Every day women are subjected to abuse and oppression at the hands of our male counterparts, a double standard that has been quietly swept under the rug by culture ever since the early days of man. “Sweat” by Zora Neale Huston, reopens the dialogue about the hostile treatment of women, through the story of Mrs. Delia Jones, an African American woman abused at the hands of her cheating husband. As she searches for a way out, Delia holds fast to her faith in God, desperately clinging to her belief of a salvation through Christ. Despite being written in 1926, the trials and tribulations that Delia must endure are accurate representations of the struggles modern women are still facing in the twenty-first century today. Delia’s story, centered around …show more content…
the theme that with strength comes hope, signifies that women can arise from even the darkest of hells, and it is through this message that the central storyline is created. It is often said that there is light to be seen, even at the end of the darkest tunnels.
But for Delia, her tunnel isn’t just dark, it’s pitch black with no signs of light to be found. Yet despite no ostensible path for escape, Delia creates the light on her own, through her faith in salvation and refusal to be pushed aside. The first indication of Delia’s unyielding strength was apparent early in the text. Having returned home from church, Delia had begun sorting the white folk’s weekly laundry, unsure of where her husband, Sykes, might have been at such an hour. Suddenly, barging into the room from seemingly nowhere comes Sykes, fuming about her laundering for white folks, and all the while ranting about how her work’s a sin against God. Small of frame and outmatched in weight, Delia gave a small scream as he began to trudge over the whitest pile of sorted clothing, impregnating them with the grime from his boots, daring her to fight back with every heavy step. In this moment, Delia made a choice, shedding her habitual meekness, she seized the iron skillet from the stove and struck a defensive pose, “Naw you won’t,” she panted, “Ah been married to you fur fifteen years, and Ah been takin’ in washin’ fur fifteen years. Sweat, sweat, sweat! Work and sweat, cry and sweat, pray and sweat!” (Hurston 565). Sykes, caught off guard by her defensive stance, hastily storms out of the house, leaving Delia alone, yet still shaken from the encounter. Unwilling to be pushed aside, Delia …show more content…
had mustered what little strength she had left to defend herself from her abusive husband, demonstrating her strength and will to endure, even when the easier option would have been to just give up and give in. Unfortunately, Delia’s few hours of hiatus are far from restful, with the nights earlier incident only further reminding her of all the years she had suffered and abuse she has had to endure under Sykes reign of terror, “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,” (Hurston 566). Unsure of where to turn, Delia resorts to her faith and the Bible in her hours of need, reminding herself of the path sinners all eventually follow, the path her husband would soon be walking. On this path, she thought, all sinners encounter the Devil, they might be missed by him the first time around, but in the end, they all eventually reap what they sow. Sykes would pay for his actions, she was sure God could promise her that. Finding strength from the Bible, Delia awakens the next morning with resolve in her heart, finding solace in the words of God and contentment in her work. Delia demonstrates the strength of women, the unmatched willpower and determination that allows one to keep going day in and day out, even with the plethora of pain suffered in the process. This is the pivotal moment, that one every story has, that changes the way Delia is viewed as a character. No longer is she the meek and unsure wife whose only comfort is her faith, but instead she is the woman who used her faith to help her stand up and defended herself against the man who wasn’t about to beat her one minute
more, she became the story of strength and hope. Yet even those clothed in Gods strength and hope, still suffer. After coming home one night after church, Delia noticed a latched soapbox on her back porch, immediately knowing something was awry. Sitting inside was a live rattlesnake. Swiftly, Sykes threw open the porch door, blocking Delia’s way into the house. Sneering like the Devil, he begins openly taunting Delia about letting the snake lose, threatening that her time is about to be brought to an end if she doesn’t submit to his will. Afraid but strong, Delia stands firm against his threats, channeling the lord to help her be brave and give her hope, as she confronted what might have been the Devil himself, “You done starved me an’ Ah put up widcher, you done beat me and Ah took dat, but you don kilt all mah insides bringin’ dat varmint heah.” (Hurston 569) With power radiating from her voice, Delia’s words, strengthened by her belief in God’s will, knocks a metaphorical blow to the man who stood before her, no longer her husband, but only the man who wanted her dead. As he left the porch enraged by her stance, moving slowly towards the road, he scorned back over his shoulder, “Dat snake ain’t goin’ no damn wheah till Ah gits ready fuh ‘im tuh go. So fur as beatin’ is concerned, yuh ain’t took near all dat you gointer take ef yuh stay around me.” (Hurston 569). Delia stood on the porch and watched him go, strong in her resolve, and confident that God had a plan. In the stance against her husband, Delia leads by example, showing other women that having confidence in oneself is the one of the first steps to finding the light at the end of the tunnel, the light that leads to hope. After arriving home from delivering the white folks laundry the next morning, Delia decided to glance at the rattler, only to find that the snake was nowhere to be found, the box left open, presumably by Sykes. But then she hears it, that subtle moving of the rattler, slowly emanating from her bedroom. Moving closer to the sound she peers into the room, finding the snake rattling right inside the laundry pile, the pile she worked in every single day. Her blood turns cold, iced over with the thought of Sykes murderous plot to kill her. Distraught with disbelief, she runs to the safety of her barn, praying to God that he might bring her some salvation from this life, and God delivered that very next morning. Awakened by the sound of rustling inside the house, Delia slowly descended from the barn and onto the side of the house. Peering inside the window, Delia could see the villainous snake whose plot to kill her would fail, and the other snake sleeping right below his feet. “Well, Ah done de bes’ Ah could. If things ain’t right, Gawd knows tain’t mah fault,” (Hurston 571) and that’s when she heard the blood curdling scream come from that villainous snake Sykes mouth, and she knew that the Devil himself had come back round for the sinner he had missed the first time. All sinners eventually reap what they sow, and for Sykes he was about to reap fifteen years of sinning in his own personal hell. Clinging to every thread of strength she had left, Delia forced herself to remain silent as Sykes cried out to her and God for help. All the terror, all the horror, all the rage that man could possibly express, without a recognizable human sound, and it was this that broke the chains that once held Delia (Hurston 572). The pity that she once might have felt for the bastard was gone, all that remained was the woman who had survived, and the faith that had saved her. And with that, Delia walked away from the window, knowing all the while God had had a plan for her. He had offered her the salvation she so desperately sought, and for the first time understood that she had God’s strength and the hope to continue on with her life. Mrs. Delia Jones is the embodiment of strength and hope, her story an inspiration that has spanned decades, and inspired women everywhere to be brave in the face of injustice. While she found her strength in God, Delia ultimately found her found her light at the end of her tunnel in her refusals to be pushed aside and crushed, by a man whose sins were greater than the Devil himself. It is this strength that shines through Hurston’s tale, making it not just a call to action against female abuse and oppression, but also an empowering memoir of the woman who suffered through her hell and back, but in the end, rose to her salvation, finding her own strength, and hope at the end of her tunnel.
The black women’s interaction with her oppressive environment during Revolutionary period or the antebellum America was the only way of her survival. Playing her role, and being part of her community that is not always pleasant takes a lot of courage, and optimism for better tomorrow. The autonomy of a slave women still existed even if most of her natural rights were taken. As opposed to her counterparts
This day in age, everything is always compared whether it is social status, racial problems, etc. A popular topic tends to be gender equality and the different things both male and females endure, such as the fact that it is a lot easier for men to get a high paying job compared to women. Along the same lines, their suffering is also compared. In Harriet Jacobs, “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,” Jacob’s shares her experiences as a slave, including the most traumatizing moments she went through. Although there is no doubt that every slave suffered greatly, women suffered the most during this time period; women went through sexual exploitation, psychological damage, and shame.
...lia Jones endured fifteen years of violence, disrespect, and infidelity, and only in those last few months was she able to muster some form of resistance. Until Sykes threatened all that she had, her home and her job, she was content enough just sweating it out. However, Sykes made that grave mistake on his own accord, and when leaving Delia with nothing to lose, he found that he had set himself up for a losing battle. Delia had surrendered to him in all those years, but Sykes had finally found a way to bring out the worst in his wife, and her aggression was finally realized by defending all that she had. After such pain and endurance, one can easily recognize how Delia Jones played the lead role in a short story called "Sweat."
The two works of literature nudging at the idea of women and their roles as domestic laborers were the works of Zora Neale Hurston in her short story “Sweat”, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper”. Whatever the setting may be, whether it is the 1920’s with a woman putting her blood, sweat and tears into her job to provide for herself and her husband, or the 1890’s where a new mother is forced to stay at home and not express herself to her full potential, women have been forced into these boxes of what is and is not acceptable to do as a woman working or living at home. “Sweat” and “The Yellow Wallpaper” draw attention to suppressing a woman’s freedom to work along with suppressing a woman’s freedom to act upon her
Laurence Hill’s novel, The Book of Negroes, uses first-person narrator to depict the whole life ofAminata Diallo, beginning with Bayo, a small village in West Africa, abducting from her family at eleven years old. She witnessed the death of her parents with her own eyes when she was stolen. She was then sent to America and began her slave life. She went through a lot: she lost her children and was informed that her husband was dead. At last she gained freedom again and became an abolitionist against the slave trade. This book uses slave narrative as its genre to present a powerful woman’s life.She was a slave, yes, but she was also an abolitionist. She always held hope in the heart, she resist her dehumanization.
In Zora Neale Hurston’s “Their Eyes Were Watching God” and “Sweat,” Hurston uses the characters Janie Crawford and Delia Jones to symbolize African-American women as the mules of the world and their only alternative were through their words, in order to illustrate the conditions women suffered and the actions they had to take to maintain or establish their self-esteem.
Society continually places restrictive standards on the female gender not only fifty years ago, but in today’s society as well. While many women have overcome many unfair prejudices and oppressions in the last fifty or so years, late nineteenth and early twentieth century women were forced to deal with a less understanding culture. In its various formulations, patriarchy posits men's traits and/or intentions as the cause of women's oppression. This way of thinking diverts attention from theorizing the social relations that place women in a disadvantageous position in every sphere of life and channels it towards men as the cause of women's oppression (Gimenez). Different people had many ways of voicing their opinions concerning gender inequalities amound women, including expressing their voices and opinions through their literature. By writing stories such as Daisy Miller and The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Henry James let readers understand and develop their own ideas on such a serious topic that took a major toll in American History. In this essay, I am going to compare Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” to James’ “Daisy Miller” as portraits of American women in peril and also the men that had a great influence.
1 In Zora Hurston's short story, "Sweat," [Titles] Delia Jones is married to a very dominant and powerful man. Skye [Sp] Jones is his name, and he is an abusive man who has no respect for Delia. Being married for fifteen years seems to be a lot for Delia, considering that she has only loved Skyes [Sp] for a short time after they were married. Living a life of fear and helplessness allows the dominant figure of that person's life to continue to have total control until the fall of that dominant figure. The theme of the story [This theme] can be supported by characterization, symbols, and setting.
Deborah Gray White’s Ar’n’t I a Woman? details the grueling experiences of the African American female slaves on Southern plantations. White resented the fact that African American women were nearly invisible throughout historical text, because many historians failed to see them as important contributors to America’s social, economic, or political development (3). Despite limited historical sources, she was determined to establish the African American woman as an intricate part of American history, and thus, White first published her novel in 1985. However, the novel has since been revised to include newly revealed sources that have been worked into the novel. Ar’n’t I a Woman? presents African American females’ struggle with race and gender through the years of slavery and Reconstruction. The novel also depicts the courage behind the female slave resistance to the sexual, racial, and psychological subjugation they faced at the hands of slave masters and their wives. The study argues that “slave women were not submissive, subordinate, or prudish and that they were not expected to be (22).” Essentially, White declares the unique and complex nature of the prejudices endured by African American females, and contends that the oppression of their community were unlike those of the black male or white female communities.
Harriet Jacobs describes several situations in which she was harassed, and abused physically, mentally and emotionally. “Slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women.” Women were abused physically
Zora Neale Hurston’s short story “Sweat” is about a woman, Delia, who is physically and emotionally abused by her husband, Sykes, whose actions she struggles to overcome. Through all the abuse, Delia takes pride in her hard work and her religion. In this story, Hurston uses religion and moral symbolism that controls the character’s actions throughout the plot. Delia is a hard working woman who uses her faith in God to guide and protect her from her husband’s physical and emotional abuse. She, as a protagonist, is physically weak but yet spiritually strong.
In 1861, Harriet Jacobs published her book “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.” The story is based in Southern United States of America during the time before Jacob escaped from slavery in 1835 (Reilly 649). Jacobs uses the name Linda Brent as a pseudonym (Reilly 649) and describes her experience as a female slave through a first person narration. The purpose of the selections featured in Kevin Reilly's, “Worlds of History,” is to show the victimization and emotional suffering female slaves feel against their white masters vs. the physical pain a male slave endures.
Delia, in this short story, demonstrates the agency that women have in the face of oppression, and the way they resist sexism and all of its economic and social implications.
In Harriet Jacobs Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, the author subjects the reader to a dystopian slave narrative based on a true story of a woman’s struggle for self-identity, self-preservation and freedom. This non-fictional personal account chronicles the journey of Harriet Jacobs (1813-1897) life of servitude and degradation in the state of North Carolina to the shackle-free promise land of liberty in the North. The reoccurring theme throughout that I strive to exploit is how the women’s sphere, known as the Cult of True Womanhood (Domesticity), is a corrupt concept that is full of white bias and privilege that has been compromised by the harsh oppression of slavery’s racial barrier. Women and the female race are falling for man’s
In today’s advanced societies, many laws require men and women to be treated equally. However, in many aspects of life they are still in a subordinated position. Women often do not have equal wages as the men in the same areas; they are still referred to as the “more vulnerable” sex and are highly influenced by men. Choosing my Extended Essay topic I wanted to investigate novels that depict stories in which we can see how exposed women are to the will of men surrounding them. I believe that as being woman I can learn from the way these characters overcome their limitations and become independent, fully liberated from their barriers. When I first saw the movie “Precious” (based on Sapphire’s “Push”) I was shocked at how unprotected the heroine, Precious, is towards society. She is an African-American teenage girl who struggles with accepting herself and her past, but the cruel “unwritten laws” of her time constantly prevent her rise until she becomes the part of a community that will empower her to triumph over her barriers. “The Color Purple” is a Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Alice Walker which tells the story of a black woman’s, Celie’s, striving for emancipation. (Whitted, 2004) These novels share a similar focus, the self-actualization of a multi-disadvantaged character who with the help of her surrounding will be able to triumph over her original status. In both “The Color Purple” and “Push”, the main characters are exposed to the desire of the men surrounding them, and are doubly vulnerable in society because not only are they women but they also belong to the African-American race, which embodies another barrier for them to emancipate in a world where the white race is still superior to, and more desired as theirs.