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Confidence-Building And Existence In Delia Jones's Sweat

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If I would have read the story “Sweat” twice without going in depth and trying to find out what the author purposes was. I would have said, she was informing the reader on how black men would treat black women back in the early 1900’s. It’s not just about the abuse in this story with men, but about women not getting equal rights as men and women having no power to stand up for anything. In other words, this story is about Confidence-building and Existence. This story was written in an era where women were fighting to have the same rights as men and they were finally speaking out about the struggles that they had to endure. The protagonist was dominated by the antagonist. But after reading this story a few times and analyzing paragraph by paragraph I realize that the author was informing us about the men …show more content…

The protagonist in this story was a lady named Delia Jones. Delia is married to a man named Sykes. I feel that Delia is getting mentally, physically, and emotionally abused by her husband which affects her as a woman. In the beginning of the story, Delia seems to be a weak, lonely, naïve, hard-working, a strong believer in the word of God, and shy woman. But, as the story progresses I see her in a differently light. There are many examples that I can use to explain her character. At the beginning of the story it is mentioned that Delia fears snakes. On a Sunday, Delia is sorting and washing clothes so that she won’t have much to wash the next day. He scares her with his whip and she thinks that it is a snake and tells him not to scare her, and his response was, “…That’s how come Ah done it” and then he says, “…Ah don’t keer how bad Ah skeer you”. His responses, showed me that Delia doesn’t seem to have a backbone and that she is shy and he showed some emotional abuse by hurting her feelings. In my opinion, Delia should have stood up for herself

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Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for a woman to be submissive and to take more than her fair share of abuse from a man , and when a woman such as Delia, is entangled in a relationship , this tendency of her relationship is often magnified. This is the case with Delia Jones, the protagonist of the short story “Sweat.” The quote above shows readers a slight description of how Sykes, Delia’s husband views her. When reading this quote most readers would think, she would argue back and fight till her death. Not only because of what he said, but what he has done to her.

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The first part of the story reveals that Delia and Sykes live in a time of a patriarchal and racially charged society. Delia talking about how she makes the money in their relationship paired with Sykes awful actions and attitude shows that even though Delia is in charge of finances, Sykes still holds most of the control in their relationship. In the first part of the story, Delia is shown to be a mostly independent woman who unfortunately still deals with her abusive husband. Delia makes all of the money in their relationship, and is a woman of God, which is probably what keeps her with Sykes (divorce is a sin).

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"Sweat" by Zora Neale Hurston and "Why Women Always Take Advantage of Men" by Zora Neale Hurston are two distinct stories that display the author's writing style and literary devices. Both stories are written in the first-person narrative, which provides the reader with an intimate insight into the characters' thoughts and emotions. However, the language used in each story is different. "Sweat" is written in a dialect that reflects the language spoken by the African American characters in the story, while "Why Women Always Take Advantage of Men" is written in a more standard English language, reflecting the author's education and training.

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Also when Walter Thomas says, “It’s too bad, too, cause she wuz a right pretty li’l trick when he got huh” (68), I learned that Sykes really had done a number on her physically and emotionally. That went on for a awhile and I really got the point that nobody except Bertha liked Sykes. Whether it was intended or not, I thought Bertha being described as “a hunk uh liver wid hair on it” (70) was quite funny. Later on, when Sykes gets the rattle snake, it’s clear he has crossed the line and Delia is done putting up with him. Her normal meekness towards Sykes is gone and when she said “Ah hates you, Sykes” (72) then continued to tell him how extremely much she hates him, I knew with certainty she had enough and was going to do something.

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