takes place in the 1920s in a small African American community in southern Florida. The story takes a look at a woman dominated by her husband, a common issue for many wives in the south during this time. Delia Jones, the protagonist in the story, is a hard-working woman who has bought her own home and supported her husband for fifteen years by taking in the laundry of white folks from the next town over. Delia’s husband Sykes does not value her or the work she does to support the both of them. Sykes has abused his wife for fifteen years and takes no shame in parading around his fat mistress for all to see. Sykes wants to get rid of Delia and take everything she’s ever worked for. Delia, though

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.

I want to focus on the story ‘Sweat’ because it happened to be my favorite from the selected female authors we read this semester. I was very struck by the story because Hurston wasn’t afraid to speak her mind, and represents women even in a male-dominated culture. The story ‘Sweat’ takes place in a rural setting. Hurston tends to focus on relationships and conflicts in her writing. In this story, Delia is a hardworking woman. She is also strong, despite being in an abusive relationship. Her husband is portrayed as rude, and clearly doesn’t appreciate anything she does. The narrator also tells the reader how young and beautiful Delia used to look before her abusive marriage. The husband in the story is upset and mad at white people. However, Delia has to work so she defends herself and her job. The story ends with a snake bite that kills her husband. However, he was the one who brought it in the house to scare and more than likely kill Delia. I believe that Hurston’s intentions were to represent a strong female woman who held no regards for a man who mistreated her. I also believe that her intended audience was for females in general. By making Delia hardworking and strong, she is a woman who represents female empowerment. By doing so, Hurston makes women more aware that they don’t have to be consumed in a male-dominated culture, but that a woman can do as she pleases, and not have to

“Everybody's good when they're good, darling. You don't judge a person by that. It's how they act when things aren't good that tells you who they really are.” ― Megan Jacobson (Goodreads, “56 Quotes”) Much like the world around us, literature has many elements that have the reader portray their own understanding and perspective of it. In Sweat, Zora Neale Hurston gives the reader many different situations where many readers can have several viewpoints. This seems to be very similar to the Bible, where a child of God can read the same scripture as another and have a completely different meaning in their eyes. Zora Hurston uses many elements that focus on the idea that actions one does speak louder than words, by the use of religious imagery and Delia, the wife.

Symbolism is often utilized in literary pieces to help express an idea and reveal a deeper meaning. In Zora Neale Hurston's short story "Sweat," the main character, Delia, is a victim that suffers from her husband Sykes' cruelty and abuse. The symbols of clothing, sweat and snakes play a major role in "Sweat" and reveal hidden meanings (the truth) about the two characters Delia and Sykes.

The story Sweat by Zora Neale Hurston tells the story of Delia who overcame her abusive husband, Sykes through her development of becoming a strong woman. The development of Delia’s character throughout the story relates to Zora Neale Hurston’s life of growing up into a strong, empowered woman. Delia and Zora were both verbally and physically abused which made them afraid and timid. Zora made her characters talk in a dialect that she grew up listening to which was uncommon to do in literature. Delia and Zora both had to provide for themselves by putting in the effort remain stable and happy. They also stood up for what they believed in which started their development into strong women. Delia had to let her husband die in order to gain independence, while Zora had to move away from home in order to be successful in her future which developed them both develop into independent women. They became stronger because of these things which empowered them to take back control of their lives. The snake is a symbol in the story that represents the evil that was overcome by the good. This story can now be better analyzed when looking at the life of Delia which connects to Zora Neale Hurston’s life.

Zora Neale Hurston is a remarkable author who reflects her life in most of her novels, short stories, and her essays. She was a writer during the Harlem Renaissance, also known as “the new negro movement”, however; her writings were not given proper recognition at first because they were not of the “norm” for that time period. All of the authors during the Harlem Renaissance were expected to write about race with a political mind set. Hurston was tired of seeing the same writings just different authors so her literary works were very different and were meant to stand out (Trudell). Among all of her abstracts, Sweat was a story of determination and oppression, with religion and strength as the backbone of

Who among us has not been shaped to some degree by our life experiences and religious or moral beliefs? The main character in the short story “Sweat” by Zora Neal Hurston is no exception to this rule, and Hurston demonstrates this very effectively throughout the story with the use of symbolism. The deeply religious, hard-working Delia seems cursed with the burden of a lazy and morally bankrupt husband, however she is able to persevere through the trials of her everyday life because of the strong influence of religion on her life. Hurston shows that Delia is shaped and grows stronger due to her religious beliefs time and time again throughout the story; not only through the biblical references made throughout, such as referring to

“Sweat, sweat, sweat! Work and sweat cry and sweat, pray and sweat!”(Hurston 278) That is the life Delia has had for fifteen years. Delia, the main character of Zora Hurston’s short story “Sweat”, is trapped in a poisonous relationship with her husband Sykes. It is this abusive and adulterous marriage that causes Delia to make no attempt to save his life from a snake bite.

Zora Neale Hurston’s “Sweat” is a story about a woman who has been beaten down emotionally and physically. She has been the main provider for her and her husband, who has very little respect for her, and has lost her youth and beauty because of it. Delia Jones, the lead character in the story, is a strong woman that has one great fear. Her husband knows how intense her phobia of snakes is, and decides to torture her with it: he even brings a snake home, which ends up biting him and causing him his own death.

In the story “Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston she talks about a lady that is independent. This lady’s name is Delia. She is married to Sykes who does abuse her and has a mistress named Bertha who he is trying to get her into Delia’s house. Delia is the one that does all the hard work while Sykes just sits at home. The symbols in this story help get the theme across which are domestic violence and empowerment. The three main symbols in this story each stand for a theme which is the snake portraying domestic violence, the Chinaberry tree and the title “Sweat” both portray empowerment.

In the short story “Drenched in Light” by Zora Neale Hurston, the author appeals to a broad audience by disguising ethnology and an underlying theme of gender, race, and oppression with an ambiguous tale of a young black girl and the appreciation she receives from white people. Often writing to a double audience, Hurston had a keen ability to appeal to white and black readers in a clever way. “[Hurston] knew her white folks well and performed her minstrel shows tongue in cheek” (Meisenhelder 2). Originally published in The Opportunity in 1924, “Drenched in Light” was Hurston’s first story to a national audience.

Delia Jones is the main fictional character in Zora Neal Hurston’s story, “Sweat”. A dynamic character develops mentally just as Delia Jones does. She develops into a self-withholding character who decides she will no longer fall victim to Sykes’ abusive behavior. At first she was a submissive individual who specifically suffered mental abuse from fears such as snakes. Even though this fear remains in effect up until the end of the story; Delia’s new hatred towards Sykes prevents her from seeking any help whatsoever when he is dying from the snake bite. Another development is Delia’s purity involving religion. Lastly, Delia becomes a more outspoken person. For these reasons, I believe Delia is a dynamic character.