She is protective towards her brother. She has never let Ryan get away with teasing David. On the other hand, Ryan never learns to not make fun of David in front of Catherine. Even though David embarrasses Catherine, she loves David. She shows the true responsibility of an older sibling.
Whenever he tells fictitious stories, she points it out. When he told her about his affair she says, "you always talking about what you give...and what you don't have to give. But you take too. You take...and don't even know nobody's giving!" What could be the most challenging situation for her is when she agrees to help Troy in the upbringing of Raynell after the death of Alberta during childbirth.
At first, Sydelle Pulaski is an attention seeker, mistake, and invisible to almost all the tenants. However, she later finds friends in the other heirs, no longer feeling she needs to go to lengths to be seen. Likewise, Turtle is also a worthy candidate. At the start of the novel, she is feisty and the family black sheep. Later however she learns to be clever and gains her family’s acceptance, becoming the winner of The Westing Game.
Why did Delia stay in an abusive relationship with Sykes? Sweat is a fictional story that describes the abusive marriage between Delia and Sykes. In this short story, Delia is an African American woman who is married to an abusive African American man who is incapable of appreciating the hard work of his wife. Instead he chooses to be critical of his wife’s job and uses her fear of snakes to plot her murder when all of their conflict hits a boiling point. Although Delia never leaves Sykes, the marriage between them is never successful because of the mental and physical abuse that Sykes imposes on Delia.
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).
Delia slaves out at work to make money, but Sykes bullies her so that she can spend the money with the woman who happens to be new in town. “Bertha had been in town three months now. Sykes was paying her room rent at Della Lewis’—the only house in town that have taken her in" (Sweat
Delia and Sykes’s relationship is similar to the relationship of Jesus and the devil. Jesus does the work that He is called to do, but the devil tries to stop him. When Jesus was crucified and resurrected, he defeated the devil. Though it was Sykes that physically dies, Delia’s fear also dies with him.
Time and time again, Tita expresses her fatigue and distaste for these arduous chores. At first glance, it may seem as though Mama Elena is a merciless tyrant who only lives to torture Tita. However, Mama Elena assigns these tasks to Tita without any malicious intent, believing that these tasks are meant for the youngest daughter to fulfill, as she is a faithful adherent to family tradition. She expresses her appreciation for Tita in her own unique way, as she is not very fond of or accustomed to expressing her emotions openly. Her frank attitude, coupled with her lack of sympathy makes it so that her actions are misinterpreted by the reader as well as other characters.
Sykes brings in a real snake and plans to poison Delia by planting a snake in her washing basket knowing that she has a fear of them. “There lay the snake in the basket! He moved sluggishly at first, but even as she turned round and round, jumped up and down in an insanity of fear, he began to stir vigorously” (Hurston 8). She got away and fall asleep in the barn. Not knowing the snake’s whereabouts Sykes walks in and gets bitten.
(Hurston 532). She believes in karma, that whatever Sykes does will come back around to him. She is good and believes that in time good things will come to her. Also it is clearly seen in the story how dynamic Delia’s character is. In the beginning, Delia is scared of Sykes and is too afraid to stand up to him.
An example of Delia defending her emotional being and everything she earned is when she yelled, “that ole snaggle-toothed black woman you runnin’ with ain’t comin’ heah to pile up on mah sweat and blood” (cite). Warning her adultering husband she has a materialistic possession she is unwilling to part with and telling him to leave with the mention of divorce. Delia actively reacts to the abuse when Bertha wants to move into Delia’s house. This one want plunges Delia’s life to further hell as Sykes actively tries to remove her from the house. When he gets a negative response, he starts trying to scare her to death by getting a
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.
Ah been married to you fur fifteen years, and Ah been takin’ in washin’ for fifteen years. Sweat, sweat, sweat! Work and sweat, cry and sweat, pray and sweat!”(Hurston 2,17). The Sweat is the result of Delia 's diligent work, and without it there is no support system. It also stands for her hard-working attitude and how she has attempted to influence her work as best as she can, it is a vital piece of her life.
She takes an iron in her and stands up to her husband. Sykes being the cowered he is, realizes simply bullying Delia
