Symbolism In Zora Neale Hurston's Sweat

Zora Neale Hurston’s short story, “Sweat,” depicts the story of Delia, a washerwoman who is physically abused by her husband, Sykes. As Hurston explains, Delia is a strong hardworking woman that brings in the money to her home and that she has been able to provide for her and for her husband. Sykes on the other hand, is a man that depends on Delia to provide for him. He even has the decency to pay for his mistress’s apartment. He messes with her to bring her down so he can be able to bring himself up because it seems as if his masculinity is lowered. Hurston uses symbols throughout her story to portray the theme of domestic abuse that Delia faces. The three main symbols are the snake, the clothes Delia washes, and the chinaberry tree. All three symbols play an important role in this story to …show more content…
Sykes takes advantage of Delia’s fear of worms and snakes. Sykes’s believes that he holds the power to control them. He deceives her with a whip to frighten her to death as Hurston described, “Just then something long, round, limp and black fell upon her shoulders and slithered to the floor beside her. A great terror took a hold of her. It softened her knees and dried her mouth so that it was a full minute before she could cry out or move.” (Hurston 621). He did this to demonstrate his power over her. Later on in the story, Sykes was able to catch a rattlesnake and brought it home. Even after Delia pleads him to get rid of it, he decides to leave it there at the house. When the rattlesnake was first brought to the house, it was digesting a rat that it had just eaten so it was silent at first. As the days passed, the snake began to rattle persistently as it grew hungrier, a foreshadowing of trouble. When he released the snake from the box, he gave it free reign around the house in order to get rid of Delia; except that the only thing he did was prepare the scene for his own