Poem Analysis: Sweat By Zora Neal Hurston

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Marcellus Fairley Prof John Jackson ENG111 11/12/12 “Sweat” – Zora Neal Hurston “... You don't have to wait for someone to treat you bad repeatedly. All it takes is once, and if they get away with it that once, if they know they can treat you like that, then it sets the pattern for the future.” ― Jane Green Sometimes you might just want to kill him; your life becomes suddenly worthless each day she realizes that with each stroke of his painful words she becomes less than nothing, but something tells you that eventually it will subside. Throughout “Sweat” conflict with the married couple is increased. While Delia is a “good” woman and goes to church and works hard for the white people…show more content…
Sykes, on the other hand, is as evil as Delia is good. This is never more apparent when he answers Delia's question as to why he enjoys making her suffer: "'If you such a big fool dat you got to have a fit over a earth worm or a string, Ah don't keer how bad Ah skeer you'" (883). Unempathetic to the hardships and fears his wife endures, Sykes sees sport in all aspects of life, including frightening his wife. Abusive and unfaithful, Sykes doesn't care how his infidelity is seen not only by his wife but by the townspeople as well. His lack of morality and faith, his rejection in the belief of the same moral equanimity that Delia fosters in, frees him from the constraints of personal or communal responsibility. When the men around Joe Clarke's store porch gossip about Delia and Sykes, they all agree that men like Sykes operate on a law of morality that is all their own. As Clarke expostulates: "Taint no law on earth dat kin make a man be decent if it aint in 'im" (886). Syke's flouting of these "laws" locates him as a character of supreme evil, for, like the devil who also flouted God's law, Sykes pursues sex and women with equal fearlessness. His mistreatment of Delia also reveals his contempt for his wife and what she represents. Delia's goodness is an affront to Syke's evil, one that is an obstacle as much as it is a…show more content…
He is sleeping with another woman, Bertha, and he spends all of her hard-earned money buying her trite gifts. All that keeps her happy is the prospect of going to church and her well-maintained but small house. He comes back in around dawn and steals the covers. It is clear that this is a troubled household and that Delia’s patience with her abusive husband is going to have to have some kind of resolution. In an instance of foreshadowing, she thinking, “Oh well, whatever goes over the Devil’s back, is got to come under his belly”(39) which means that she knows eventually Skyes will get what’s coming to him. Delia sets out to do her washing and passes by a group of men sitting at a store. The tone and focus of “Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston changes for a while as the men comment on how pretty Delia used to be and how it’s such a shame that she’s beaten so often and lost her good looks. They talk about Syke’s behavior with the Bertha woman and generally frown upon him, with one saying, “There oughter be a law about him… He ain’t fit tuh carry guts tuh a bear.”(31) Clearly the whole town seems to have a negative reaction against Sykes. On her way back, Delia sees Sykes out front of Bertha’s telling her that he will buy her whatever she wants. “It pleased him for Delia to see.” The snake's evil parallels other imagery that is taken from Biblical text. After Delia discovers the snake in the basket.
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