What Is The Theme Of 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

Knowing Zora Neale Hurston was a religious woman, it is no shock that throughout the “Sweat” there are many hidden Biblical references. One reference the story often makes is the snake. The snake is a reference to many things. It first, is a reference to the snake in the book of Genesis, where the devil tempts Eve. The snake also represents original sin and the darkness that comes in all of humanity. In “Sweat”, Delia is afraid of the snake, thus showing her fear of sin and darkness, portraying her as a strong Christian character. The snake can also be a connection to Christ. When the snake is first brought to the house it appears dead. It remains this way for three days, until it miraculously awakens (Carter 611). This relates to Christ when he is hung on the cross and buried. He

Missie May was slowly regaining the position she once held in the relationship. In "Sweat," the power dynamics started off a bit differently. Sykes seem to have all the power in the household, as he did come and go as he pleased and beat Delia considerably. Hurston begins "Sweat" by illustrating Sykes' dominance over Delia. Delia is in a submissive position on her knees while Sykes is towering over with a whip. Delia is frightened because she believes the whip to be a snake. The whip is described as "something long, round, limp, and black"(Sweat 1491) which creates the illusion of a penis. Delia's feeling for the one-eyed snake, the whip, equates to her sexual desires to Sykes. But throughout the story, time and time again, Delia attempts to grasp some power. When her house becomes threatened, she stands up to Sykes. This is such a surprise to him that he doesn't beat her as he usually would, he instead leaves. The story does leave one wondering how much power Sykes really has in the town. He parades around town with his mistress. He beats on his wife and tries to woo every woman he sees. These are all points brought up by the townspeople themselves as they complain about him. They even talk about killing the man, but they continur to remain at a distance and watch everything he does. Can one really argue that Sykes isn't powerful in a town that allows him to do whatever he wants? But this power is, indeed,

Similarly, “Sweat” repeats the final words of the story to allow a better grasp on Delia’s experiences, and mainly achieves this through the investigation of what the text does not say. After Delia sees Sykes’s swollen eye and neck, she leaves the house. She sits outside in the heat “while inside she knew the cold river was creeping up and up to extinguish that eye which must know by now that she knew” (9). The repetition of knowledge pervades. Like in “the mother,” pauses occur here, too, but for a different reason. The phrases “he knew,” “she knew,” and “[the eye] knows” cause pauses to think about what each person knows. Through this reflection, “knew” obtains a new meaning each time, because Hurston forces the acknowledgement of each character’s personal story. Without thinking and seeking out the experiences of the characters, there cannot be any understanding of the knowledge. Silence invites the investigation of what is not spoken, and eventually the understanding of the silence through

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

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

In Zora Neal Hurston’s short story “Sweat,” Delia Jones is a dedicated wash-woman who is cemented into an unfortunate relationship with her husband, Skyes. Skyes not only treats Delia inhumanely, but he also commits adultery with his mistress, Bertha. Delia will not divorce Skyes because of her religious beliefs. Delia is deathly afraid of snakes, and Skyes uses this to his advantage when he tries to kill Delia, so he can marry his mistress; ironically, the snake kills Skyes. Delia transforms into a new person throughout the story by fighting for her life in a sophisticated manner.

Throughout “Sweat”, Zora Neal Hurston illustrates a number confrontational instances which occur between Delia Jones and her abusive husband, Sykes. The story opens with Sykes scaring Delia with a whip, which was initially thought by her to be a snake; an animal of which she explicitly states her fear. Their encounter on that evening ends with Delia pulling a cast iron skillet on Sykes who threatens to beat her as he leaves the house. Despite Sykes knowing of his wife’s snake-fear, he brings one into the house and neglects to kill the reptile which eventually kills him. When Delia approach her dying husband, Sykes calls out, “Delia, is dat u Ah heah” (Hurston 571), to which she does not respond. Therefore, it can be concluded that Sykes open

She attempts to be civil with Sykes at first: “Two or three times Delia had attempted a timid friendliness, but she was repulsed each time” (356-357). However, her whole attitude shifts once he puts the snake in her house. She tells him, “‘Ah hates you tuh de same degree dat Ah useter love yuh’” (358). Her hatred for Sykes and her cold heartedness is shown in the end. Once she is safe in the barn and has calmed down some, she realizes Sykes put the snake in her clothes hamper in an effort to kill her and she is filled with “a cold, bloody rage” (359). She watches from the barn loft as Sykes enters the house where the deadly snake is slithering around free. Then, she hears him: “All the terror, all the horror, all the rage that man possibly could express, without a recognizable human sound” (359). Delia does not help him even when he calls out for her repeatedly: “Delia, Delia!” (360). She finally comes out and sees him on his hands and knees desperate for help. However, she is so coldhearted by this point in the story that she feels no pity for him and leaves him there to

Delia Jones and Snake Symbolism Slender, strong, patient, and vengeful—it waits in the shadows and is the physical representation of transformation and bravery. It connects the divide between good and evil and is at the core of the short story, “Sweat,” by Zora Neale Hurston. The animal who boasts this title is the serpent. While symbolic descriptions for snakes can differ between cultures and time periods, it is generally seen as a symbol for charm, danger and sexual energy, and considered one of the oldest examples of symbolism that is still utilized in numerous literary and visual works today. Snake symbolism is present within the short fiction, “Sweat,” and is represented in its main character, Delia Jones.

She is meek when it comes to her husband because she allows him to just slack around while she works hard to earn a living, to pay for their house rent, and to provide food for both of them. To make matters worse, she is also maltreated. She allows Sykes to kick the washed clothes around and lets him leave using her horse at night. Delia also knows that she is being cheated (the neighborhood knows it, too), but does not confront her husband about it. She just lets her husband make fun of her whenever he feels like it. In one scene, she felt a “long, round, limp, and black fell upon her shoulders and slithered to the floor beside her” (Hurston 277). She thought it was a snake, which is her greatest fear, but to her relief, it was just a bullwhip. Sykes pokes fun at her when he sees her reaction. An explanation why she is like this is simply because she is a woman and that she knows her limitations. She feels she does not have the strength to stand up for herself in situations like this, so she lets her man dominate

The omniscient narrator employs a suspenseful tone through her use of foreshadowing. “Just then something long, round, limp, and black fell upon her shoulders and slithered to the floor beside her.” (564) The mere idea of a snake becoming an important symbol in the story is planted here, where Delia becomes frozen with fear and scolds her husband, Sykes, for throwing the whip at her because he knows how terrified

“Look in de box dere Delia, Ah done brung yuh somethin'”(Hurston 5). Sykes, knowing Delias greatest fear, captures a rattlesnake in a box to torment her. This is a great example of the psychological abuse Delia

Throughout this story, Delia is in a war mentally and physically. Political theorist George Kateb, analyzes the strength and endurance that comes from war. “Why does war's exhilaration call forth spontaneous courage” (Kateb 18). This question is very important to the text because Delia just snaps. She has had enough and won’t stand for it anymore. There comes a point in everyone’s lives where individuals reach that breaking point and find that spontaneous courage within themselves just like Delia did. Similarly, the words and phrases that the author uses throughout this story seem to carry spontaneous courage. Triumphant indifference, spiritual earthworks, and pretty pass are a few examples. These words create a visual for the reader, and the individual is able to ponder these phrases and inevitably, find those hidden meanings and key elements to the story. One of the key elements of “Sweat” is when a rattlesnake is brought to her home by

In “Sweat” by Zora Neal Hurston, Delia Jones washes clothes in order to make an honest day’s pay. Through the dialogue of Delia and her husband, Sykes, Hurston develops a condescending tone which is illustrated in Sykes attitude towards Delia for washing the clothes of white people. He often makes comments such as, “Next time, Ah’m gonter kick ‘em outdoors” (Hurston 564), referring to the white men’s laundry which he stepped on before Delia could have it folded. Sykes’ disproval comes along with promiscuous relations with other women behinds his wife’s back.