Analysis Of Heroes And Villains In Sweat By Zora Neale Hurston

Heroes and Villains Protagonists and Antagonist are used by authors to tell a story. Protagonists are the main characters of the story and their actions change the plot of the story, antagonists are either characters, objects or other elements of the story that cause issues for the protagonist. There is a simple way to understand this concept and that is to picture a story with a hero and a villain, either can play the role as the protagonist or antagonist as they each cause complications for each other but, both roles exist causing the story to be interesting with conflict. (Wikipedia) In the short story “Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston there is a clear depiction of the protagonist and antagonists. Hurston poses Delia Jones as the hero or protagonist and her husband Sykes Jones and snakes as the villains or antagonists. There is an article written in book Introduction to Literary Context: American Short Fiction and the author of the article Laurie Champion helps to illustrate these points as well. Delia’s actions throughout the story change the plot at every turn and she is the main focus of the story. The opening lines of the story describe Delia and who she is as a person, “Any other night, Delia Jones would have been in bed for two hours by this time. But she was a washwoman, and Monday morning meant a great deal to her.” …show more content…
She empowers Delia to make choices and stand up to her abusive husband and face her fears. This empowerment changes the way the story could have gone had Delia just stayed the meek character Hurston makes us envision at first. Had she not stood up to Sykes and not let herself be consumed by the fear of the snake, she would have most likely been the one who fell victim to the venom. The parts of the story the Champion chose to write about truly help Hurston’s representation of Delia the hero and Sykes and his snake the