Woman only deserve to be loved and not abused; never let the person who should protect you harm you. In the short story “Sweat”, written by Zora Neale demonstrates how Delia was abused by her own husband. She was a very strong woman who was unnecessarly abused by her husband Sykes.
Therefore, Sykes’ actions do justify Delia’s behavior and the decision she made of not helping her husband at the end of the story. Delia was a wash women that worked everyday to earn money in hopes of living a decent life. She would work for many hours a day washing clothes and making sure they were nice and clean for her customers. She had been working hard for many years as a wash woman and has been through alot, this mainly reflected in her hands. She used to have soft and
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He had done many things to Delia that made him an irresponsible, selfish, and unrespectful husband. For instance, he would mess around with her on purpose with his bullwhip that she thought it looked like a snake since she had a phobia of snakes. In addition, he also brought a rattlesnake to their house to torture her once again, but this time it was with a real snake. That was honestly the worst mistake he could have made. As a result, that same snake ended up biting and killing him. As can be seen, this showed that karma got him back even worst because of all of his bad actions he had made before. Not to mention, Sykes also cheated on his wife with another woman. This was not fair for Delia because not only she was being abused by him, but also being cheated on. Sykes would buy the other woman everything she wanted, but yet he would never treat Delia the same way who actually deserved it because she was a hard worker. All she would get was getting abused instead of love, what she actually deserved. Under those circumstances, it didn’t make sense that someone who was hardworking like Delia would be treated the way she was
Sykes Jones is physically and emotionally abusive to Delia. He is immoral and unfaithful. Sykes takes the money that is earned from Delia's hard work to spend it away on his mistress, Bertha. Sykes in can be compared to evil because like everything evil he drained Delia of her beauty, joy and happiness that she once had. Once their marriage starts to fall apart, Sykes uses Delia’s deadly fear of snakes
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.
In both The Story of an Hour and Hills Like White Elephants, the authors Kate Chopin and Ernest Hemingway describe women and the desire to express themselves and be free and how men influence their decision making. Women strive for a sense of freedom and independence and have the yearning to convey themselves freely. In Kate Chopin’s and Ernest Hemmingway’s stories, the authors suggest the two female main characters in their stories feel suppressed for liberty. Louise Mallard in The Story of an Hour is sick and very lonely. She is
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
In the short story Sweat written by Zora Neale Hurston, she tells the story of a hard-working woman named Delia Jones and her abusive, cheating husband Sykes. Delia and Sykes are drastically different characters. Delia is an honest, church going woman, who cleans white people 's laundry to make ends meet and Skyes is a low-down womanizer who uses his wife 's income to support not only himself but also Bertha the woman he is having an affair with. After years of putting up with her husband 's mistreatment, Delia finally holds her ground. She defends her job with a skillet.
In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, we follow our protagonist, Janie, through a journey of self-discovery. We watch Janie from when she was a child to her adulthood, slowly watching her ideals change while other dreams of hers unfortunately die. This is shown when Jane first formulates her idea of love, marriage, and intimacy by comparing it to a pear tree; erotic, beautiful, and full of life. After Janie gets married to her first spouse, Logan Killicks, she doesn’t see her love fantasy happening, but she waits because her Nanny tells her that love comes after marriage. Janie, thinking that Nanny is wise beyond her years, decides to wait.
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.
During this week, we have covered numerous topics, none more prominent than the oppression of women. Everyone had different opinions, allowing me to take into account different views on the issue. In one of the texts we examined, “Oppression”, Marilyn Frye, a philosopher, debates the subjugation of women. She states the cultural customs that causes oppression of women. I do agree with her view that women are oppressed, but I do not agree that it is just women.
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.
The first scene of Hurston’s short story sweat depicts a routined representation of an abusive relationship, through the interactions of main characters Delia Jones and Sykes Jones. The exemplified relationship identifies all aspects regarding abuse, particularly verbal, physical, as well as the lasting effects of psychological abuse.
(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.
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
In a way a demon inside of him began to control his life. He is not possessed but by demon I mean that a new personality arouse, appeared in him, a new attitude that those who know him become confuse and cannot understand his actions; “The bishop was disturbed that he had not come to read at supper. Delaura realized he was floating on a personal cloud where nothing in this world or the next mattered except the horrific image of Sierva Maria debased by the devil” (118). He has become a new person and that was part of the first step in escaping from his recent life, he is only focused on Sierva Maria.
Initially, Sykes releases a rattlesnake, into the home of both him and Delia with the intentions of it killing her. Though, it does not. Sykes returns to the home, and Delia is nowhere to be found, so he assumed the job had been done and proceed into the house. This is where the irony comes into play, Sykes ends of being the victim of the rattler rather than Delia. Delia’s main conflict, with her abusive husband was solved when the trap he set for her failed, and he become the victim of the
“Women are the only oppressed group in our society that lives in intimate association with their oppressors,” -Evelyn Cunningham. During the early 20th century, society’s expectations of women were tremendously different than how they are currently in the 21st century. Women were expected to be submissive to the men around them and had to listen, obey, and serve them. Prominent examples were represented in Ernest Hemingway’s stories, “Cat in the Rain” and “Hills like White Elephants.” Both of the well-known short stories were written in the 1920s and depict the mistreatment of women.