Sweat
By Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston is a remarkable author who reflects her life in most of her novels, short stories, and her essays. She was a writer during the Harlem Renaissance, also known as “the new negro movement”, however; her writings were not given proper recognition at first because they were not of the “norm” for that time period. All of the authors during the Harlem Renaissance were expected to write about race with a political mind set. Hurston was tired of seeing the same writings just different authors so her literary works were very different and were meant to stand out (Trudell). Among all of her abstracts, Sweat was a story of determination and oppression, with religion and strength as the backbone of …show more content…

The only thing that kept her sanity was her spiritual connection with GOD. Even though she worked most of the day and night using her job as a way to distance herself from her husbands ill-treatment, she made sure that she was in church on Sunday morning. All Delia has through the story is her home and her religious values. She shows her true strength in her fight with her husband day in and day out and in the end she comes out on top. Hurston manages to tell a story of a woman in an abusive relationship during the 1920’s with skill and finesse. She uses her life’s background and the time period in which she wrote the piece to make the story seem more of a reality instead of a work of fiction. Many women then and still today can relate to the life of Delia Jones and that makes this literary work one that will always be memorable.

Works Cited

• Hurston, Zora Neale. “Sweat”. http://www.geocities.com/cyber_explorer99/hurstonsweat.html
• Trudell, Scott. “Critical Essay on “Sweat”. “Short Stories for Students, Vol. 19, Gale, 2004. Literature Resource Center. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/LitRC?vrsn=3&OP=contains&locID=tall18692&srchtp=athr&ca=1&c=49&ste=16&stab=512&tab=2&tbst=arp&ai=U13004616&n=10&docNum=H1420056379&ST=zora+neale+hurston&bConts=16303
• Wagner-Martin, Linda. “Sweat: Overview”. “Reference Guide to Short Fiction, 1st ed., edited