In the short story “The Threshold” by Amy Frazier, the narrator address an abusive relation between Ricardo and Vanessa. Alcohol converted the high school sweethearts into enemies. Unfortunately, domestic violence is a common problem in Hispanic families. There are three types of abuse that predominate in this story, physical, verbal, and psychological. Despite the fact that Ricardo shot her in the middle of the story which is a clear example of physical violence.
Biblical Allusions in Zora Neale Hurston’s “Sweat” One prominent theme throughout the short story “Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston is that resiliency can carry us through dark times. Hurtson shows readers this idea through biblical allusions, specifically the Jordan River and Jesus’ death. Hurston pays homage to Jesus, an important figure in the Bible. Delia’s husband Sykes often boasts about his mistress to the other villagers in their community. In the months when Sykes flaunted his infidelities around town “Delia’s work-worn knees crawled over the earth in Gethsemane and up the rocks of Calvary many, many times…” (4).
The first scene of Hurston’s short story sweat depicts a routined representation of an abusive relationship, through the interactions of main characters Delia Jones and Sykes Jones. The exemplified relationship identifies all aspects regarding abuse, particularly verbal, physical, as well as the lasting effects of psychological abuse.
"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.
Throughout the history of mankind, there has always been a battle between good and evil in one form or another. Whether it be light and dark, God and Devil, virtue and vice, peace and war, love love hate, the two sides are always be at odds. Zora Neale Hurston was no stranger to this age-old conflict. Growing up as a black woman in the south in the early 1900’s, and the daughter of a preacher, she was familiar with both the hate and wickedness or unfailing righteousness that a person could possess (Boyd). In her short story, “Sweat,” Zora Neale Hurston explores the theme of good versus evil, the relationship the two forces share, and the inevitable defeat of wickedness through her main characters, point of view, and symbolism.
A Summary of Gerald Graff’s “Hidden Intellectualism” Gerald Graff’s “Hidden Intellectualism” goes through many reasons why not being book smart could be a good thing. The sports world is a way of people connecting through the competitive sports that always lead to some sort of debate (268). Graff grew up always liking sports and being “street smart” living in Chicago. He always read sports magazines growing up and realized that reading magazines was a good tactic for schools to teach street smart kids how to write good essays based on their hobbies of reading magazines (265). “What doesn’t occur to us, is that schools and colleges might be at fault for missing the opportunity to tap into such street smarts and channel them into good academic work”(264).
Zora Neale Hurston was a well-known anthropologist and novelist in the 1920s, whose works of literature became popular throughout the Harlem Renaissance. One of her most famous works was Their Eyes Were Watching God, which she wrote while traveling in Haiti. It follows the life of Janie Crawford, a mixed-race girl looking for true love in post-slavery Florida. An important aspect of this novel is Janie’s three marriages, none of which worked out the way she wanted them to. Another one of Hurston’s works was a short story entitled “Sweat”, which is also about a black woman named Delia who has issues with her husband.
The Harlem Renaissance was an era when African- Americans brought their talents to Harlem at the end of World War I (Wormser). Out of that era, it brought authors, poets, and scholars (Wormser). Zora Neil Hurston came out of this era and became a well-known author. The Sweat is one of her well-known stories that demonstrated literary realism to show their everyday life and how they would talk unlike romanticism that used nature and “imagination” (The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica). The Sweat can be considered as a literary cannon which means a book that has been approved by culture ("A Literary Canon?") and that’s what Zora did.
Historical criticism strives to cognize a literary work by examining the social, cultural, and intellectual context that essentially includes the artist’s biography and milieu. Historical critics are more concerned with guiding readers through the use of identical connotation rather than analyzing the work’s literary significance. (Brizee and Tompkins). The journey of a historical reading begins with the assessment of how the meaning of a text has altered over time. In many cases, when the historical context of a text is not fully comprehended, the work literature cannot be accurately interpreted.
The short story “Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston morosely narrates the protagonist’s (Delia) marriage crisis, abuses and fears she has to overcome. Initially, the short story enfolds in a spring night in Florida, in which the protagonist is trying to finish the pile of clothes she must wash for her boss. However, Delia is scared by her malicious husband Sykes, who uses his big bull whip as a snake to frighten her. The couple marriage crisis clearly illustrated by the physically and verbal, the wife receives from her husband. As well, as the humiliation the wife receives from her husband by making his affair publicly.
The short story “Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston, takes place in Florida. The plot is about, Delia a tiny muscular hard-working woman, and her brawny, abusive husband of fifteen years Sykes. The antagonist, Sykes has this bright idea to get rid of Delia with the use of a rattle snake, so he and the flat character Bertha can have Delia’s house for themselves. Consequently, that same rattle snake is the cause of Sykes’ demise.
“Sweat”, a short story by Zora Neale Hurston has a female empowerment message about a woman overcoming her abusive husband. This short story feature Delia and her husband, Sykes, with their conflicted marriage as the plot for the not so happy fairy tale ending. Symbolism attached to the snake is prominent in the story because it represents the evil Sykes brings into the home. Throughout the story, the snake serves as a dominant symbol, commonly known as a symbol of the devil.
“Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurtson exemplifies the amount of disrespect and domestic abuse a woman can handle. It also demonstrated how some males view women in a distasteful and unsatisfied way. Gender and sexuality can initiate most of the specific tactics of domestic violence that can dehumanize an individual, especially women. Zora Neale Hurtson’s character, Delia Jones, demonstrates how women can transition from being inferior to becoming superior in a domestic relationship. The story opened with Delia washing clothes for white people on Sunday, and Sykes verbally abused her for dishonoring God because she was washing clothes that belong to white people on the Sabbath day.
In the short story Sweat written by Zora Neale Hurston, she tells the story of a hard-working woman named Delia Jones and her abusive, cheating husband Sykes. Delia and Sykes are drastically different characters. Delia is an honest, church going woman, who cleans white people 's laundry to make ends meet and Skyes is a low-down womanizer who uses his wife 's income to support not only himself but also Bertha the woman he is having an affair with. After years of putting up with her husband 's mistreatment, Delia finally holds her ground. She defends her job with a skillet.
The short story Sweat written by Zora Neale Hurston takes places in Florida in the 1920s about the marriage of a black couple named Delia Jones and Sykes and how she is trapped in this marriage and is constantly being abused by her husband and uses her fears to his advantage to effect their relationship. There are many themes throughout this short story but the main one that stood out was the strong feminism. Feminism is portrayed in Sweat by the main character Delia Jones which is the breadwinner in the relationship and works as a washwoman and is stuck in a toxic marriage and has to provide for her insecure husband Sykes. Just like how Delia is not privileged due to her race and her gender in Sweat, African American women are also by the same reasons, since slavery they have struggled individually and in groups to overcome the multiple injustices that they and their communities face. The term Black feminism was not a widely used term until the Black women 's movement in the 1970s.
