She went out into the yard and returned with a galvanized tub and set it on the washbench. She saw that Sykes had kicked all of the clothes together again, and now stood in her way truculently, his whole manner hoping, praying, for an argument.
But she walked calmly around him and commenced to re-sort the things. Delia never looked up from her work, and her thin, stooped shoulders sagged further. Ah just come from taking sacrament at the church house. He snorted scornfully. One of them amen-corner Christians—sing, whoop, and shout, then come home and wash white folks clothes on the Sabbath. He stepped roughly upon the whitest pile of things, kicking them helter-skelter as he crossed the room.
His wife gave a little scream of dismay, and quickly gathered them together again. Anyhow, Ah done promised Gawd and a couple of other men, Ah aint gointer have it in mah house. She was on her feet; her poor little body, her bare knuckly hands bravely defying the strapping hulk before her. Sweat, sweat, sweat! Work and sweat, cry and sweat, pray and sweat! 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. A little awed by this new Delia, he sidled out of the door and slammed the back gate after him. He did not say where he had gone, but she knew too well. She knew very well that he would not return until nearly daybreak also.
Her work over, she went on to bed but not to sleep at once. Things had come to a pretty pass! She lay awake, gazing upon the debris that cluttered their matrimonial trail. Not an image left standing along the way. Anything like flowers had long ago been drowned in the salty stream that had been pressed from her heart.
Her tears, her sweat, her blood. She had brought love to the union and he had brought a longing after the flesh. Two months after the wedding, he had given her the first brutal beating. She had the memory of his numerous trips to Orlando with all of his wages when he had returned to her penniless, even before the first year had passed.
She was young and soft then, but now she thought of her knotty, muscled limbs, her harsh knuckly hands, and drew herself up into an unhappy little ball in the middle of the big feather bed. Too late now to hope for love, even if it were not Bertha it would be someone else.
This case differed from the others only in that she was bolder than the others. Too late for everything except her little home. She had built it for her old days, and planted one by one the trees and flowers there.
It was lovely to her, lovely. Sometime or ruther, Sykes, like everybody else, is gointer reap his sowing. His shells could no longer reach her. She went to sleep and slept until he announced his presence in bed by kicking her feet and rudely snatching the covers away. Delia went clear to the rail without answering him. A triumphant indifference to all that he was or did. The week was as full of work for Delia as all other weeks, and Saturday found her behind her little pony, collecting and delivering clothes.
It was a hot, hot day near the end of July. They did not hurl the cane-knots as usual. They let them dribble over the edge of the porch. Even conversation had collapsed under the heat.
The rusty buckboard was heaped with baskets of crisp, clean laundry. Not to huh he aint. Yessir, mah wife! She wuz ez pritty ez a speckled pup! Dat wuz fifteen yeahs ago. Dey never wuz de same in de mind. Clarke spoke for the first time. Dey throws em away. A grunt of approval went around the porch. But the heat was melting their civic virtue, and Elijah Moseley began to bait Joe Clarke.
Ah chooses dat long, bowlegged Floridy favorite. Heah, everybody chip in. The money was quickly subscribed and the huge melon brought forth. At that moment, Sykes and Bertha arrived. A determined silence fell on the porch and the melon was put away again. Got to git on home. Just then Delia drove past on her way home, as Sykes was ordering magnificently for Bertha. It pleased him for Delia to see. Wait a minute, Joe. With all this they left the store, with Sykes reminding Bertha that this was his town and she could have it if she wanted it.
Bertha had been in town three months now. You kin git anything you wants. She avoided the villagers and meeting places in her efforts to be blind and deaf. Delia and Sykes fought all the time now with no peaceful interludes. They slept and ate in silence. Two or three times Delia had attempted a timid friendliness, but she was repulsed each time. It was plain that the breaches must remain agape. The sun had burned July to August.
The heat streamed down like a million hot arrows, smiting all things living upon the earth. Grass withered, leaves browned, snakes went blind in shedding and men and dogs went mad.
Dog days! Delia came home one day and found Sykes there before her. She wondered, but started to go on into the house without speaking, even though he was standing in the kitchen door and she must either stoop under his arm or ask him to move. He made no room for her. She noticed a soap box beside the steps, but paid no particular attention to it, knowing that he must have brought it there.
As she was stooping to pass under his outstretched arm, he suddenly pushed her backward, laughingly. Delia watches and listens to him suffer, waiting patiently for him to die. Parents Home Homeschool College Resources.
Study Guide. By Zora Neale Hurston. Previous Next. Sweat Summary It was eleven o'clock of a Spring night in Florida. What's Up With the Ending? Tired of ads? Join today and never see them again. The term Black feminism was not a widely used term until the Black women 's movement in the s.
Resistance to oppression Resistance to oppression is a fluid theme throughout these two works of literature, Angelou in Still I rise, An ode to the power that brews in us all to overcome our most difficult circumstances, and is truly an inspiration to all homestayers in the sixties no matter Their race. Her status as being a powerful black woman in the house, portrays her self confidence to override anything that puts her down as she will always exceed to rise up.
Susan Rawlings in To Room Nineteen saw suicide as her only outlet to her lack of freedom in her marriage. Toni Morrison is the most important contemporary women novelists and critics in African-American Literature. The descriptive-analytical method of study by analyzing the situations, the characters and themes, the status of women in Literature are revealed and represented. Morrison very well describes how different women characters react and respond differently to the injustice and the inhumanity imposed on them in African-American society.
African American writers are concerned with the lack of literature fostering strong female models. During the 1st Wave of the Feminist Movement, that began in , one of the biggest issues was attaining the right to vote or suffrage.
During this time another huge issue was that of the treatment of African Americans in the country. Ida B. Wells, an African American woman, born in in Holly Springs, Mississippi to parents who were former slaves that were very active in the Republican Party during Reconstruction.
The men were the ones who owned the land, politicians, basically men were dominant during those times. In chapter 6 Zinn emphasizes the common traits between white women and slave women. Black slave women were oppressed twice as much as the white women.
Zinn explains how women in the early United States started rebellions against the injustices they faced. To have white privilege is to have the dominant image and the overall construct of the world Dyer, 9.
Whites have the luxury of mass representation in the media whereas racial minorities are constantly under or misrepresented. In Candide, Voltaire talks about the female race and the oppression they faced in the Enlightenment.
Mary Robinson does the same; however, she goes into vigorous detail trying to express how important it is for women to be at the same level as men.
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