Sweat by Zora Neale Hurston [Summary]
The summary of “Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston is about a woman named Delia Jones who works as a clothes washer for “white folks.” She is doing her job on a Sunday night when her husband, Sykes, comes in the form of playing a trick on her with his black bull whip that resembles a snake because he knows how much she hates snakes. He is also upset about the fact that she is washing clothes for white people and calling her a hypocrite because she does so. As the conversation heats up, it is revealed that Sykes is cheating on his wife with another woman named Bertha and also that he is very abusive toward her. As he is about to hit Delia as he has so many times before, she picks up an iron skillet from the stove and strikes him with it. After some time and some insults to her, Sykes leaves the house. Delia goes to bed in tears remembering how and why they got married as well as when the abuse from her husband had first began. She mentions that if Sykes wasn’t cheating on her with Bertha then it would be somebody else. As she drifts off to sleep, she hears a scream outside and it is Sykes. He is calling her hopefully, but yet is expecting no answer. She opens the blinds and heard the sound of a rattlesnake leaving the premises. She walks to the door and he hears. “Delia, is dat you Ah heah?” Sykes reached for the door and for her. His neck was swollen and one of his eyes was wounded. As Delia watched with forgiving sympathy, she realized that Orlando and its doctors were too far away. “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.”