ipl-logo

Gender Inequality In Zora Neal Hurston's Sweat

894 Words4 Pages

Gender inequality is an issue that has plagued women for centuries. Even in modern times, women must continually battle for rights that they so naturally deserve. Through the years writers have come along and eloquently expressed, through literature, their thoughts and opinions on such social issues as gender inequality. These authors have shared stories and experiences through their works which have made it possible to help others to understand such societal problems. Zora Neal Hurston does this beautifully with her short story “Sweat”. Her story sheds light on the oppression of women in an African American culture and the strength and perseverance of one woman's struggle towards independence.
"Sweat" tells the tale of a black woman named …show more content…

Delia has an extreme fear of snakes and this pushes her over the edge in her hatred towards her husband. She stands up to him and tells him how much she detests him. Sykes cannot believe what he is hearing and counters back. It is beginning to dawn on him that she is losing her fear of him and his oppression over her. At the end of the story, Sykes intends to harm Delia by placing the snake in the clothes hamper where Delia works from. In a twist of fate, the very snake that he intends to bite Delia, bites him instead. As he crawls toward her, swollen in pain and dying, he is desperate for help. In a final act of freedom and independence, Delia walks away, unable and unwilling to help her abuser.
Zora Neal Hurston wrote during a time when gender inequality was strongly present in society. She was an effective author that shed light on a deep social issue that is still relevant today. Throughout her short story "Sweat", Hurston acknowledges the hard work and sweat it has taken women over the years to survive in a culture that has not really acknowledged them as it should. She brings light to the even deeper oppression African American women have had to bear and gives hope to a future of hope and independence

Show More
Related

  • What Is The Central Idea Of Sweat By Zora Neale Hurston

    704 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Zora Hurston's How It Feels To Be Colored Me

    270 Words  | 2 Pages

    Zora Hurston uses vivid imagery, natural diction, and several literary tools in her essay “How It Feels to Be Colored Me”. Hurston’s use of imagery, diction, and literary tools in “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” contributes to, and also compliments, the essay’s theme which is her view on life as a “colored” person. Throughout “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” Hurston carefully incorporates aspects of her African American culture in an effort to recapture her ancestral past. Hurston’s use of imagery, diction, and use of literary tools shape her essay into a piece of Harlem Renaissance work. Imagery in “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” is quite abundant.

    Read More

  • Zora Neale Hurston The Sweat

    1123 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Harlem Renaissance was an era when African- Americans brought their talents to Harlem at the end of World War I (Wormser). Out of that era, it brought authors, poets, and scholars (Wormser). Zora Neil Hurston came out of this era and became a well-known author. The Sweat is one of her well-known stories that demonstrated literary realism to show their everyday life and how they would talk unlike romanticism that used nature and “imagination” (The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica). The Sweat can be considered as a literary cannon which means a book that has been approved by culture ("A Literary Canon?") and that’s what Zora did.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Faith In Zora Neale Hurston's Sweat

    96 Words  | 1 Pages

    The amount of torment one human can endure is amazing, and Delia Jones in Zora Neale Hurston’s “Sweat” isn’t exempt. She manages to hold together a home, work full-time, clothe and feed her extremely abusive husband. The question lingers; how can one continue to live in this kind of situation. It seems that for Delia, God plays a big part in her life, and Zora has appropriately left behind contextual references, symbols and representations in “Sweat”. Faith is a major theme utilized in the short story, while Sykes’ timely end rewards Delia for her priest-like patience.

    Read More

  • The Pursuit Of Dreams In Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God

    824 Words  | 4 Pages

    The novel’s protagonist, Janie Crawford, a woman who dreamt of love, was on a journey to establish her voice and shape her own identity. She lived with Nanny, her grandmother, in a community inhabited by black and white people. This community only served as an antagonist to Janie, because she did not fit into the society in any respect. Race played a large factor in Janie being an outcast, because she was black, but had lighter skin than all other black people due to having a Caucasian ancestry.

    Read More

  • Sweat By Zora Neale Hurtson Summary

    981 Words  | 4 Pages

    “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.

    Read More

  • Their Eyes Were Watching God Thesis

    241 Words  | 1 Pages

    The thesis’ aim is to analyze and discuss African American women’s quest for voice, acceptance and fulfillment based on the selected novels written by Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker and Toni Morrison. In the thesis, women characters are analyzed from the perspective of Feminism`s, Gender`s and New Historicism`s approach. The first chapter constitutes the presentation of criticism and dimensions on which the analysis is based. Moreover, African American fiction’s definition and short description of the authors are presented in this chapter, too.

    Read More

  • Critical Analysis Of Sweat By Zora Neale Hurston

    1187 Words  | 5 Pages

    During this rough time period, segregation was common and prohibition was recently introduced. Along with this, many other social and political issues played a role in Hurston's "Sweat." Consequently, a historical background of the early twentieth century would be ideal in order for the reader to better comprehend and appreciate the work thoroughly. In this story, Hurston writes about Delia and Syke's work lives. In the early 1900's, approximately sixty percent of African American woman and about twenty percent of men were employed (Mclaughlin).During this time period, men felt that they were vastly superior over women.

    Read More

  • Comparing Story Of An Hour And Sweat By Zora Neale Hurston

    1184 Words  | 5 Pages

    Someone who will cherish them for all eternity. In a close examination of the way Louise Mallard, the protagonist of “The Story of an Hour”, and Delia, the protagonist of “Sweat”, react to their encounters with their marriages demonstrates that authors Kate Chopin and Zora Neale Hurston both use short stories to tell similar stories about the difficulties of their emotional states in their marriages. First, it is seen that Louise Mallard is an unchanging character who values her freedom from her marriage. Throughout the story it becomes obvious how self-centered Louise Mallard is.

    Read More

  • Sweat Hurston Character Analysis

    1101 Words  | 5 Pages

    Name: Lakisha Minnis Instructor: Mr. Compton English 2202-001 Date: April. 24, 2017 Sweat Zora Neale Hurston is a prolific writer famed for numerous award winning plays, novels and short stories. In this paper, I will be elaborating on a character from the novel Sweat. Her novel Sweat was first published in 1926. Sweat is a novel that tells a story about the good, evil, and domestic abusive husband.

    Read More

  • Zora Hurston Sweat Analysis

    676 Words  | 3 Pages

    Before I began reading, I tried guessing what the story was about. Only knowing that the title was “Sweat”, I thought the story might be about sports or hard labor. Then I opened up the story and the first thing I noticed was that the author’s name was Zora Hurston. I only found out that the author was female once I saw “her” in the section below describing her life and writing career. I found out other important things such as she lived in Florida, she wrote during the Harlem Renaissance (1920s), she died impoverished, and her work was eventually found by the women’s movement.

    Read More

  • Social Stratification In The Movie The Help

    610 Words  | 3 Pages

    Black women are treated less than because of their ascribed traits, their gender and race, and are often dehumanized and belittled throughout the movie. They are treated like slaves and are seen as easily disposable. There are several moments throughout the film that show the racial, gender, and class inequalities. These moments also show exploitation and opportunity hoarding. The Help also explains historical context of the inequality that occurred during that time period.

    Read More

  • Feminism In Zora Neale Hurston's Sweat

    713 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Irony In Barn Burning

    448 Words  | 2 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Role Of Women In Literature

    1495 Words  | 6 Pages

    These themes can be clearly seen in the short stories Chopin’s “The Story Of An hour”, Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”, and Hurston’s “Sweat”. These pieces of literature strongly portray how women are seen in instances

    Read More

More about Gender Inequality In Zora Neal Hurston's Sweat

Open Document