Sample Essay On Sweat By Zora Neale Hurston

In the short Story Sweat, Zora Neale Hurston presents a case of a family drama between and husband and a wife. In the story, Zora presents a hardworking Delia and a lazy, insensitive husband, Sykes. Delia washes the clothes and does all the other chores in the house while Sykes goes out riding a horse. When Sykes comes back, he decides to scare her with the bull whip that he throws to her as she washes clothes. Sykes knew very well that Delia fears snakes very much. Sykes cheats with another woman something that does not go well with Delia. He even beats her, not once but often. Delia and Sykes do not have any meaningful conversation in the house. Such situation makes their relationship worse as days go on; Sykes becomes more torturous than before. In the story, it is clear the male chauvinism dominates the female-male relationship. They squeeze all the juice from women and dump then just as a dry remnants of sugarcane something that Sykes seems to have perfected. Sykes mistreatments of Delia are so extreme that he even brought a rattle snake in the house to scare and torment her emotionally. He even slept out as many times he wished coming in early in the morning to pull the cover off her.
I think that Delia should have divorced Sykes soon after the first beating in their marriage. The fact that he repeatedly beat her is sickening to imagine how long a woman ought to hold on to an abusive husband. Cheating and physical assault forms enough grounds to file a divorce. Her naïve nature and hard work could allow Sykes to mistreat her with impunity. Nevertheless, her toil is unnecessary for unresponsive husband. The society ought to stand up for women in Delia’s shoes.