Girl Who Raised Pigeons

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.

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:

The main character in Zora Neale Hurston’s “Sweat” is a black woman who resides in the South that clutches on to her belief in God to help her get through the suffering that she endures from her abusive and adulterous husband, Sykes. “Sweat” is full of religious symbolism that demonstrates that Hurston was using the theme of good vs. evil in the short story.

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.

Zora Neale Hurston portrays Delia Jones as a hardworking Christian woman who is a washwoman for white people in the South. “Delia is a washerwoman fighting to keep her house and her sanity (“Sweat”). She takes great pride in her job even when her husband insists on her stopping. In the short story her husband demands her to quit her job. He calls her a hypocrite for doing the wash of the white after she has just attended church. When Delia is not fazed by his words and continues washing the clothes, he becomes very angry and ruins the clothes she put so much time into. “He stepped roughly upon the whitest pile of things, kicking them helter-skelter as he crossed the room. His wife gave a little scream of dismay, and quickly gathered them together

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

The literary element of Marxist feminism focuses on the idea in which women are oppressed through capitalism and private property. Starting from the Harlem Renaissance the Hurston’s work focuses on issues presenting on the turmoil of African-Americans from American literature in the nineteenth century on. Zora Neal Hurston’s work entitled “Sweat” is a prime example of how culture is affected by its cultures standards of economic “base”. The story was published in 1926 during a time of trial and error considering the obstacles that faced many female authors at the time. Hurston’s story “Sweat” overlaps with her novel “Their Eyes are Watching God” which also supports the idea that culture

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.

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.

1 In Zora Hurston's short story, "Sweat," [Titles] Delia Jones is married to a very dominant and powerful man. Skye [Sp] Jones is his name, and he is an abusive man who has no respect for Delia. Being married for fifteen years seems to be a lot for Delia, considering that she has only loved Skyes [Sp] for a short time after they were married. Living a life of fear and helplessness allows the dominant figure of that person's life to continue to have total control until the fall of that dominant figure. The theme of the story [This theme] can be supported by characterization, symbols, and setting.

Tunc also notes that traces of racism can still be found in Southern literature. Even though civil rights were being encouraged, some individuals still held onto their Old Southern beliefs. Examples of these traits can be found in the works of Southern authors. In Zora Neale Hurston’s “Sweat”, Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use”, and Kate Chopin’s “Desiree’s Baby”, the authors use racism as a defining point in their short stories. Each of the authors draw attention to the separation and the lingering hostility between the African American and Caucasian communities.

“Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston is a story of power between a couple. The characters are executed perfectly on how their own behaviors of power either worked against them or worked in favor of them. “It will come back to haunt you”, is a perfect example my mother told me if I tried to get revenge on a friend. My mother would say, “do not wish anything bad or do anything to someone else you do not want happening to you.” This is a great quote I have lived by throughout my teenage and young adult life. In Delia’s case, when Skye wants his revenge, she does not tolerate his behavior and even comes back to “haunt him”. She acts in peculiar ways towards him that angers him even more to the ultimate revenge.

A vast city sits lonely at night, where all the building’s hollow lights are turned off, except for one. Tops of buildings darken and the volume of the streets all the way below cannot be heard. A light which pierces through this darkness of landscape is shining from the 101th floor; it’s all the way up there. The building’s window seems so far away from the street that it almost belongs more to the sky than anything else. With binocular like vision, our eyes move closer. A window of an oval-like shape appears and the light shining through it is rudely obscured with fog unseen from the pedestrian’s eye. After a few seconds my eyes uncover a pigeon’s nest resting on the parapet; it’s got three eggs and no mother to warm them. Each stick of the