Freestyle Blog

The story I chose to read this week was “Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston. The story is about a woman who works very, very hard and is recognized by the public for her hard work; though she only washes the white people’s clothes, there is so much that it takes her all week to do. She supports her husband, who does nothing but beats her and cheats on her. Delia, the main character, is deathly afraid of snakes and her husband, Syke, always tries to scare her because he has an unexplainable hate for the woman. I chose two quotes, the first being:

“Too much knockin’ will ruin any ‘oman. He done beat huh ‘nough tuh kill three women, let ‘lone change they looks,” said Elijah Moseley. “How Syke kin stommuck dat big black greasy Mogul he’s layin’ roun’ wid, gets me. Ah swear dat eightrock couldn’t kiss a sardine can Ah done thowed out de back do’ ‘way las’ yeah.”
(Hurston, 354)

The dialogue in the story is a little difficult to read, but this is significant the story because it indicates that everybody in the village knows that he beats his wife and cheats on her. This section of the story also talks about how beautiful she used to be and how hard she works, as well as discussing how awful Syke is. Nobody in the village likes him; even this group of men talking wants to kill him and the women he’s currently seeing. The second quote I chose is:

“She saw him on his hands and knees as soon as she reached the door. He crept an inch or two toward her—all that he was able, and she saw his horribly swollen neck and his one open eye shining with hope. A surge of pity too strong to support bore her away from that eye that must, could not, fail to see the tubs…she could scarcely reach the chinaberry tree, where she waited in the growing heat while inside she knew the cold river was creeping up and up to extinguish that eye which must know by now that she knew.”

In the end of the story, Delia goes home after church to do her work. Syke isn’t there, which she thinks nothing of and is even grateful for. She also notices that the huge rattlesnake, which Skye had been keeping in a cage near the kitchen door to frighten her, is quiet for once. She doesn’t think of this, either, and opens her clothes basket. The giant snake crawls out of the basket; in fear, Delia runs to the barn and sleeps there. Syke had put the snake there in hopes of it killing Delia so he could have the house she had put so much hard work into- earlier in the story, she made it clear that she refused to leave the house. Syke wanted the house for his new girlfriend. The next morning, a drunken Syke appears and goes inside to find that Delia isn’t there. Pleased with this, he tries to light a match for light and quickly notices the sound of a rattlesnake; he thought the snake would be dead by now, but it clearly wasn’t. The snake ended up biting and killing Syke, while Delia stayed alive and got to keep the house.