Symbolism In Sweat

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.

Maria Brito and immigrant from Cuba, came to the United States in 1961. Maria saw the U.S. as a place of endless opportunities, as many Cubans who migrate to the U.S. due to lack of opportunities, poverty and oppression that exist within their own country. Her piece El Patio de Mi Casa, symbolizes the struggles she has experienced with identity and a symbol of transformation once she arrived to this country. The wall in her piece, represents the threshold between the past and the present. The crib symbolizes her childhood and her experiences living in poverty. Now the gray crib and dreary room may perhaps symbolize her sadness, loneliness and isolation she has experienced due to oppression. Not to mention, the color gray also symbolizes modesty

During the 1920s, there was a period that was called the Harlem Renaissance, during which African Americans got the opportunity to be creative and express themselves through music and art. Langston Hughes and Louis Armstrong were a few of the famous people who came from this period in the 1920s. Another famous person that came out of the Harlem Renaissance was Zora Neale Hurston, a multi-talented African American woman who wrote stories that described the life and struggles of the 1920s through the stories she wrote. Hurston was an American writer, who was able to connect to the hearts of most people from all kinds of different races and religions during the period. Even today, her readers still feel the connection Hurston was trying to make

Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman.” This realization made by Janie supports one of the biggest themes in this novel, which is that the concept of innocence and womanhood can’t exist at the same time. Because Janie finally lets go of her “childish fantasy”, her innocence is lost and she is now a woman. The theme of lost innocence in exchange for womanhood is also prevalent in Hurston’s story Sweat. This idea is one of the reasons that Sykes and Delia’s relationship begins to fall apart when we meet them.

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. Throughout all of this, Delia "had brought love to the union and he had brought a longing after the flesh" (Hurston). Consequently, these circumstances precipitated Delia 's strength. In fact, one day, Delia "seized the iron skillet from the stove and struck a defensive pose, which act surprised him greatly, coming from her. It cowed him and he did not strike her as he usually did" (Hurston). Deep down in her soul, she knew that "whatever goes over the Devil’s back, is got

In “A Bolt of White Cloth,” the author, Leon Rooke, uses symbolism to describe love. He develops the idea that love can bring happiness into one's life but to achieve happiness, one’s must have compassion and commitment through hard times. This is shown through the interactions between the peddler and the couple, who live a simple life loving each other. The peddler states that, “You can only buy my cloth with love,” symbolizes that love can be priceless. The peddler sold his cloth to the couple for having compassion and commitment through the hardships of not being able to have children. The cloth symbolized their love, it was gifted to them to let them recognize that even without children, they can still love each other. This is very difficult

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. Through the Sweat, we learn about a woman and her role in society and how she lived. In the Sweat, we came across

These quilts are a ways of honoring her African American heritage and to be given these was very significant in their culture. For once Dee sees the historical background because of the stitching and material used, but doesn’t find any use in using them. Dee is going to try and convince her mom to let her keep the quilts, when Dee says, “Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts!” (Walker 721) and “You just will not understand. The point these quilts, these quilts!” (Walker 721) Dee can’t understand the true meaning and significance of her name, passed along through four generations; therefore she doesn’t understand the significance of the quilts.The quilts are a symbol of pride and struggle and these objects have a value that Dee will never

“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. As Sykes Jones stated, “Ah done tole you time and again to keep the white folks’ clothes outa dis house,” (site) exemplifying Delia has grown accustomed to remaining silent in the face of abuse. It is on this day after a particularly bad scare and added abuse by being mocked for that fear that her character shifts. Delia’s remarkable transformation as a character from a meek abuse victim to a stronger, independent yet gentle woman occurs whenever Sykes mocks her for her fear of snakes or when there is a scene involving the rattlesnake.

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. This essay will critically evaluate the fictional character named Sykes. It will analyze Sykes Jones individual qualities with a focus on at least more than three traits. The traits I will speak on is, abuse, laziness, and disrespect.

What do most women want in a marriage? Is it hatred and an unfaithful husband? No! Women expect to have a husband who loves and cares for them. 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.

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. Taking all of this into account, especially the women’s movement part and the fact that she was a woman as well, I made a more accurate guess that the story would be

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. For example, three literary works that entail the reader to better understanding the historical context are: “Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston, “London”

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.

The Story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O'Connor uses symbols to depict one main idea. Flannery O'Connor uses the same theme in almost all of his stories which is grace and redemption. Grace and redemption is something the grandmother is working towards throughout the entire story. In the beginning, she's very shallow and only cares about how others see her. However as the story continues and different actions take place, her overall beliefs begin to change as she receives grace and redemption. During the story, Flannery O'Connor uses different symbols that represent the grandmothers major turning points in finding grace and redemption. The symbols she uses are the grandmother’s clothing, the weather, and Bailey’s shirt.