Sweat

The short story “Sweat” by American author Zora Neale Hurston was first published in 1926 in Fire!!, a single-issue magazine published during the Harlem Renaissance. Hurston was an anthropologist and writer whose works included many essays on anthropology and folklore focused on African American communities in the American South and the Caribbean, as well as novels and short stories. Her interest in anthropology is reflected in her creative work. For example, she often wrote dialog in vernacular to capture the everyday diction and idioms, and with adapted phonetic spellings to capture the sound and rhythm, of the English spoken by Black people in the rural south, specifically Florida, in the early 20th century. This vernacular dialog style is a strong element in “Sweat.” (Readers should be aware that this diction includes racial slurs, which appear in only a few spots in the story.)

“Sweat” begins with the protagonist, Delia Jones, setting to work late on a Sunday night. A washerwoman, she sorts clothes in her kitchen after attending church during the day. As she works, she wonders where her husband, Sykes (alternately called “Syke” in the story’s dialog), has gone with her cart and pony. Suddenly, something snakelike falls onto her shoulder. Delia freezes in fear but soon realizes that the object is the tail of the whip Sykes carries when driving the pony. She screams and scolds Sykes for scaring her, but he only laughs at her fear. In the fight that follows, Sykes attacks Delia’s hypocrisy for going to Sunday services then working (when Sunday is to be a day of rest for Christians) and for working for white people. Sykes threatens that he won’t allow her work, the white customers’ laundry, in the house any longer.

Delia replies that Sykes has gone too far and picks up a frying pan. She asserts that her work is her own and points to everything that her work has purchased and provided for them throughout their marriage. Sykes, intimidated by Delia’s unusually bold behavior, leaves the house.

Delia finishes her work for the night and heads to bed. She reflects on their marriage, including Sykes’s abuse, lack of work, failure to bring in money, and ongoing infidelities. She decides that it is too late to hope for anything different from him. Alone in bed, she resolves that she could be safe from hurt and that Sykes will someday reap what he sows. Very late, Sykes returns home and gets into bed with a few more insults and threats. Delia stays far on her side of the bed, indifferent.

The next scene opens on a group of neighborhood men on the porch of the local store. It is extremely hot, and everyone is moving slowly. The men see Delia’s pony-drawn buckboard approaching and note that she’s on her way to deliver clean laundry and pick up the dirty laundry for the coming week’s work. They remark on her hard labor then discuss Sykes. They disapprove of his abuse, and several men note that he has wrung the beauty and life out of Delia. They condemn his womanizing while also insulting Bertha, the woman with whom he is currently cheating. Two of the men say Sykes is out of line and they really ought to kill him. The conversation suddenly turns back to the heat, and the men ask the store owner to bring out a watermelon for all to share.

Just as the watermelon is brought out, Sykes and Bertha approach the store. The men put the watermelon away, and most of them make excuses to leave. Delia’s wagon passes by again just as Sykes is buying things for Bertha. He is happy that Delia sees him treating his lover in public. After the couple leave, the men return to the porch.

Sykes shares with Bertha his intent to get Delia out of the house so they can live there together, bragging about all he can provide for Bertha. Days later, Sykes brings home a diamondback rattlesnake captured in a screen-topped wooden box. He is pleased that the snake frightens Delia. When she stresses her extreme fear of the animal and anything snakelike, Sykes insults her and implies that she should leave if she can’t stand it.

Neighbors hear about Sykes’s snake and come around to see it. When the other men ask about the danger of the snake and suggest killing it, Sykes brags about knowing how to handle snakes. One day, Delia walks through the doorway and sees the snake hungry and angry, hanging from the box’s wire top by its fangs. Rather than run away scared, she stares at the snake and grows angry. She confronts Sykes, demanding that he get rid of the snake.

The following Sunday, Delia goes to church as usual, then returns home to sort the week’s laundry. Walking across the porch, she finds that the snake is not in its box. She hopes this means the snake is gone and that Sykes is sorry and things will change.

She gets to work happily, setting out her tubs in the kitchen and making other preparations throughout the house. When she opens the large basket of laundry in the bedroom, she finds the rattlesnake inside, ready to strike. It slithers out of the basket and onto the bed. Despite her panic, Delia escapes the room. She slams the door but fears that won’t be enough. She flees across the yard to the barn, where she climbs into the hayloft and waits for hours, too frightened to return to the house. She eventually becomes filled with rage. After thinking that she’s done her best and is not at fault for anything else that comes, Delia falls into a fitful sleep.

She wakes just before dawn to the sound of Sykes breaking up the snake’s box. He has returned home but not yet entered the house. When the box is destroyed, he heads into the house. Delia exits the barn and crouches under the bedroom window. She hears Sykes grumbling and trying to find matches to light the lantern, and then she hears the snake’s rattle. Delia knows Sykes cannot tell where the snake is because the sound of the rattle can be tricky. She hears Sykes head into the bedroom. Soon, Sykes screams and struggles, and Delia knows the snake is striking him. Sickened, she moves away from the window and lays in the flowerbed.

After some time, she approaches the doorway. Sykes hears her footsteps and calls out to her. She steps in and sees him on the floor, unable to move and in pain, with a terribly swollen throat and face. Only one of his eyes is open, but he looks at Delia with hope.

Delia flees back into the yard, knowing Sykes saw her. She briefly thinks that the doctors are too far away. She realizes that he would’ve seen her things moved in the house before the snake bit him and thus must know that she knew the snake was in the house yet did not warn him. He likely also knows that she saw him suffering but will not help him. She stands silently under a chinaberry tree in the yard as he dies.