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Sweat Summary

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The play sweat by Lynn Nott age takes place in the first decade of the 2000s. During the duration of the play we follow characters through a period of time where the factory they work at starts downsizing and then the union strikes. In response to this the workers are locked out and eventually their jobs get sourced out to Mexico. This all takes place in the small town of Reading, Pennsylvania and more specifically in a bar in this town for the majority of the play. The play speaks to the fragile human condition and many other topics, however, I will be focusing on what Nott age is saying about addiction in the play. There are three characters that I will mainly be focusing on to analyze this. Brucie, an African American male in his forties, …show more content…

My jaws tired of the damn chatter I just wanna get drunk, smoke a blunt, and chill for a little while… (after Jason and Stan chime in) Not me, id probably just ride out unemployment, maybe pick up some heavy lifting, day stuff, then start college next September. The unions offering some financial aid” here we are able to see Chris’s entire attitude has changed and while he is still able to hold to his goal of school, he is nowhere near as enthusiastic or driven to accomplish it. The toxic effect that Brucie left on Chris and Cynthia clearly hanged their attitudes and outlooks for the future. While the two seem like they were both still almost the same it is very clear that Nott age is attempting to show the immense effect that Brucies addiction and toxic lifestyle had on two of his close companions. They eventually got so tired and fed up with having to deal with Brucie that they started being short with others, which then brought them to be lazier and eventually they had transformed to a complete 180 from where they had started in the earlier years of the play. Nottages play sweat showed the love a compassion shared by the three characters slowly slip and fall through the cracks as Brucie eventually manipulated and lied his way through life in a last ditch attempt to make everything work out in his favor. This goes to further prove Nottage's point about addiction not being a disease that only effects ne person but it effects the people who are closest or care most about the person

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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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Addiction is a complicated and challenging condition that affects millions of people around the world. The consequences of drug addiction can be devastating for individuals and for society. Addiction can cause numerous health issues, and changes to personal life with friends and family. The play “Sweat” by Lynn Nottage highlights addiction, her characters Tracey and Brucie both face addiction after traumatic experiences. The play “Sweat” calls attention to the challenges that people and families dealing with addiction face.

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The short story “Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston is about an abusive man who is married to a hard working woman. Through Hurston’s use of diction she is highlighting the idea that an individuals actions are directly correlated with their destiny. This is shown when Sykes uses Delia’s fear of snakes to scare her. In the beginning of the story Delia’s fear of snakes is made clear when Sykes drops his bull whip on her shoulders to scare her. Later in the short story, Sykes brings a rattlesnake into their house.

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The famous play shows the audience the life it was like to live as a black female, and shows the struggles that the Young family faced being the first African American family to move into a white neighborhood. This play is considered a

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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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