Term Paper on Sweat
By Zora Neale Hurston
Summary
This is a story about a woman named Delia, married to Sykes. Delia is the one
who earns for both of them. Sykes not only does not work, he loathes his wife of
fifteen years and flaunts around with his mistress. Delia is a washwoman and she
puts her sweat and blood into her the laundry. She would collect the dirty
clothes from people around the town, riding on her pony. Saturday night was the
delivery of the fresh laundry and the collection of dirty ones. Sunday night,
after church Delia would sort the clothes out according to color, in preparation
for the Monday wash.
The story starts of on a Sunday night when Delia is busy sorting the clothes.
Her obnoxious husband comes in and scares her with his whip. He knows very well
that she is afraid of snakes and he just tortures her this way. The story moves
on and paints a picture of how Sykes tortures Delia emotionally about her work.
Delia reminisces about her life with Sykes. How she wanted to love him and all
he wanted was her body. She had suffered physical abuse at his hands just two
months into the marriage. He gambled away all his money just one year into the
marriage. Now, he had a lover, Bertha.. They both went around town shamelessly.
Sykes promised Bertha that he would get rid of Delia and then she would move in
with her.
In order to annoy Delia further, Sykes shows up with a six-foot rattlesnake one
day and despite Delia’s pleas, he insists on keeping the creature in the house.
She bears with it but she is very close to losing her wits. She stands up to
Sykes and tells him that she loathes him and that she was finally going to get
rid of him. The next day when she came back from her trip around town, she was
oblivious to the fact that her husband had plotted to kill her. Sykes had left
the snake in her hamper and she barely managed to escape the creature’s deadly
assault. She spends the night outside and when Sykes comes home in the morning,
he is the one who gets bitten and dies, knowing that his wife knew what he had
planned.
Personal Opinion
I personally believe that it makes for good reading as it highlights the
struggles of a woman and her triumph over her abusive husband. Reading out loud
may help with the dialect.
Works Cited
Hurston, Zora Neale. The Oxford Book of American Short Stories. Ed. Joyce Carol
Oates. Oxford University Press: London, Oxford, 1992. 353-364.
Order Your
Custom Term Papers, College Essays and Research Papers
