"Snakes vs Delia” Hurston 's Delia Jones in "Sweat" is a woman who is trapped in her marriage with an abusive man. In the end Delia finally gets peace from the snake. She has been with Sykes for 15 years. The snake represents evil, fear, and is a symbol for Sykes himself.
In a passage from Seraph on the Swanee, Hurston illustrates impoverished town in west Florida and how the people that live there conduct simple lives by depending and feeding off the swamp. By giving the passage historical context, Hurston clearly shows how rare the town of Sawley is in today’s fast pace lifestyle. Through describing the town Sawley and its people, Hurston displays an appreciation for the simple lifestyle the people of Sawley lead. Hurston highlights the beauty of Sawley and how the lifestyle of the people there may be different, but the town stands as little slice heaven for those who call it home. Through an allegory of the bliss that Adam and Eve experienced in the Garden of Eden.
In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, we follow our protagonist, Janie, through a journey of self-discovery. We watch Janie from when she was a child to her adulthood, slowly watching her ideals change while other dreams of hers unfortunately die. This is shown when Jane first formulates her idea of love, marriage, and intimacy by comparing it to a pear tree; erotic, beautiful, and full of life. After Janie gets married to her first spouse, Logan Killicks, she doesn’t see her love fantasy happening, but she waits because her Nanny tells her that love comes after marriage. Janie, thinking that Nanny is wise beyond her years, decides to wait.
Name: Lakisha Minnis Instructor: Mr. Compton English 2202-001 Date: April. 24, 2017 Sweat Zora Neale Hurston is a prolific writer famed for numerous award winning plays, novels and short stories. In this paper, I will be elaborating on a character from the novel Sweat. Her novel Sweat was first published in 1926. Sweat is a novel that tells a story about the good, evil, and domestic abusive husband.
Rachel Watson is introduced as a 32-year-old alcoholic taking the train to London every day to hide her unemployment from her roommate. Two years prior, she discovered her husband, Tom, was cheating on her, and he left her and married his mistress, Anna. However, Tom cheated on Anna as well, having an affair with neighbor Megan Hipwell, who is also married. As the story begins, Megan is pregnant and believes Tom to be the father. On being confronted with this information, Tom ultimately murders her and buries her in a shallow grave.
Hurston’s use of symbolism creates a dynamic piece of literature that can be looked at through multiple lenses. The symbolism in Sweat is somewhat overt, making it difficult to not be noticed. There is a heavy use of religious metaphor, tying the story back to the story of Adam and Eve from the Christian bible. This gives the piece a personal touch, showing us that Hurston has a strong spiritual connection. It also helps to add a whole other layer, creating a depth to the story that would not otherwise be accessible.
Hurston used the stylistic techniques of figurative language and point of view to strengthen the tone of wanting more out of a lonely life. A major factor Hurston used to enhance the tone was figurative language. For example, when she included the fact that Janie, the main character, had a starched ironed face and set in the funeral behind her veil there wasn’t really a veil it was just her face but, it was portrayed in such a way so that one would notice it was just a cover up.
Hurston 's intention in this novel is to bring out Arvay 's urge for self-identity and motherhood. At the beginning of the novel, Arvay desires to devote her life to religion but it is not taken seriously by many of the young men in Sawley. However, they continue to pursue her, despite her “fits and spasms” like the ones which her mother had in her youth: “No one thought too much about the seizures. Fits were things that happened to some young girls, but they grew out of them sooner or later. It was usually taken as a sign of a girl being “high-strung”.
Misguided Thoughts There are many different ways to end a story by including the way the plot is driven from one direction to the other while keeping the suspense in motion. The writer often surprises the reader with something completely different than what was expected to happen in the events of the storyline. A twist can be manipulated in the story to prevent any obvious predictions to disclose any further revelations in the plot. The use of a plot twist can come in different ways, such as revealing a little bit of the character traits, while other times the twist can be subtle by altering the beliefs of the reader through misconception towards the ending of the story.
Zora Neale Hurston’s book, “The Gilded Six-Bits” is an important piece of literature due to its impact on the world during the Harlem Renaissance era. It is considered a brilliant piece of modernist literature due to Hurston staying true to her background and roots as a black woman from the south, in which segregation was still a huge issue. The reason why it is considered a piece of modernist literature is because she wasn’t afraid to write in the black vernacular which was considered uneducated as blacks were progressing in arts, literature, and the music was alive. The story is filled with many different themes and issues that people can relate to such as money, deceit, and for people who have a big heart forgiveness and reconciliation.
Jody was Janie’s second Husband. Janie and Jody meet as Jody first arrives to Eatonville, he stop at the store she works at and caught a glimpse of her pumping gas. Janie’s best feature was her long silky black hair which Mr. Straks instantly found attractive. Though Janie was already married she continued on pumping gas and flirting with Mr.Straks. Shortly after Jody’s arrival, he became a well know man throughout the town due to his need for power.
To further explain, in the Girl Rising documentary, viewers are taken through the life of a young girl, Suma, in Nepal. She was only six-years-old when her parents exchanged her obedient working hand for money. She was then sent to a home where she would do chores such as washing the dishes, cut firewood and maintain the farm. At her next working home, Suma’s employer’s forced her to eat their scraps, and called her “unlucky girl”. At this home, she was sexually abused, but she did not let that define her.
While married Janie had to conform to what her husband wanted her to be like, look like, and act like. Janie’s hair is another powerful symbol in the novel. It symbolizes her power and freedom within society. It is what most of the men characters noticed about her right away. Her hair was so beautiful that while being married to Joe Starks, he made her wear it in a hair rag.
In "Sweat," the main character, Delia Jones, is portrayed as a strong-willed, hard-working washwoman who would wash clothes for white people. She worked tireless to provide for her family. Delia was married to Sykes, who would berate, beat and mentally abuse Delia, incessantly. For example, Sykes would walk into the room where Delia just folded clothing for the white people and find the whitest pile of clothes, stomp all over them and then kick them across the room, leaving her to clean up and restack them. Sykes was also openly living in infidelity with another woman, named Bertha.
In our advanced 21st century, it is hard to imagine our society as anything short of perfect. After all, we have come a long way from our seafaring ancestors. However, the reality is that despite how we may sometimes avoid seeing it, our society is anything but perfect. A very prevalent issue today is that despite laws being set in place to enforce the equal treatment of men and women, women all over the world today still face poor treatment and discrimination. Because of how deep and long this problem has run, revising discriminatory laws may not abolish discrimination and legislating laws that endorse gender equality may not necessarily create equality.
