Brief Summary Of The Book 'Sweat'

The other men in the town seem to disrespect Sykes and even suggest that he should die. While Delia started to deliver the clean laundry in town one day, the men talked about how Delia is too good for Sykes and that she deserves better, They also despise Sykes for running around with an ugly and fat woman, ultimately cheating on his hardworking wife. Finally, one man says, “Syke Jones ain’t wuth de shot an’ powder hit would tek tuh kill ‘em. Not to huh he ain’t” (357) while another man adds, “…an’ we oughter kill ‘im” (358). It seems like Hurston portrays this hostility to reiterate to the reader that Sykes will fall victim to a well deserved death.

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,

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:

Sykes personality is totally different than Delia’s. Sykes Jones is physically and emotionally cruel to Delia. He is immoral and unfaithful; furthermore he takes the money that is earned from Delia's tough labor and squanders it away on his mistress, Bertha. Whereas Sykes may be strong in body, he does not have any belief in God. Sykes in a sense can be compared to the devil because like the devil he drained Delia of her beauty, joy and happiness that she once possessed. This point is brought up in the story when Joe Clarke and the village men are talking about Delia and Sykes ” …But dey squeeze an’ grind an’ wring every drop uh pleasure dat’s in ‘em out” (443). According to Davis Masson, who wrote, Essays Biographical and Critical “All sadness and melancholy come from the devil” (86). Once their marriage starts to fall apart, Sykes uses Delia’s anxiety of snakes against her. Andre’ Ménez, who wrote The Subtle Beast, states, “Being sometimes poisonous, hidden in the shadows; slowly and mutely guiding, snakes have often been deemed powerful and shifty, evil creatures whose major aim was to frustrate the natural and proper development of life” (9).

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

Delia is a hard working woman who uses her faith in God to guide and protect her from her husband’s physical and emotional abuse. She, as a protagonist, is physically weak but yet spiritually strong. Sykes, in the story, tormented Delia in many ways throughout the story. One incident was with the bull horn when he tried to scare Delia while she was sorting

“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.

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.

Delia was physically abused many times by her husband, Sykes. He was also mentally and verbally abusive to her by calling her names and constantly teasing her. This can be seen when he pretends to scare Delia with a snake, and then calls her names for being scared. In Zora’s life, this is seen where she also grew up as an abused child from her father. Her father did not like her very much because her sassy attitude. He said that she “was too spirited and too mouthy for her own good” which hurt her feelings and made her very aware that she was not his favorite child in the family (Boyd 27). Her father would also physically abuse her by threatening and spanking her as a child. In the story, Sykes represents Zora’s father because they were both abusive towards women. Zora included this detail in her story to explain her life as a child. The story is put in the perspective of a grown woman who had been abused, but how she would feel the same pain a child would feel who had been abused. No matter the person’s age, anyone

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

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

First, Delia had to stand up to her husband by expressing her true feelings to him and to show that she was no longer afraid to stand up for herself, “she seized the iron skillet from the stove and struck a defensive pose, which act surprised him greatly, coming from her. It cowed his and he did not strike her as he usually did.” (Hurston 350). I believe that the snake represented her fear and her feeling of helplessness. But rather than letting it consume her, she let it, literally, consume her husband. Despite a rather gruesome ending, the story ends in a place of empowerment and the character is now in control of her own

On the next Saturday Delia was riding through town delivering and picking up clothes as usual as a few of the local townsmen share their insight into the Jones' home. After concluding that Sykes and his "stray woman," Bertha, should be severely disciplined for their actions, they push money forth to share a watermelon. At that moment, Sykes and Bertha arrive, and a silence falls on the porch and the melon is put away. Delia drives by as Sykes is "ordering magnificently for Bertha," but Sykes has no reason to hide his infidelity, for it "pleased him for Delia to see." As the two leave the store, Sykes reminds Bertha "this was his town and she could have it if she wanted it." The men on the porch resume their melon feast at Sykes and Bertha's departure, and they continue their expression of low opinion of Sykes.

In “Sweat”, Hurston’s use of Sykes’s evil qualities illustrates the actions and the personality of the character Sykes. For example, Sykes has kicked the clothes around the ground because Delia refuses to stop cleaning white men’s clothes and kept working. Hurston’s description of how Sykes is threatening Delia as “Next time, Ah’m gointer kick’em outdoor!,” foregrounding his intimidation (Hurston 517). Snakes were known for being demanding to get what they want and Sykes used a ruthless tactic to hope that Delia would do what he wanted. Also, another illustration of his wicked qualities is shown when Merchant talks to the village men about Sykes seducing his wife with a basket of pecans. The description is described as “He's allus been crazy 'bout fat women, put in Merchant. He'd a' been tied up wid one long time ago if he could a' found one tub have him. Did Ah tell yuh 'bout him come sidlin' roun' mah wife-bringin' her a basket uh pee-cans outa his yard fuh a present? Yessir, mah wife! She tol' him tub take 'em right straight back home, cause Delia works so hard ovah dat washtub she reckon everything on de place taste lak sweat an' soapsuds. Ah jus' wisht Ah'd a' caught 'im 'roun' dere! Ah'd a' made his hips ketch on fiah down dat shell road,” emphasizes this fact (Hurston 519). The author makes use of Sykes’s womanizing ways to show that he tries to win the affection of Merchant’s wife instead of taking the pecans to Delia. His relationship is indifferent when it comes to romance toward Delia, which often

With the couple being African American, it also refers to the slavery and the unappreciated work that they performed which is shown by the way her husband treats her. Sykes is continuously trying to frighten her with a snake knowing that she is petrified. He does not respect her like a husband is expected to. Delia says “ Looka heah, Sykes, you done gone too fur. Ah been married to you fur fifteen years, and Ah been takin’ in washin’ for fifteen years, Sweat, sweat, sweat!