Zora Neale Hurston Sweat Essay

From the very beginning, the reader notices the psychological and verbal abuse that Sykes puts on Delia. It was a Sunday and Delia decided to get ahead on her work for the week by separating piles of clothes by color. Fear then came

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

The symbolism that is apparent in this story is the snake. Delia is terrified of snakes and her husband Sykes loves to tease her about her fear of snakes (Hurston, 1926). In the beginning of the story, while Delia is sorting clothes Sykes throws his big bull whip on her and she is terrified until she notices what it is (Hurston, 1926). Irony is shown in the story because even though Sykes brings the rattlesnake home to scare Delia off, it ends up killing him in the end (Hurston, 1926). The reader can also see the literary element of figurative language being used when Delia gets fed up with Sykes having the rattlesnake at their house and she begins to let him know how fed up she is of him: “Yo’ ole black hide don’t look lak nothin’ tuh me, but uh passle uh wrinkled up rubber, wid yo’ big ole yeahs flappin’ on each side lak uh paih uh buzzard wings (Hurston, 1926, para.49). Although the above example may be hard to read, it is a great example of similes being used in this short story.

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:

In the very beginning of “Sweat” one can see that Delia possesses a very strong work ethic, by the way that she is working vigorously to wash the clothes for the white people that she worked for to put food on the table and a roof over her and Sykes’ head. The white clothing that Delia washes in the story represents her character. White signifies her virtuousness and wholesome

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

Delia was a hard-working woman, who was the sole provider for both her and her unemployed husband Sykes, and was also forced to work to pay for Sykes mistress, Bertha, who lived over

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

Depending on who is speaking at the time, the tone of “Sweat” seems either one of anger and frustration, one of hope and determination, or one of sadness and despair. When Sykes speaks the tone is angry and evil because almost everything that comes out of his mouth is negative. In comparison, When Delia speaks the tone rings more of peace, hope, and determination. When the narrator chimes in the tone seems sad because he/she informs the reader of the upsetting truths about Delia’s marriage and the many hardships she has had to face throughout the story.

The two female characters in "Sweat" by Zora Neale Hurston, and "A Rose for Emily by William

In both Zora Neale Hurston’s short story “Sweat” and novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, the focus is on women who want better lives but face difficult struggles before gaining them. The difficulties involving men which Janie and Delia incur result from or are exacerbated by the intersection of their class, race, and gender, which restrict each woman for a large part of her life from gaining her independence.

“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.

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

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.

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.