Sweat

In Zora Neale Hurston’s short story, Sweat, Delia finds herself stuck in an unbearable marriage. Her husband, Sykes, mistreats her, leaves all work to her, and is unfaithful. After being married to Sykes for 15 years, Delia has lost all hope in the marriage. The countless beatings and painful acts of Sykes have brought her over the edge. She is forced to go against her strict religious beliefs because of the life in which she has been leading since her matrimony to her husband. One passage that sums up many factions of Delia and Sykes’s relationship is as follows:

“She lay awake, gazing upon the debris that cluttered their matrimonial trail. Not an image left standing along the way. Anything like flowers had long ago been drowned in the salty stream that had been pressed from her heart. Her tears, her sweat, her blood. She had brought love to the union and he had brought a longing after the flesh. Two months after the wedding, he had given her the first brutal beating. She had the memory of his numerous trips to Orlando with all of his wages when he had returned to her penniless, even before the first year had passed. She was young and soft then, but now she thought of her knotty, muscles limbs, her harsh knuckly han

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One man talks of Delia’s hard work ethics and ability to carry and receive clothing every Saturday. Similarly, Delia is so filled up to the top with anguish with her husband, but in a way she has digested all of it by the end of the story. Delia, like the snake, has come to life after the digestion of a time of clear cooperation. What had once been love was now “drowned in the salty stream that had been pressed from her heart. The question in which the conclusion of the story asks has to deal with Delia’s devotion to God and her religion. The difference about this confrontation though, was that Sykes did not strike Delia, as what usually happens. She has to make the decision of whether or not to save !

him. Not to huh he ain’t” (Hurston 681). Speaking about her husband, she states, “Whatever goes over the Devil’s back, is got to come under his belly. Negative conditions can be bearable enough that there will not be a thorough change in one’s life, but worse situations can have different effects. The fire behind her eyes could no longer be restricted by Sykes’ mistreatments and unfaithfulness. Sometimes a person is forced to make a change in the way they live their life in order to make it tolerable. She was singing a religious song as she entered her house to find that the snake was loose in the house.

Approximate Word count = 2134
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)

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