“She lay awake, gazing upon the debris that cluttered their matrimonial trail. Not an image left standing along the way. Anything like flowers had long ago been drowned in the salty stream that had been pressed from her heart. Her tears, her sweat, her blood. She had brought love to the union and he had brought a longing after the flesh. Two months after the wedding, he had given her the first brutal beating. She had the memory of his numerous trips to Orlando with all of his wages when he had returned to her penniless, even before the first year had passed. She was young and soft then, but now she thought of her knotty, muscles limbs, her harsh knuckly hands, and

As she lies on her bed, Delia gains a moment of comfort, and a getaway from her great disdain. She is able to create a spiritual barrier from the mistreatments she receives from her unscrupulous husband. The bed is her Eden, her only resource for relaxation and a content being. Even the hamper in the bedroom is the only group of clothing that is considered neat and tidy, representing the cleanliness of the room. Everywhere else in the house, Sykes would step on and trample over the clothing Delia had to clean. He had no respect for his wife and her work. The bedroom used to be the only place that hadn’t been defiled by Sykes, until he slept with Bertha in it. Knowing of this travesty brings Delia over the edge.

Delia changes from being constantly frightened of Sykes to being indifferent to his actions. She stops caring about Sykes’s physical abuse and affairs with other women. What had once been love was now “drowned in the salty stream that had been pressed from her heart. Her tears, her sweat, her blood.” (Hurston 680). This river of torment that has overrun this devastated woman has caused her to explode to the surface and take a stand. No longer will she allow herself to be at the butt of the severe poor mistreatment her husband has been giving forth to her for 15 years. She will not let him invade whatever will and life she has left in her.

Sykes’s physical cruelty and unfaithfulness go together, and are apparent not only to the one’s involved, but outsiders as well. A group of village men sitting on a porch view Delia riding by and begin talking about her and her marital situation. One man talks of Delia’s hard work ethics and ability to carry and receive clothing every Saturday. Her hard work is evident and because of it others admire her. After talking about the good qualities of Delia, the men begin a conversation about the countless bad qualities of Sykes. Speaking of Delia’s necessary work, one man says, “She better if she wanter eat…Syke Jones ain’t wuth de shot an’ powder hit would tek tuh kill ‘em. Not to huh he ain’t” (Hurston 681). The speaker’s tone can be taken as suggesting that Sykes deserves to die. Later in the conversation, the old man of the group says, “he done got too beggety to live – an’ we oughter kill ‘im” (Hurston 682). Coming from an elder, the statement seems to have more credibility. The mentioning of killing Sykes foreshadows the conclusion of the book when his death is imminent. The men would believe Sykes would be getting what he deserves, as perhaps Delia tends to believe more and more as the story progresses.

Some topics in this essay:
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