What Is The Theme Of Violence In Sweat By Zora Neale Hurston

Home, a place filled with love that shelters fear and pain from the outside world. However, some homes are the opposite of this due to some couples being in a toxic marriage, making home an unsafe environment to be in. An author named, Zora Neale-Hurston, wrote a short story called “Sweat”, which touches on the issue of violence in the home and the ways in which husbands disrespect their wives. The story was published in 1926, a time where it was normal for women would be beaten or verbally abused by their husbands. A wife was required to respect her husband, but many husbands did not give their wives respect in return. In “Sweat” the main character, Delia Jones is married to Sykes, who on a daily basis abuses her in more ways than one. Through …show more content…
Character development is crucial in the story because through developing the characters Neale is able to portray Sykes as the cruel husband and Delia as the wife who is wrongfully taken advantage of. The first interaction of Delia portrays her as a hard working women, whose job is to clean white people’s clothes. Also, it is said that she is a churchgoer, which paints her as a good christian woman (Neale-Hurston I). However, the first interaction with Sykes does not show him as a caring husband but as mean. He makes rude comments about her doing white people’s laundry and undoes her pile of laundry that she had neatly put together (Neale-Hurston I). Skyes is provoking Delia and looking for a fight, “ Don't gimme no lip neither, else Ah'll throw 'em out and put mah fist up side yo' head to boot,” this claim of his shows the level of anger and meanness he has within him towards his own wife (Neale-Hurston I). Some background is given of Sykes abuse towards Delia. He first struck her two months after they were married (Neale-Hurston I). The abuse must have gotten pretty violent in the past because during an argument between Sykes and her Delia grabs an iron skillet to fight him off in case he tries to hit her. Having Delia act …show more content…
She was on her feet; her poor little body, her bare knuckly hands bravely defying the strapping hulk before her,” she is gathering up courage to speak against her husband’s cruelty (Neale-Hurston III). Saying that “her meekness slipped off her shoulders like a scarf” was a detailed way to show that she is gaining courage. The relationship has also sucked all the happiness out of Delia’s life. To show this the narrator says, “Anything like flowers had long ago been drowned in the salty stream that had been pressed from her heart,” (Neale-Hurston I). When the author talks about Delias flowers being drowned in salt she is referencing the flowers to Delia’s joy she once had in life. Sykes in this reference is the salt that has ruined the things that use to bring her joy. Overall, Neale-Hurston does an impeccable job of adding detailed imagery, which makes it easy to relate and image the pain/hurt that Delia feels in her