“sweat“ By Zora Neale Hurston

4 Pages 876 Words

The short story entitled Sweat illustrated a common social problem that plagued pre-21st century America, which was domestic violence. Sweat takes shape within a middle-aged married black couple, consisting of a disgruntled man named Sykes and his hard-working wife named Delia. This was an unhappy marriage only kept together because Sykes had no means of income and had to economically depend upon his wife. Delia only stayed with Sykes because she feared him due to his physical and emotional abuse of her. A reason behind Sykes’ abuse of Delia is likely his belief that instilling fear upon Delia will keep her from leaving him. Another reason could be the fact that he is not the breadwinner of his home. Therefore, Sykes takes out his jealousy on Delia. Sykes feels that Delia’s hard work, coupled with his lack there of, threatens his masculinity. Sykes will do anything to feel more powerful than his wife, even bring home a snake, which he thinks would scare his wife into submission or subordination.

Early in the story Sykes scares his wife by stroking her gently with a leather whip, making her think it’s a snake. Early on we can see that Delia is deathly afraid of snakes and Sykes gets his kicks and self-satisfaction from scaring his wife. This event foreshadows later events in the book that deal with snakes and fear. This event also serves as means of proof that Sykes scares his wife into submission because he is jealous of her.

Another event that showed Sykes’ jealousy of Delia is when he heckles her about her job of washing clothes. “I’ve done told you time and again to keep those white folks clothes out of this house”, Sykes would say. He says this despite knowing the fact that Delia’s clothes washing was their only means of income. This is then illustrated by Delia’s comment, “My tubs of suds has filled your belly more than your own hands have. My sweat has done paid for this house you live in”. Sykes im...