Zora Neal Hurston Case

As Zora Neale Hurston’s short story, Sweat, begins , the reader is introduced to the protagonist, Delia, as she is sifting through clothes on a spring night in Florida in her home. The main character is a washerwoman and has a habit of working into the wee hours on Sunday night’s to get a head start on her week after she has attended Sunday Service. Intriguingly, right off the bat we get a sense of Delia’s demeanor as demonstrate through the following, “She squatted on the kitchen floor … and humming a song in a mournful key.”(378). As she ponders her husband’s whereabouts, she feels something like a snake tingling her shoulders and screams, only to look up and see her husband towering over her with the bull whip he used on cattle drives. This is quite a repugnant image and already, the reader should take note that this image is not accidental. As the story unfolds the reader begins to understand how much of a compelling and oppressive figure Delia’s husband ,Sykes, really is .

Sykes is financially dependent upon his wife (due to the fact that he gambles all his money away) and that makes him furious, furious enough to want to punish Deliah, and even kill her. Though Delia's situation is not an upbeat one, it unfortunately is not rare sight in the town. Sadly enough, any man can possess a heart as dark as Sykes’. Throughout the story, the other men in town describe the sort of man they believe Sykes to be: "There's plenty men dat takes a wife lak dey do a joint uh sugar-cane. It's round, juicy an' sweet when dey gits it. But dey squeeze an' grind, squeeze an' grind an' wring tell dey wring every drop uh pleasure dat's in 'em out. When dey's satisfied dat dey is wrung dry, dey treats 'em jes lak dey do a cane-chew. Dey throws em away" (381).What was also interesting in the story was that all the men knew of Sykes oppressive behavior yet they did not do a single thing to stop him. From this, I think that Zora Neal Hurston was commenting on how the patriarchal society’s influence