Sweat by Zora Neale Hurston

"Sweat" by Zora Neale Hurston takes place in Florida during the spring time, most likely in the early 1900's. The main characters in the story are Sykes and Delia Jones who have been married for 15 years. The marriage was far from desirable. Sykes brought home little money, left Delia at times to go on trips with out her, was physically and verbally abusive to her, and had recently acquired a mistress named Bertha. Sykes constantly yelled at Delia for washing clothes for "the white people." This was Delia's job and apparently she made more money than Sykes ever made at his job, however, Sykes did not let this stop him from harassing Delia about it. The divide between the couple only worsened as time went on, until Sykes unknowingly brought home a catalyst for a horrible future. Sykes brought home a 6 foot rattle snake to scare Delia which of course it did. His pampas speeches about how the snake would stay in the house until he decided otherwise foreshadowed his demise. One day after a huge argument with Delia he returned home to a dark house. Somehow in his fumbling about in the dark he was bitten by the snake. Delia was close enough to try and help him but decided instead to simply let him die in the house because she was fed up with his demeaning, volatile behavior. This story's central theme denounces spousal abuse and being overly indulgent. Sykes abuse towards his wife left him helpless and dieing at the end of the story. Also, he brought the snake bite on himself by leaving the snake in the house, against Delia's wishes, in the first place. I enjoyed the overall plot of the story particularly how Sykes' demoralizing of Delia eventually led to his downfall. At times I was at odds with the dialect the story was written, however, I found it overall different and enjoyable. I found long stretches of this unfamiliar dialogue became difficult to understand but made the conversations, and thereby the story, more believable.