One thing that remains to be true irrespective of time is that a man might not have a job or status, nothing to himself but his name, but he will always have audacity! 

For those who haven’t read this or don’t necessarily intend to, I’ll sum up (spoil) the story of Zora Neale Hurston’s Sweat.

In short, Delia works tirelessly as a wash woman for white folks. She's spent every week toiling over the washboard for the 15 years she and her husband Sykes been married. Sykes is a bum. He doesn’t lift a finger to help Delia with the work or care for their home. All of that is beneath him. And for 15 years, though she’s the one keeping them afloat, he’s been abusing her all this time, taking great pleasure in breaking her down. Before Sykes, Delia was a heavily desired, soft-flesh woman with a strong spirit. But she’s less of what she was and sharpened by the years of wear from the washing, rougher to take all the abuse Sykes with both mouth and body throws onto her. In addition to all this fuckery, Sykes is also openly cheating on Delia with a woman named Bertha (old names are so funny).

It’s all so awful, but the dynamic shifts, when Delia recovers some of her former spirit and pulls a skillet against Sykes to stop his abuse. She thinks he's done, but those familiar with abuse know that abusers don’t cow easily. When they are threatened they always do something to reassert power. In the beginning, he tormented Delia by throwing his snake-like bullwhip on her. He knows Delia is deathly afraid of even worms. Snakes are non-negotiable. This time he brings a six-foot rattlesnake into Delia’s house, which he reveals to her by having Delia open up the seemingly unmenacing box. It pleases him that she’s scared, wants it gone, and that the snake will be there to torment her every day because he won't get rid of it. There’s no more she can do about that snake than she can do about him. They both aren’t leaving anytime soon.

He’s like the Devil except he’s ugly, broke, and unemployed. 

Now Joe Clarke, a character in the story, succinctly defines this nature of abuse. 

The synopsis defines Sykes as insecure, but he’s more than that, he’s entirely pathetic. There’s nothing he has going for himself other than he married one of the most attractive girls in their town fifteen years ago, and has been hanging onto her like a tick ever since. He pretends to be more, going around town with his mistresses, beating his wife without reproach, and having her support him through it all. And he gets especially bold after getting that damn snake, inviting folks to Delia’s house to see it. He boasts he’s a snake charmer and that the snake listens to no one but him. 

One day, Delia comes home to work again, and finds the snake in the hamper, instead of its cage. She runs away to hay outside, a barn, and sleeps there. Sykes comes home late and it's a dark morning in the house. But he can’t find any matches for light (Delia used the last match for a lamp when she saw the snake out the cage; Sykes used them all, bought no more like the worthless man he is). He finds out quickly that the snake is free but unlike Delia, he has to fight him in the dark. 

He calls for Delia who, paralyzed by fear, doesn’t come. But she hears the attacks, the screams, all of it outside their bedroom window. When it all ends, she opens the front door to find Sykes crawling to her, barely, neck swollen, one eye still open. He begs for help but there is nothing she can do. And she watches as he dies from his own arrogance because the tool of his abuse against her turned on him in one of the most satisfying instances of divine justice.

The greatest thing about Sweat is that Hurston is not unkind. She won’t let hard work go to waste. Forget whatever bullshit narratives about the "harsh reality of statistics" and the misogyny that keeps writers, filmmakers, and such from exploring endings where women, especially black women, are vindicated instead of brutalized without relief. For all that Delia and readers have suffered (the dialect was harsh on my eyes, Zora you ain’t have to write every single word like that!) we get justice. Delia gets her home back, her life back, and the pathetic bum gets the fast pass to hell. There's nothing better than an abuser getting what they deserve and nothing less. Truly a happy ever after.