Whether you believe it or not, karma will always come back and bite you. In Zora Neal Huston’s “Sweat”, karma definitely comes back and gets Sykes. Sykes is Delia’s husband. Delia is a wash woman who is very hardworking. Sykes and Delia have been married for 15 years but not all of them have been great. Delia is aware of Sykes mistress, Bertha, but doesn’t take action upon it. Delia works hard for all she has, her garden and her home that she owns. Sykes spends his days judging Delia, punishing her, and being with his mistress Bertha. Sykes attempts to scare Delia with a snake to make her leave her home so he can be with Bertha and him can live in her house but he is not successful. Sykes is dominant throughout most of the story because he …show more content…
Although Delia never leaves her home like Sykes wants her to, she never really punishes him the way he does to her. The day Sykes came home with the snake, he was there before Delia, which was unusual. Delia knew something was going on but tried to ignore it. Sykes wouldn’t let her go through to the kitchen door and pushed her back when she attempted to pass by. Instead of fighting back Delia begs Sykes remove the snake from their home and Sykes says, “Ah aint gut tuh do nuthin’ uh de kin’…” (1026). By Sykes saying he isn’t going to do anything he is just going to leave the snake is showing he is dominant. In his blog about social dominance, Mario Maestripieri, an Italian behavioral psychologist, says dominant people “can use any means at his disposal to keep the subordinate from acquiring more power and to increase the potential costs of a rebellion...” (Maestripieri). In this case, Sykes uses a snake to keep Delia from gaining power by scaring her and making her submissive to what he says. Not only does Sykes scare Delia with a snake, he also scares her because he abuses her