Thesis: Both William Faulkner’s “That Evening Sun” and Zora Neale Hurston’s “Sweat” reveal how social inequality based upon race and gender potentially cause women to repress themselves further; however, both stories contrastingly suggest that women can ultimately regain their sense of self by embracing their heritage. II. Thesis Support: Topic Sentence #1: In “That Evening Sun,” Nancy, who started out strong, could not strengthen her self-identity when (because she) became tolerant of the gruesome reality of being violently abused and repressed by the men in the story. Textual support for Topic Sentence 1: 1. “When you going to pay me white man? When you going to pay me, white man? It’s been three times since you paid me a cent– Mr. …show more content…
Textual support for Topic Sentence 3: 1. “Cant nobody do nothing with him, Nancy said. He say I done woke up the devil in him and aint but one thing going to lay it down again. Well, he’s gone now. Thee nothing for you to be afraid of now. And if you’d just let white men alone. . . . . “If you’d behave yourself, you’d kept out of this, but it’s all right now. He’s probably in St. Louis no. Probably got another wife by now and forgot all about you.” (324) 2. “Why is Nancy afraid of Jesus?” Caddy said. Are you afraid of father, mother?. . . . .”Then why is she afraid? Mother said. She says he is there. She says she knows he is there tonight. Yet we pay taxes.” mother said. “I must wait here alone in this big house while you take a Negro women home.” (326) Topic Sentence #4: In the initial pages of “Sweat”, Sykes tyrannical behavior left Delia repressed as a result of him trying to regain his rightful place within his marriage. Textual support for Topic Sentence …show more content…
Although both main characters, Delia and Nancy were abused and belittled, their two disimiliar approaches to their two similar situations led to different outcomes. Delia and Nancy were hard workers and proud of what they worked for, even while people tried to take it away. Nancy, was strong but stay repressed throughout her story by placing blame and letting fear take over. Throughout “That Evening Sun”, Nancy does not feel in control of her circumstances. She repeats over and over that she is basically a hell born nigger and it is not her fault. This statement is significant because Nancy has internalized this self-hate and condemnation to a great extent that she believes since she is black, that her life is not valuable. In reality it is a treatise on how the vulnerable members of a community are often forced to own responsibility for things which are not entirely their fault, and punish themselves for it as well. During this time, Nancy condemning herself and staying oppressed by not fighting society back was probably what Southern aristocratic would have wanted. Southern aristocratic society often considered African Americans to be worthless during this time. Delia on the other hand, proved that although society may say otherwise, there’s nothing wrong with a powerful,