“Sweat” is a story written by Zora Neale Hurston, an American writer, in 1926, and it provides valuable insight into the daily life of African-Americans during this historical period. Delia, a young woman, works as a washer in white families, while Sykes, her abusive spouse, struggles to find any job, has a side affair, and hates serving the “supreme” race (Hurston). The wife and her husband are portrayed mostly through their intercommunication and reactions to the events. This paper aims to discuss character as an appropriate element of fiction to discuss the story and the author’s point of view.
Indeed, the relationship between Delia and Sykes is described throughout the story alongside their perception of being a racial minority representative in Florida in the early twentieth century. While the woman modestly works as a washer, her husband is jobless and demonstrates his misery through abusive behavior. The character of Delia reveals through her reactions to such events as being frightened by her husband’s joke with snakes and the thoughts that she has the power to eliminate this man from her life (Hurston). Furthermore, the washerwoman interacts with others in the community, and the dialogues with her employers and other women of color address her feministic mood. Over the course of the plot, Delia’s self-esteem enforces, and when her husband starts dying, she realizes that he does not deserve salvation (Hurston). Neither her nor Sykes’ appearance is described in detail because the characters are portrayed via their actions, moved by thoughts and instincts.
Sykes is portrayed as negative because the author uses the character to demonstrate women’s abuse, humiliation, and daily struggle. Their arguments mention his motivations to act violently, as he threatens Delia, who works hard to survive, by noting that she must not serve white people (Hurston). The story does not contain any background or root causes of Sykes’s miserable situation, leaving the reader less space to be sorry for the abusive man.
Work Cited
Hurston, Zora Neale. Sweat. Bibliokept, 2013. Web.