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The Protagonist In Zora Neale Hurston's Sweat

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How does the antagonist in Sweat criticize the women equality movement of the 1920s? The United States’ culture and political views changed dramatically in 1920s. This era was often called the “Roaring Twenties” because the enthusiastic and easy-going pop culture. Zora Neale Hurston was a popular African-American author during this and the Harlem Renaissance era. Her short story, Sweat, was first published in 1926, to demonstrate the realistic conflict between a self-employed washwoman wife and an unemployed husband. Sweat uses the antagonist, Sykes Jones, to degrade and manipulate his independent wife until she reached her breaking point. As the time changed, so did the American woman. Stephen Sharot, author of “The ‘New Woman’, Star Personas, …show more content…

In the beginning of their relationship, Delia was characterized as being “young” and “soft”. After fifteen years of being abuse, she finally began standing up for herself. In the turning point of the story, Delia told Sykes “…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). In this quote, Delia is at her boiling point and is having a mental meltdown and she is also fed up with Sykes promiscuous ways. This quote proves that the process of Delia defending herself is improving and that she is not the “young” and “soft” woman she was fifteen years …show more content…

The night after the “turn point” argument, when Sykes returned he threatened that “Ah oughter mash you in yo’ mouf fuh drawing dat skillet on me.” (Hurston, 3). There were plenty of physical altercations during their relationship and the length of the story. The story starts off with Sykes emotionally abusing Delia. He calls her a hypocrite because she is working on the Sabbath day. The mental abuse happens when Sykes brings home the rattlesnake. Sykes knows that has huge case of ophidiophobia, fear of snakes. Knowing her fear, Sykes traumatized Delia with the snake, abusing her mental state. All of the abuse caused by Sykes leads to Delia being very

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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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His actions foreshadow possible consequences for himself later on as Delia’s tolerance for Sykes’ behavior weakens.. Hurston characterizes Sykes as a selfish man who has great pride. In contrast to Sykes, Delia provides for

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The idea would be that she would start working on the laundry and would get bitten by the snake and die. But Delia was fortunate and caught on to what he was trying to do and was able to avoid the death bite. Sykes wasn’t so lucky. In the end, his plan backfired on his and he was the one that was bitten. Throughout all of the events, Delia remained strong.

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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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While trying to do her work Sykes is fussing at her but rather stand up to him, the story states that, “Delia never looked up from her work, and her thin, stooped shoulders sagged further” (Hurston 530). This shows that she is afraid of what he might do should she try to stand up for herself. As the story goes on, Delia begins to change and become braver when it comes to dealing with Sykes. Hurston writes, “Delia’s habitual meekness seemed to slip from her shoulders like a blown scarf” (531). She was no longer afraid of Sykes or what he might do to her.

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“Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurtson exemplifies the amount of disrespect and domestic abuse a woman can handle. It also demonstrated how some males view women in a distasteful and unsatisfied way. Gender and sexuality can initiate most of the specific tactics of domestic violence that can dehumanize an individual, especially women. Zora Neale Hurtson’s character, Delia Jones, demonstrates how women can transition from being inferior to becoming superior in a domestic relationship. The story opened with Delia washing clothes for white people on Sunday, and Sykes verbally abused her for dishonoring God because she was washing clothes that belong to white people on the Sabbath day.

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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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He hates it when Delia takes the initiative because of all her hard work in providing for and being a washwoman. Delia is on the skinny side, which causes Skye to be abusive and cheat. Another way of him mentally abusing her is by getting a snake. He knows Delia is scared of being snaked, but instead of having his wife's best interest at heart, he buys a snake and leaves it with her. This snake haunts Delia, and she feels uncomfortable in her home when she tells him to remove

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The short story Sweat written by Zora Neale Hurston takes places in Florida in the 1920s about the marriage of a black couple named Delia Jones and Sykes and how she is trapped in this marriage and is constantly being abused by her husband and uses her fears to his advantage to effect their relationship. There are many themes throughout this short story but the main one that stood out was the strong feminism. Feminism is portrayed in Sweat by the main character Delia Jones which is the breadwinner in the relationship and works as a washwoman and is stuck in a toxic marriage and has to provide for her insecure husband Sykes. Just like how Delia is not privileged due to her race and her gender in Sweat, African American women are also by the same reasons, since slavery they have struggled individually and in groups to overcome the multiple injustices that they and their communities face. The term Black feminism was not a widely used term until the Black women 's movement in the 1970s.

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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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