Gender Roles In Zora Neale Hurston's Sweat

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The short story Sweat by Zora Neale Hurston takes place during the Spring season in Florida, where the main character Delia Jane is sorting piles of clothes that she has to wash on a late Sunday night. Unlike her husband, Sykes, Delia Jane is a hard working woman who has reversed their gender roles and taken Sykes stereotypical male role of being the main economic provider of their home that result with Sykes being abusive towards her. He feels emasculated by not being able to provide any economic aid to their house expenses and is constantly exaggerating his masculinity to overcompensate for his inability to control Delia Jane by always referring to their home as his property. He tries to discourage Delia Jane from working by calling her a …show more content…
187). I interpret Sykes taking away her beauty as the cause of their role reversal, where Delia Jane evolved from the cultured sex role women had occupied, where they were expected to be submissive to their husbands to the self-assured woman Delia Jane had become. She changed, “the normative expectations attached to working as a gendered determined the climate allocation,” (West and Zimmerman, 2014, pg. 131). As the months progressed Sykes continued to pay for Bertha’s expenses with the money Delia Jane has earned, where he would act lovely towards her and offered to give her Delia Jane’s home, Delia Jane on the other hand had been avoided all of the villagers in hopes of avoiding all of the murmuring by the villagers or running into Bertha. However, one-day Bertha showed up to their home to call for Sykes. Delia Jane and Sykes at this point were in a state of constant animosity where they could not stand one another that resulted with Sykes leaving a snake in a soapbox for Delia Jane to find in hopes id scaring always Delia Jane from their home. Sykes stated that he wouldn’t do anything to protect her from the snake or remove it from their home, “Ah ain’t got tuh fo nuthin’ uh’ are kin’ fact is ah

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