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Zora Neale HurstonA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
The notable irony in “Sweat” is Sykes’s demise. He brings the snake home specifically to terrorize Delia, and in the story’s final scenes, she finds it inside a laundry basket, presumably because Sykes put it there—perhaps scheming to drive her away from the house or to kill her. Though the narrative doesn’t clarify Sykes’s intentions, it can be assumed that he would be comfortable with either outcome. Delia does flee when the snake gets loose in her bedroom, but only to the barn. She does not purposely plant the snake in the bedroom to attack Sykes, but she leaves the house unattended and gives no warning when he returns at dawn. Thus, Sykes meets his ironic end when the snake strikes him rather than Delia.
Hurston is well known for her use of African American vernacular and regional speech, both in her nonfiction and her fiction writing. She used her fiction as a space in which to share these traits as matters of identity. She used idioms from the Black communities of Florida that her characters are based upon and amended the spelling on the page to capture the sound and
By Zora Neale Hurston
Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo"
Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo"
Zora Neale Hurston
Drenched in Light
Drenched in Light
Zora Neale Hurston
Dust Tracks on a Road
Dust Tracks on a Road
Zora Neale Hurston
Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick
Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick
Zora Neale Hurston
How It Feels To Be Colored Me
How It Feels To Be Colored Me
Zora Neale Hurston
Jonah's Gourd Vine
Jonah's Gourd Vine
Zora Neale Hurston
Moses, Man of the Mountain
Moses, Man of the Mountain
Zora Neale Hurston
Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life
Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life
Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston
Mules and Men
Mules and Men
Zora Neale Hurston
Seraph on the Suwanee
Seraph on the Suwanee
Zora Neale Hurston
Spunk
Spunk
Zora Neale Hurston
Tell My Horse
Tell My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica
Zora Neale Hurston
The Eatonville Anthology
The Eatonville Anthology
Zora Neale Hurston
The Gilded Six-Bits
The Gilded Six-Bits
Zora Neale Hurston
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Zora Neale Hurston