Sweat by Zora Neale HurstonZora Neale Hurston is an extraordinary author who reflects her life in most of her novels, short stories, and essays. She was a writer during the Harlem Renaissance, also known as "the new Negro movement", however; his writings initially did not receive due recognition because they were not the “norm” for that time period. All authors during the Harlem Renaissance were expected to write about race with a political mindset. Hurston was tired of seeing the same writings only by different authors, so her literary works were very different and needed to stand out (Trudell). Among all his abstracts, Sweat was a story of determination and oppression, with religion and strength as the backbone of the story and seems to be one of the most captivating of all his works. Hurston based her short story Sweat on two male characters, Delia Jones and Sykes Jones. Throughout the entire story Delia and Sykes have both shown their determination. Delia was determined not to let Sykes get what he wanted and destroy her to the point of making her helpless and dependent on him. She worked hard as a laundress and was the only source of money in the house. She became more mentally independent as the story progressed and the reader could tell from the dialogue between Delia and Sykes and the description of Sykes' reactions. For example, when at the beginning of the story they were arguing about Delia washing clothes, it was said that “she grabbed the iron pan from the stove and struck a defensive pose, an act that surprised him greatly on her part. She intimidated him and he didn't hit her like he usually did” (Hurston). Hurston did this to demonstrate that beyond the f...... middle of paper......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 by Noelle Watson, St. James Press, 1994.” Literary Resource Center. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/LitRC?vrsn=3&OP=contains&locID=tall18692&srchtp=athr&ca=1&c=16&ste=16&stab=512&tab=2&tbst=arp&ai=U13004616&n=10&docNum=H1420004188&ST=zora+neale+ hurston&bCont=16303