Sweat By Zora Neale Hurston Analysis
Eatonville does not sound anything like Eden, but Zora Neale Hurston’s short story, “Sweat” still brings to mind the Garden of Eden. Maybe it is the title, “Sweat,” that brings to mind Genesis 3:19, “By the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat…” Or it might be the snake that makes it reflect the Biblical Fall. It is not a mirror image of course. Delia is not Eve, and Sykes is not Adam. In fact, Sykes seems more like the serpent. Sykes is a callous, brutal, vain, and worthless man.
Sykes is an insensitive man who does not care about Delia’s feelings. For example, Sykes knows that snakes terrify Delia and yet he takes great pleasure in using this fear against her. He throws his bull whip at her knowing that she will think it is a snake. When she confronts him saying that he knew that it would scare her he says, “Course Ah know it! That’s how come Ah done it. If you such a big fool …show more content…
dat you got to have a fit over a earth worm or string, Ah don’t keer how bad Ah skeer you.” (353) Sykes is so callous towards his wife and her fear of snakes that he catches a rattlesnake and brings it home in a box as a “gift.” When she demands that he take the snake away, he tells her, “A whole like Ah keer ‘bout how you feels inside uh out. Dat snake aint goin’ no damn wheah till Ah gits ready fuh ‘im tuh go” (358). He even puts the rattler in her clothes hamper while she is at church on Sunday, knowing that when she gets home from church she will sort out her clothes as she does every Sunday night.
Sykes is not a man; he is a brutal bully who is shocked by anyone standing up to him. When Delia stands up to him after meekly taking his abuse for fifteen years, he does not know how to take it. “It cowed him and he did not strike her as he usually did” (354). Sykes was stunned by Delia standing up to him, and as the bully he was, he backed down and left. During the time period covered by the story, Sykes never actually hits Delia. He just threatens to.
Hurston tells the reader that Sykes has beaten Delia for fifteen years, and the men sitting on the front porch of Joe Clarke’s store also comment on how Delia used to be pretty before she married Sykes. Elijah Mosely even tells the other men, “He done beat huh ‘nough tuh kill three women, let ‘lone change they looks” (355).
At this point, the men’s talk turns from Delia to Sykes, and they talk about his arrogance. From this discussion, the reader learns that Sykes is vain. “He allus wux uh ovahbearnin’ niggah, but since dat white ‘oman from up North done teached ‘im how to run a automobile, he done got too bigetty to live—an’ we oughter kill ‘im,” Old Man Anderson advises (355). In addition to the conversation between the men, the reader can also tell that Sykes thinks that he is superior from the way that he speaks to the other men. After Sykes catches the rattlesnake and brings it home, the people from the village begin asking him questions like how he did he catch it. “Ah’m a snake charmer an knows how tu handle ‘em.” Sykes tells Thomas (357). When Walt suggests that he should kill the rattlesnake, Sykes tells him, “Naw, Walt, y’ll jes’ don’t understand dese diamon’ baks lak Ah do” (357).
While Sykes may think that he is better than the other men, they think that he is worthless.
When the men on the porch of Joe Clark’s store see Delia delivering the laundry that she has washed, Joe Lindsey comments on how dependable Delia is and how hard she works. Moss agrees saying, “She better if she wanter eat. Syke Jones aint wuth de shot an’ powder hit would tek tuh kill ‘em” (355). Lindsay seconds this by saying, “There oughter be a law about him. He aint fit tuh carry guts tuh a bear” (355). Joe Clark agrees that Sykes is worthless, but he tells the men, “Taint no law on earth dat kin make a man be decent if it aint in ‘im” (355). It is Sykes’s callousness, brutality, and vanity that make him worthless. His insensitivity to Delia whose blood, sweat, and tears have fed and provided for him that makes him worse than useless to her. The brutal beatings he gave her have destroyed her beauty, and his constant affairs have made their marriage meaningless. His pride in being a snake charmer backfires on him in the end, when the snake he placed in Delia’s laundry basket bites and kills
him.
Sykes is callous, brutal, vain and worthless and destroys any chance that he might have had in making the home he shared with Delia anything like the Garden of Eden. He has been the cause of his own fall by catching a rattlesnake and bringing it home. While Delia is not Eve, and Sykes is not Adam, their story does seem to parallel the Biblical Fall.
Sykes is an insensitive man who does not care about Delia’s feelings. For example, Sykes knows that snakes terrify Delia and yet he takes great pleasure in using this fear against her. He throws his bull whip at her knowing that she will think it is a snake. When she confronts him saying that he knew that it would scare her he says, “Course Ah know it! That’s how come Ah done it. If you such a big fool …show more content…
dat you got to have a fit over a earth worm or string, Ah don’t keer how bad Ah skeer you.” (353) Sykes is so callous towards his wife and her fear of snakes that he catches a rattlesnake and brings it home in a box as a “gift.” When she demands that he take the snake away, he tells her, “A whole like Ah keer ‘bout how you feels inside uh out. Dat snake aint goin’ no damn wheah till Ah gits ready fuh ‘im tuh go” (358). He even puts the rattler in her clothes hamper while she is at church on Sunday, knowing that when she gets home from church she will sort out her clothes as she does every Sunday night.
Sykes is not a man; he is a brutal bully who is shocked by anyone standing up to him. When Delia stands up to him after meekly taking his abuse for fifteen years, he does not know how to take it. “It cowed him and he did not strike her as he usually did” (354). Sykes was stunned by Delia standing up to him, and as the bully he was, he backed down and left. During the time period covered by the story, Sykes never actually hits Delia. He just threatens to.
Hurston tells the reader that Sykes has beaten Delia for fifteen years, and the men sitting on the front porch of Joe Clarke’s store also comment on how Delia used to be pretty before she married Sykes. Elijah Mosely even tells the other men, “He done beat huh ‘nough tuh kill three women, let ‘lone change they looks” (355).
At this point, the men’s talk turns from Delia to Sykes, and they talk about his arrogance. From this discussion, the reader learns that Sykes is vain. “He allus wux uh ovahbearnin’ niggah, but since dat white ‘oman from up North done teached ‘im how to run a automobile, he done got too bigetty to live—an’ we oughter kill ‘im,” Old Man Anderson advises (355). In addition to the conversation between the men, the reader can also tell that Sykes thinks that he is superior from the way that he speaks to the other men. After Sykes catches the rattlesnake and brings it home, the people from the village begin asking him questions like how he did he catch it. “Ah’m a snake charmer an knows how tu handle ‘em.” Sykes tells Thomas (357). When Walt suggests that he should kill the rattlesnake, Sykes tells him, “Naw, Walt, y’ll jes’ don’t understand dese diamon’ baks lak Ah do” (357).
While Sykes may think that he is better than the other men, they think that he is worthless.
When the men on the porch of Joe Clark’s store see Delia delivering the laundry that she has washed, Joe Lindsey comments on how dependable Delia is and how hard she works. Moss agrees saying, “She better if she wanter eat. Syke Jones aint wuth de shot an’ powder hit would tek tuh kill ‘em” (355). Lindsay seconds this by saying, “There oughter be a law about him. He aint fit tuh carry guts tuh a bear” (355). Joe Clark agrees that Sykes is worthless, but he tells the men, “Taint no law on earth dat kin make a man be decent if it aint in ‘im” (355). It is Sykes’s callousness, brutality, and vanity that make him worthless. His insensitivity to Delia whose blood, sweat, and tears have fed and provided for him that makes him worse than useless to her. The brutal beatings he gave her have destroyed her beauty, and his constant affairs have made their marriage meaningless. His pride in being a snake charmer backfires on him in the end, when the snake he placed in Delia’s laundry basket bites and kills
him.
Sykes is callous, brutal, vain and worthless and destroys any chance that he might have had in making the home he shared with Delia anything like the Garden of Eden. He has been the cause of his own fall by catching a rattlesnake and bringing it home. While Delia is not Eve, and Sykes is not Adam, their story does seem to parallel the Biblical Fall.