Plight of Women in Sweat by Zora Neal Hurston Essay

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.

“A battered woman can only endure, and only God can save her - if God will”(Carter 616). In “Sweat”, by Zora Neale Hurston, Delia, the main character, is trapped in an abusive relationship. No one in the town is willing to help Delia get out of her relationship. Delia has had to become a source of strength for herself, but if she wants to be saved, she will need God’s help. Delia faces many struggles and through it all tries to remain a woman of God. Eventually, she becomes an example of the Passion of Christ by suffering and triumphing over her hardships (Banks 3). Delia is a strong Christian woman, and there are many Biblical references throughout the story. In fact, Christian symbolism can be seen throughout Zora Neale

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:

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

The parallel that exists between the snake and Sykes that emphasizes the opposing moral principles of Sykes and Delia is demonstrated in their respective invocations of God. Provoked at Delia’s washing white peoples’ clothes, Sykes lashes out against her, displaying a contemptuous disregard for her labor. Instead of invoking his faith to resist enmity, Sykes exploits it to condemn Delia: “Yeah, you just come from de church house on a Sunday night, but heah you is gone to work on them clothes” (2). He labels her a hypocrite, an “amen-corner Christian” who worships at church, only to come home and work on the Sabbath (2). He declares he had promised God he would not have her washing white peoples’ clothing in his house, threatening her with physical abuse should she defy him (2). Thus, he manipulates religion to justify his acrimony and to validate the venom that he spews. In contrast, Delia uses her faith to deny Sykes’ provocations: “Ah aint for no fuss t’night Sykes. Ah just come from taking sacrament at the church house” (1). It is Sunday, a holy day for Delia in which she furnishes her soul with relief, and she will not let Sykes taint it with his malice.