Essay On Sweat By African American Women

Imagine being an enslaved person working in the United States on a hot summer field. You've just been released, only for your husband to enslave you again as a housewife. You constantly suffer abuse from your husband, only for him to cheat and not listen to the advice given to him. This is depicted in “Sweat” because Delia is a housewife who cooks, cleans, and caters to her husband, who cheats. Still, in the early 20th century, this was normal and what every African American woman experienced. What experiences African American women had in the early 20th century, especially in the rural South, reflected in “Sweat” gender dynamics? To understand the gender dynamics in “Sweat” and the early 20th century, I will analyze the history of gender roles,

Harley, who wrote a forthcoming book that will portray black communities, stated, “Black women were forcibly brought to the Americas to work. Consequently, after the ablation of slavery, some men withdrew their wives from fields partly as a symbol of their freedom and new roles as household heads. But the limited freedom that emancipation afforded late 19th century African Americans meant that black women, regardless of marital status, had to remain in the wage labor force for the family to survive." As discussed before, Delia was a hard-working woman with a cruel husband who lived in the 20th century, where women had no say in rights or the household. But Delia was one to take charge, which her husband didn’t like, so he would play mind games and make her feel inferior. However, the difference between this statement is that Delia didn’t want to submit to gender roles; she wanted to be independent and away from Skye, and that's why Skye would say mean things and be cruel. Delia and many African American women in the 20th century were not as accessible as they thought, and Delia learned that throughout the story of her

According to the National Institutes of Health, “domestic violence is a consequence of patriarchy, a system that promotes male dominance by giving men powers to dominate and control women.” In the story Sweat, Delia is not only physically abused but mentally abused. Skye states in the short story in paragraph 22, “Well, you better quit gittin’ me riled up, else they’ll be totin’ you out sooner than you expect. Ah, I’m so tired of you. Ah, I don’t know what to do. Gawd! I am a snob! how Ah hates skinny women!” This is an example of Skye's mental abuse he had on Delia. Skye was a cheating husband who slept with prostitutes who were on the heavier side. He hates it when Delia takes the initiative because of all her hard work in providing for and being a washwoman. Delia is on the skinny side, which causes Skye to be abusive and cheat. Another way of him mentally abusing her is by getting a snake. He knows Delia is scared of being snaked, but instead of having his wife's best interest at heart, he buys a snake and leaves it with her. This snake haunts Delia, and she feels uncomfortable in her home when she tells him to remove