Zora Neale Hurston Sweat Summary

A New Criticism Look Of A Short Story Married for 15 years, infidelity and greed plague a couple through a handful of incidents leading up to what seems like the inevitable conclusion. Plot is the overall element of the story “Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston that revolves around the conflict between Delia and Sykes Jones. Foreshadowing, suspense, conflict, crisis, and resolution are some of the elements within the plot structure that have helped support the story’s theme of karma. “Oh well, whatever goes over the Devil’s back, is got to come under his belly. Sometime or ruther, Sykes, like everybody else, is gointer reap his sowing” (Hurston 151). The conflict of man verses woman comes to a head in this story. Constantly being verbally and

Delia was written as a character that was growing stronger with each put down and threat given towards her. Sykes in the beginning portrayed to be a bully but his characters actions began to become more scared of Delia rather than thinking of her as a victim. Though the broken english spoken by the characters was a little disorienting to begin reading it became a part of the story itself and how it connects with the characters. The story is told in third person narrative giving the author the permission to divulge all the information about thoughts and feelings of each character. The story read like the author was retelling a story once told to her and she added in her own details as she went along. In whole for the story’s plot the smaller conflicts that lead up to the bigger conflict support the theme of karma. Character development and an original plot conflict tell a story of Delia’s strength and Sykes weakness that lead to his demise. The author made good use of the Delia character by giving her the foreshadowing ability of Sykes reaping what he sows for his treatment toward her. This story though predictable in the way it ended was good story telling and use of dialect for the setting. Works