Zora Neale Hurston

"Sweat" (1926)

Random Thought:
I really don't have a lot for the men of their village. They know about Delia's husband Sykes sleeping around and don't do anything about it. They talk about "learnin' him," but them don't go ahead and do it. The least they could have done was refuse him business when he was spending his money on the other woman.

On the Story:
I don't really get the ending, "that eye that must, could not, fail to see the tubs. He could see the lamp.' Was Delia thinking that Sykes would imagine she put the snake in there and didn't warn him? Or did Delia not want Sykes to know that she was there and could help him?

Another line troubled me, "a surge of pity too strong to support bore her away..." Pity, nowadays, has two senses: one looks on another's situation or misfortune and empathizes, wishing to help; the second looks on another and despises them, refusing to help. I WANT to feel that Delia would pity with empathy and help that rascal (I use this in the most insulting sense of the word I know), and in the end, Sykes would be so overcome by her love that he would repent and love her too. However, it seems that Delia feels otherwise. She lets the river water--probably the 'Jurden water' she sang about and in her mind judgment--rise up and take him. His judgment may be just, but it comes at a terrible price for Delia too, as she must abide with final hatred rather than compassion.