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Sweat By Zora Neale Hurston Summary

845 Words4 Pages

"Sweat" by Zora Neale Hurston is about a woman named Delia, a washerwoman in Florida during the 1900s. Her husband of fifteen years, Sykes does not work, yet he complains about Delia cleaning "white folks'" clothes in their home(603). The marriage is abusive; Sykes began physically and emotionally beating Delia, two months after marrying her and hasn't stop since. Citizens in the town remark how the Delia was once "young and soft" but now has lost it because of Sykes(604). Delia realizes that she does not need to be with someone to be happy, because she has her beliefs, that everything will turn out good in the end. Sykes then brings home a rattlesnake to scare Delia and she runs away to hide from it. The rattlesnake ends up in Delia's bed …show more content…

Delia likes everything to be clean and maintain so that she can be in control of the aspects in her life. Clean is often interpreted as being pure, which is what Delia tries to do when she is cleaning the clothes on a daily basis. Delia is a religious person who is pure from the darkness of Sykes presence and is compared to Jesus on how they both overcome struggles to obtain the good. As explained by Delia, "Ah been takin' in washin' fur fifthteen years. Sweat, sweat, sweat! Work and sweat, cry and sweat, pray and sweat!"(603). That she has been working for years, trying to make a living and it was back breaking work which got her the money to pay for her financial needs along with Sykes, who doesn't have a job. The author continues to use sweat as a form of currency to what she has earned from being a washerwoman. As described by Delia, "That ole snaggle-toothed black woman you runnin' with aint comin' heah to pile up on mah sweat and blood"(603). That no one is going to take her home that she paid for her on her own with the money she sweated

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Zora Neale Hurston’s Sweat uses a plethora of imagery and symbolism to capture the anxiety, torment, and eventual relief the main character Delia experiences throughout the short story. It is mentioned numerous times that Delia has a petrifying fear of snakes, however, Hurston also uses the snake to symbolize Sykes, her abusive husband, and the venom he spits at Delia through the abuse. The bed Delia shares with her husband is anything but comforting for Delia; rather, it is where she is bullied by Sykes and where she has her epiphany of her failing marriage. At the end of the short story, Delia finds relief from the hot, Florida morning sun underneath her Chinaberry tree and waits for Sykes to die. The imagery of snakes, the marriage bed,

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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

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Ah been takin' in washin' for fifteen years. Sweat, sweat, sweat,"(2). This excerpt shows the emotions of Delia as she has worked incredibly hard, enduring abuse to the point of not having control over her own life. Hurston uses the repetition of the word “sweat” to express the idea that Delia is full of goodness and is willing to put the work in, while Sykes' laziness is an unfavorable trait. The word choice of “sweat” emphasizes her hard work, while also reminding the reader of the malignant behavior of Sykes.

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In Zora Neale Hurston’s short story “Sweat” and her essay “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” the African American social group is being represented in many ways. The texts have similar ways that African Americans are represented for the time period. The African Americans or “colored people” are represented in an aspect that comes from the author's point of view. The African Americans are represented as being unbothered, growing up in a closed community, playing the game with whites, and optimistic.

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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.

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(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.

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The amount of torment one human can endure is amazing, and Delia Jones in Zora Neale Hurston’s “Sweat” isn’t exempt. She manages to hold together a home, work full-time, clothe and feed her extremely abusive husband. The question lingers; how can one continue to live in this kind of situation. It seems that for Delia, God plays a big part in her life, and Zora has appropriately left behind contextual references, symbols and representations in “Sweat”. Faith is a major theme utilized in the short story, while Sykes’ timely end rewards Delia for her priest-like patience.

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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

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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.

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She takes an iron in her and stands up to her husband. Sykes being the cowered he is, realizes simply bullying Delia

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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.

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Right after Delia and her family got to the house, She decided to wander around and take a look at the place, but as soon as she was walking off she

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Delia feels immensely liberated and “an airy sense of exhilaration filled her chest. She felt so lightweight, all at once” (81). This indicates that her marriage and familial confinement is a ‘burden’ to her and prohibits her from accelerating as a person. She finally succeeds in achieving the feeling of excitement and happiness - a feeling she has not felt since she is sheltered from the world. She obtains the freedom she longs and desires.

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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.

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Historical criticism strives to cognize a literary work by examining the social, cultural, and intellectual context that essentially includes the artist’s biography and milieu. Historical critics are more concerned with guiding readers through the use of identical connotation rather than analyzing the work’s literary significance. (Brizee and Tompkins). The journey of a historical reading begins with the assessment of how the meaning of a text has altered over time. In many cases, when the historical context of a text is not fully comprehended, the work literature cannot be accurately interpreted.

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