...“What Is the Theme of ‘Sweat’ by Zora N. Hurston?” What Is the Theme of "Sweat" by Zora N. Hurston? | Education - Seattle PI, Hearst Seattle Media, LLC, 21 Nov. 2017, education.seattlepi.com/theme-sweat-zora-n-hurston-6714.html. This text talks about the great virtue of hard work possessed by Delia, who continually “breaks her back” to make ends meet for her family. This text associates Delia’s character with the symbol of virtue and purity which is evident in her religious commitment to church. The text also describes Delia’s struggle and pain inflicted by her husband Sykes and likens this to the universal motif of the struggle between “good and evil” where good always triumphs over evil. In my opinion this source correctly categorizes...
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...Analysis of “Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston Western Governors University Humanities C100 July 19, 2015 Analysis of “Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston Initial Reaction I suppose my initial reaction to “Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston was one of disgust. The story shows “Delia’s” husband “Sykes” to be both physically and psychologically abusive as well as an adulterer. “Sykes” shows no respect for his wife, their marriage or the work she does. “Delia” works every day, and all her hard work pays for their home and puts food on the table. I found this to be most evident in this line “Mah tub of suds is filled yo' belly with vittles more times than yo' hands is filled it. Mah sweat is done paid for this house and Ah reckon Ah kin keep on sweatin' in it" (Hurston, 1926, p. 46). I found it very interesting that “Delia” has stayed with “Sykes” for 15 years despite his abusiveness and apparent failure to provide a stable income for them. I enjoyed that “Delia” finally decided to stand up to her abusive husband. By his initial reaction when “Delia” threatened him with a frying pan, you can see the “Sykes” is nothing but a bully. This is also made apparent by the way the gentlemen in the store were talking about him, even thinking of murdering him, but ceased their bravado when “Sykes” showed up at the store with his girlfriend (Hurston, 1926). Analysis Hurston’s short story was written in 1926 and given the obstacles of African Americans during that time it’s amazing it was...
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...Literary Analysis of “Sweat” and “Sonny’s Blues” Amelia Williams ENG125: Introduction to Literature Instructor: Deborah Zeringue December 22, 2014 As living and breathing human beings people are bound to experience some type of conflict. Conflict can be present within a person, between two people, between a person and forces of nature, and even between a person and their society. Conflict is defined as the struggle that shapes the plot in a story (Clugston, 2014, ch.4sect.1 para.4). When reading a piece of literature, especially a short story, one should pay special attention to the central conflict because it is the key element of the story (Clugston, 2014). This essay will analyze “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin and “Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston in terms of individual versus individual, nature, society, and self, symbolism, figurative language, similarities and differences. In the short stories “Sonny’s Blues” and “Sweat” both of the main characters deal with an internal conflict of some sort. Sonny in Sonny’s Blues has to refrain from turning back to drugs after his release from prison; he is also facing the piano again after not playing for a year. Delia, on the other hand has to live with an abusive, cheating husband that “done beat huh ‘nough tuh kill three women” (Hurston, 1926, para. 24). In both texts the main characters are described as humble people, for example in “Sweat,” the author writes “Delia’s habitual meekness seemed to slip from her shoulders...
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...Company’s production of Spunk: Three Tales by Zora Neale Hurston at the 14th Street Playhouse on September 25, 2013, presented the audience with a very culturally embellished version of Hurston’s original three tales: “Sweat,” “Story in Harlem Slang,” and “The Gilded Six Bits.” Zora Neale Hurston strived to portray the reality of life as an African American in the early 1900s through native dialect in her short stories and novels. Her most notable production, Their Eyes Were Watching God, is a prime example of her effort to illustrate the life of the everyday Negro in search of a better life. Each of the short stories portrays a different, yet comparable view on African American culture in separate areas of the United States. Director Hilda Willis depicts this play, adapted by George C. Wolfe, in the most literal variation of Hurston’s original stories; the actors from True Colors Theatre Company perform the short stories verbatim. This production is energized with selections of blues music to help the audience feel the attitude of the era in which the play occurs. Wolfe’s adaptation of Hurston’s Spunk infused the original three short stories with delineative and characteristic blues music, highlighting the mood during the era of the Harlem Renaissance and Black Migration. “Sweat” tells the story of a woman named Delia who suffers in an abusive relationship with her husband, Sykes. Her husband tries multiple methods of coercing Delia to leave, including verbal abuse and bringing...
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...Man VS. Woman: A Literary Analysis Of Conflicts In Two Stories Gena Jones ENG125: Introduction To Literature Instructor: Denya Ciuffo August 31, 2015 Man VS. Woman: A Literary Analysis Of Conflicts In Two Stories In the short stories “Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston and “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway, there is a very similar conflict of Individual vs. Individual between the men and the women that represents the constant struggle for power in the human relationship. While “Sweat” allows us to see the resolution of conflicts by the end of the story, “Hills Like White Elephants” presents us with these conflicts and does not really give us clear resolution in the end. Imagery and epiphany are techniques used in both stories to give the reader more detail as to the nature of the conflict. Plot as a literary technique is present in “Sweat,” but absent in “Hills Like White Elephants” and this has an impact on the understanding and resolution of conflict in both stories as well. Through careful analysis, I will demonstrate how plot, imagery, and epiphany as literary techniques give depth and meaning to the conflict of Individual vs. Individual in both “Sweat” and “Hills Like White Elephants. In the short story “Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston, we see a conflict between a lazy man and his hard-working wife. “Sweat” is about a woman named Delia Jones who picks up and launders other people’s clothes to make a living, while her husband lives off of the money she makes...
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...In her 1926 short story “Sweat” Zora Neale Hurston crafts an exploration of the strength of African-American femininity. This concept of hers is the beating heart of her story, yet it is so low profile that it is hardly heard. It is whispering when it could rightly yell, it is working for peace when it seemingly ought to rage. Yet, through her take on the archetype of the battered-yet-loyal wife, an archetype present in the mediums of literature, theater, and film, Hurston achieves a depiction of strength without violence. Hurston’s “Delia” is a giver, not a taker, and though at times caught between the conflict the two roles, Hurston endows her with the moral strength to be true to herself. However, Hurston does not make this an easy task....
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...In the short story "Sweat" by Zora Neale Hurston the main character, Delia Jones, is an exhausted black woman. Delia works hard to support her adulterous husband and herself by working for white folk' as a wash woman. During this time period women are designated house wives and men were supposed to be the providers. Throughout the story the readers can see that black women have no power and are transparent to society and to their husbands. The theme for "Sweat" by Zora Neale Hurston is marriage. Delia has been married to her husband Sykes for 15 years; she received her first beating two months after they married. The reader my question 'why she hasn’t left him after being beaten for 15 years'? The answer to this is simply because leaving your husband is considered taboo in society during that time. So, instead she takes his beatings because that is how a woman shows she is a good wife. If he gets upset enough to beat her, she obviously provoked him. "Well, you better quit gittin' me riled...
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...“Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston is filled with many religious symbolism. Good versus evil plays a large role in the development of Delia and Skype Jones, as characters. The story is about Delia, an African American woman who is a washwoman for whites. Delia consistently looks to her religion for guidance and support as she endures the many hardships that she faces because, which are caused by her abusive husband and unfaithful husband, Sykes. Delia and Sykes Jones is a couple that have opposite moral values, but yet they are tied together through marital vows, that no longer have much importance or value. Delia Jones is portrayed as the Protagonist and a very modest woman of weakness who later gains the strength to stand u to her abusive husband Skyes. Delia looks to God and her religion to help her build the strength she needs, so she can continue to be protected from her husband who is both physically and emotionally abusive to her. However, Sykes Jones, is every bit the opposite of Delia Jones. He has neither religious values nor any important moral standards. He is an adulterous, who takes Delia’s hard working money, and spends not on his wife but on his mistress Bertha. Delia who relies solely on her faith and continues to stay contempt, no matter how her husband treats her, but Delia warned him that in the end, Sykes “sometime or ruther, Sykes, like everybody else, is gointer reap his sowing (par. 26).” The white clothes that Delia washes are a symbol of Delia’s...
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...In Angelina Weld Grimke’s “The Closing Door”, Jessie Redmon Fauset’s “The Sleeper Wakes”, and Zora Neale Hurston’s “Sweat”, the roles most often appear to have men as dominant, or in charge, figures. However, the typical view of the male figure being dominant and the female being submissive may not be quite as distinct in the above three texts, as first thought. It is even possible that the roles of the dominant and submissive parts are actually switched. The following will show how both the male/female and dominant/submissive combinations may be interchangeable, depending on which aspects are considered. In the stories “The Closing Door”, “The Sleeper Wakes”, and “Sweat”, male figures appear to be the ones that are in control, or dominant, in the situations. The women take direction from men. Throughout their stories it is pervasive that society is male dominated. Although there are many similarities between the stories in this regard, some of the differences are due to social, economic, physical, and moral divisions. These divisions, or aspects, become important in how one may look at domination in these stories. In the story “The Closing Door” by Angelina Weld Grimke, the two divisions that become important in respect to who controls things are physical and economic. Grimke describes the male character, Jim Milton, as being a “brown, good-natured giant” and also “He would reach her, it seemed, in one stride and would pick her up bodily, apron, money and all” (Grimke 94)...
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...Analysis of Two Short Stories Laura Cutler Ashford University Introduction to Literature ENG125 Instructor Rivera March 2, 2015 Analysis of Two Short Stories A literary analysis is important to assist a reader in knowing how or why an author writes a particular piece of literature, whether it is a poem, short story, novel , play, informational piece, etc. and then have the ability to relate to it as an individual. In the short stories 'Sweat' and 'Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been' the characters are from different walks of life, they both encounter conflict of: individual versus self, individual versus individual and individual versus society; many literary devices create theses stories that include the author's point of view, the conflicts that arise throughout and the resolution that takes place in the endpoint of view, the conflicts that arise throughout and the resolution that takes place in the end. The theme to any piece of literature is the basis for the whole story, in 'Sweat' and 'Where are Going, Where Have You Been' the story is centered primarily on one individual and what they each go through to survive an abusive/violent situation. The theme involves the survival of an individual through: external and external factors, that include the influence of society and the issue of class; sexuality of a women and men and the men's masculinity; suffering and the struggles that deal with violence, both physical and mental; family and religion....
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...In between, in the short story of “Sweat” written the Phenomenal Zora Neale Hurston there was a silence character named “Bertha”. Hurston depicted Bertha as the other women to Delia’s troublesome relationship with her husband Sikes. Even though Bertha is a silence character throughout the short story. She holds an important key role in the novel. Particularly, in the story the love triangle relationship can be tie in with slavery. When our African men had more one women as their mistress. And it still exist to today to where we have cheating men. Furthermore, Sikes had so much authority over the towns people, that the author states that “Sykes reminding Bertha that this was his town and she could have it if she wanted it”. (1036) Also Hurston...
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...Over the course of this class and reading black literature from the Renaissance, from Authors such as Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston, I have noticed a theme that has a reoccurring pattern. The pattern consist of the African American women had not being completely emancipated in small towns. From slavery to this present day, African American women are given impossible and uncomfortable tasks such as; keeping their families together, maintaining their own sanity despite being treated like chattel, and to support their men who is denied key ingredients such as masculinity, due to what slave owners had done to the black man’s wife and daughter. Upon slavery ending it was impossible for just a man to care for the family with just one job...
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...When reading a novel or a short story, the question on why the author creates particular characters will come to mind. There can be significant traits the character possesses that the reader should recognize automatically throughout the story. In other words, characters in a story are one of the main key points that help a reader fully understand the context that the author has written about. Characteristics throughout a story assist with painting the image inside the readers head on the time, surrounding, and appearance of a character. In the Necklace, by Guy De Maupassant character development is illustrated. Character development is an essential element that authors use throughout their stories to make the character become more realistic to their audience. There are several factors that make up the development of a character such as action, setting, and descriptions. Having these factors of character development identified while reading a story can make the text become more realistic to the readers eyes. A characters description is very important when developing a story. For an example, in the short story Sweat by Zora Neal Hurston, the protagonist Delia physical appearance is greatly expresses within the story. Hurston describes Delia as a southern African American washer woman who is so skinny that her legs resemble a chicken’s, and is physically drain from all the hard work she does around her house. Delia physical appearance is not beautiful, because she endures physical...
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...Flint because she was suspected to be sexually involved with her husband, made her even weaker and defenseless. I felt the same hatred and jealousy from the woman who was the mother of my ex-boyfriend’s kid. She was obsessed with me. She was always trying to find a way to separate us. I didn’t understand why she was so enraged with me, because I never did something to her, however, it could have existed the possibility that they were still together. I was a kind of mistress that her partner had seduced due to I was more confident, prettier and younger than her. After months of maltreatment I had to go a step further. Just like Delia in “Sweat” did, I defended myself from the aggressive man, taking whatever I had nearby. This action was out of character within Delia’s story, and I was also for me. When the man saw Delia’s action to defend herself, shocked, he stepped back and left instead of hitting her. Similar to my experience, I had to fight back. When my ex-boyfriend saw my action of defense, he also stepped back, stunned, he left the...
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