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Book Report On Sweat By Zora Neale Hurston

1180 Words5 Pages

Sweat by Zora Neale Hurston is a short story revolves around a washerwoman and her cheating, unemployed, insecure husband. Delia is the main character in the story. She is humble and a hard working woman. Her husband Sykes does not work, yet he gets mad that Delia cleans "white folks'" clothes in their home (“”). Sykes started beating Delia two months after marrying (“Two months after the wedding, he had given her the first brutal beating” Page 234) and they’ve been married for 15 years. Bertha is Sykes mistress. The most famous line in the book is (“Sweat, sweat, sweat! Work and sweat, cry and sweat, pray and sweat!” page233) which help can best describe the title of the book.

Delia Jones is a hardworking, temperate Christian woman being …show more content…

When Delia’s fear of the caged rattlesnake that Sykes places outside her back door subsides, Sykes places the rattlesnake in the dirty clothes hamper, hoping that it will bite and kill Delia. In an ironic twist, however, Delia escapes, and the rattlesnake bites Sykes as he fumbles for a match in the dark house. Delia listens and watches as Sykes dies a painful, agonizing death. In forgetting that we are not immortal, that we are not above anyone else, that taking things for granted will also take them away from us, we forget the impartiality and justice of being human in this realm. Karma is real, karma is true, and karma will come back to you. Sykes completely ignores the reality that he will get his in what he says to Delia after throwing a bullwhip "snake" at her. She asks him why he did so, knowing that she was afraid of them: (“Course Ah knowed it! That's how come I done it!' He slapped his leg with his hand and almost rolled on the ground in his mirth. 'If you such a big fool that you got to have a fit over a earthworm or a string, Ah don't keer how bad Ah skeer you”page 232). To which Delia replies: (“You ain't got no business doing it. Gawd knows it's a sin” page 232), so foreshadowing the events of his death. If not for Sykes bring the snake into their home and using it with the intent to kill or run Delia off, he would had never experience a painful death. Like Sandra Bullock said “I'm a true believer in karma. You get what you give, whether it's bad or

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