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Delia Jones' Transformation in "Sweat" January 31, 2001 Through external conflict exhibited by three significant occasions with the antagonist and husband, Sykes Jones, Zora Neale Hurston takes her leading character, Delia Jones, through an internal change from a submissive character to an aggressive and defensive character in her short story, "Sweat." When the story opens, one finds Delia Jones on a Sunday evening washing clothes, as was her profession, and humming a tune, wondering where her husband had gone with her horse and carriage. Little did she know that within the week she would stand against her abusive husband and watch him die of the situation he would create. Delia's repose was suddenly upset by interference from her husband, Sykes, who dropped "something long, round, limp and black" upon her shoulders. Delia's worst fear was that of snakes, and her husband found joy in mocking and terrifying her. After brief argument, Sykes continued to disrupt Delia's work by kicking the clothes around and threatening throw them outside or hit her. He also mentioned a promise to "Gawd and a couple of other men" that he would no longer have white people's clothes in his house. At this she responds in a manner greatly surprising to Sykes: Delia's habitual meekness seemed to slip from her shoulders like a blown scarf. She was on her feet; her poor little body, her bare knuckly hands bravely defying the strapping hulk before her... She seized the iron skillet from the stove and struck a defensive pose, which act surprised him greatly, coming from her. It cowed him and he did not strike her as he usually did. By nightfall, Sykes had gone for the evening without saying where or when he would be back, "but she knew too well." Delia had managed to come to acceptable terms with the situation. She pondered the thought of love, quickly realizing that it was too late for her. "If it were not Bertha it would be someone else," she told herself. Before finally falling asleep, she found herself talking aloud, concluding that Sykes was going to "reap his sowing." After organizing her thoughts, she was able to spiritually fortify herself against him, and she slept. She slept until his arrival when he rudely kicked her feet and snatched the cover away. In silent triumph she ignored his comments and allowed him his side of the bed. On the next Saturday Delia was riding through town delivering and picking up clothes as usual as a few of the local townsmen share their insight into the Jones' home. After concluding that Sykes and his "stray woman," Bertha, should be severely disciplined for their actions, they push money forth to share a watermelon. At that moment, Sykes and Bertha arrive, and a silence falls on the porch and the melon is put away. Delia drives by as Sykes is "ordering magnificently for Bertha," but Sykes has no reason to hide his infidelity, for it "pleased him for Delia to see." As the two leave the store, Sykes reminds Bertha "this was his town and she could have it if she wanted it." The men on the porch resume their melon feast at Sykes and Bertha's departure, and they continue their expression of low opinion of Sykes. Weeks later Delia comes home to find Sykes already there, standing in the doorway. As she attempts to walk through the door, he pushes her back and directs her to a box by the kitchen door. Delia opens the box and immediately becomes hysterical; in the box lays a live rattlesnake. Delia requests that Sykes remove the snake from the property immediately, but Sykes never considers such. For days Delia and Sykes argued over the snake, and finally the argument culminated one evening at dinner. By this time, Delia had been drained of the energy to put up with Sykes; she had had enough. She had gradually come to accept her position in her home over the years, and only now had she finally begun to fight for herself. Coming down the stairs that evening, she sees the snake's box as usual, but she does not cower or avoid it. "She stood in the doorway in a red fury that grew bloodier for every second that she regarded the creature that was her torment." Delia issued her demands the moment Sykes sat down; she wanted the snake out of her house, and she wanted Bertha to stay out of her house as well. She ended the argument by stating that she "[hated him like a] suck-egg dog." Sykes was taken aback. Delia continued by fearlessly threatening him; she had reached her breaking point and could take no more. Sykes left the house shouting threats, but he made no motion to carry them out. The next day was Sunday, and on returning home from church she found the snake's box to be empty. A new excitement filled her, for she felt she had finally won against Sykes. Perhaps her threat to go to the "white folks" had convinced him to clean up his act. She nonchalantly began her regular Sunday night activities of sorting and soaking her clothes, when horror struck her - Sykes had placed the snake in her hamper! Terrified, she stayed the night in the hay barn, thinking most of the time some furious thoughts, but managing to find sleep too. Delia awoke the next morning to sounds of Sykes rummaging around outside the house. Sykes entered the house, and moved very cautiously and slowly, knowing the snake could be nearly anywhere. After a few moments of creeping through the house, Sykes was fooled and inadvertently stepped in its path, and he was bitten. Sykes instantly let out a horrible scream and began to pitch a horrible fit: "All the terror, all the horror, all the rage that man possibly could express, without a recognizable human sound." Delia could not bear to watch and so she moved away from the window and lay in the grass. Sykes called her name in a desperate tone, but she could not force herself to move. After moments more of screaming, Delia managed to move toward the door, and she managed to capture the horrible image of her dying husband on the kitchen floor. The situation was futile, she calmly decided, and she moved over to 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" - that she knew she had chosen to let him die. Zora Neale Hurston's Delia Jones endured fifteen years of violence, disrespect, and infidelity, and only in those last few months was she able to muster some form of resistance. Until Sykes threatened all that she had, her home and her job, she was content enough just sweating it out. However, Sykes made that grave mistake on his own accord, and when leaving Delia with nothing to lose, he found that he had set himself up for a losing battle. Delia had surrendered to him in all those years, but Sykes had finally found a way to bring out the worst in his wife, and her aggression was finally realized by defending all that she had. After such pain and endurance, one can easily recognize how Delia Jones played the lead role in a short story called "Sweat." © III Enterprises & neotope.com |
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