The story "Sweat", has a difficult vocabulary, and trying to understand the dialect that Delia, Sykes and the neighbors has was very complicated because i never read something like that before. I had to write down the words i did not understand but beside all of this i can say that:
Delia is a woman with a lot of courage, her husband, Sykes always abuses of her. Delia also is a hard-worker who is aware of the things that her husband does, she knows that he is a bad man, that he flirts with other women and cheats on her and Sykes neighbors don't like him because of the way he is. He is rejected form everybody, except for Bertha, his lover.
The kind of life that Delia has during fifteen years has made her stronger . Sykes brings a rattlesnake to the house, when the husband brings the snake to the house Delia refuses to keep the snake but her husband a machista man does not obey her, so the rattlesnake stays in the house. In this part, i can say that the snake represents the fear that Delia has toward her husband but it has been so many years that deeply inside of her she knows that nothing bad could happen to her. Sykes is proving Delia's fear but he gains nothing leaving the snake in the house.
The abuse that Delia suffers during years ends when Sykes tries to take Delia out of the house so he can bring Bertha to live there with him. So one dawn was dark and the rattlesnake kills Sykes instead of killing Delia, there is when Sykes finally could understand all the pain his wife suffer because of his abuse.
I believe that the metaphor of this story is the comparison between the rattlesnake and the abusive husband. Sykes is a bad man, he hurts his wife every time he has a chance while the rattlesnake is also a dangerous reptile which hurts people every time it has a change.
If we also talk about the abuse that women who suffer everyday we can say that nowadays some women do not stay quiet, the speak it up, but there are still some women who stay quiet because the men is the support of the house or because they are scared to be sent away to their countries because some of them are not legally living here.
In this case Delia takes the role of being her own support. She clearly says that all the things that are in the house is hers because of her hard work she has been putting on, she doesn't count with Sykes' support, and even some women do not need a man anymore, men are almost not needed for women to help them to do some stuff that woman could not do before.
During all these years women became brave and more brave so that they can do anything without needing a man.
I liked you post. I agree that Delia is a very strong and brave person for being able to support herself and her husband and most importantly for being able to support her husband's abuse and behavior.
ReplyDeleteI also want to comment on your comparison between the snake and Syke. I see the similarities between them but I think the really important difference is Delia's feelings towards them. They are both predators and tormenters but Delia doesn't seem to be afraid of Sykes, yet she is very terrified of the snake. I found it interesting that at the end of the story, her fear for the snake was diminishing and when it tried to attack her, her fear for the snake transformed into anger towards her husband and she became the murderous snake.
Diana- your observations about the author's use to dialect in composing the characters' dialogue, your comparison between the snake and Sykes, and the issue who is the provider for the home/family are all excellent. Why do you think Hurston chose to use dialect in her story? What effect/impact does the fact that the narrator does not speak in dialect have on the story? How are your observations about Delia being the breadwinner/provider relate to the issues of domestic work and gender we have been discussing? (in the future avoid plot summary, here your second paragraph/section).
ReplyDeleteRaquel- I like you analysis of snake/Sykes metaphor Diana proposes. I agree with both of you ladies that there are similarities and differences between the snake and Sykes. But I would suggest that if the snake is a metaphor, it stands for something larger than Sykes? Should we consider the snake as a symbol, rather than a metaphor? Also, I'm interested in your last statement, Raquel, where you say that Delia "[becomes] the murderous snake"? If both Delia and Sykes are the snake, then once again I'd push for considering the snake as a metaphor for something larger than Sykes?
Miss B,I think that Hurston chose to use the dialect in her story because she wants to shows people how people use such as expression since most of them did not have a school or professor to teach them the correct pronunciation, there is a lot of ignorance in the way Hurston narrates the story and plus it also seems that part of it is the neighborhood where she probably lived or used to frequently pass by.
ReplyDeleteBeing the breadwinner is really hard specially when you live in a house where there is not respect from the others and specially if those people are irresponsible and if they just think about their own well-being as the case of Delia's husband. The observation is very clear when she remainds the husband that she works hard every day, " mah sweat is done paid for this house and ah reckon ah kin keep on sweatin' in it", pag 423