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.
Delia works hard washing people’s laundry, to afford living necessities however Sykes doesn’t like her bringing the clothes into the house and uses her job as an excuse for an attempted argument. In fact, Sykes is only trying to get rid of Delia, calling her insults such as bony and repulsive, because he prefers portly women. Sykes claims the house Delia built for her golden years as his own though he did not contribute anything to their marriage except heartache and pain. Instead, for years Sykes squandered his wages returning home penniless, however, since meeting Bertha, a woman he met in Apopka, his wages are spent paying her rent, buying her whatever
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Initially, Sykes placed a leather strap in Delia’s laundry basket as a fake snake to scare her which he would later replace with a real rattle snake he kept in a detergent box. When ask how he was able to catch the big snake he professed being a snake whisperer and didn’t have to worry about it biting him. One Sunday while Delia was at church miles away from home, Sykes placed the real rattle snake in one of her laundry baskets, hoping it would bite her when she returned home and started her laundry to get a jump on her work week. Witnessing the snake, Delia terrifyingly flew out the house into the barn where she spent a restless night. Sykes assuming his strategy had succeeded entered the dark house where he was merciless assaulted by the