Point of View in Sweat Essay

The Positive Outcomes Of Using Third Person Point Of View

In Zora Neale Hurstons Sweat, I feel that the message of the story far exceeded the plot of the story. In this story I felt that the point of view was very important in the short story. The use of third person as the narrator gave us a chance to really see the characters it also gave us honesty. Even though the narrator is more sympathetic to Delia they are able to do this because she sees both sides.

The narrator starts of sketching the characters in the story mainly Delia and Sykes. The narrator starts off telling us about Delia and what type of person she is. If this had been written in first person we wouldnt have gotten to know the type of person she was right away. In the story the narrator says that Sykes had kicked over the clothes she was folding and proceeded to stand in her way looking for an argument to start but Delia just ignored him and went back to doing her work. This gives you a sense of what type of people they were Delia more of a passive person and Sykes more of a men ignorant person (Hurston 1022). It allows us to see their thoughts, which allow us to make our own opinion about them and their relationship.

Hurstons choice of third person makes Delias situation more believable and again if this had been written from Delias point of view I would not have given it much credibility. I would have questioned if Sykes was really as mean as the story portrays him. I would have also second guessed what type of person Delia herself was. If this would have been from her point she wouldnt have known the full story and neither would we. For example the issue of Sykes having an affair with another women would have been questionable. Although he was seen with her that still wouldnt have been a solid reason for me to believe he was having an physical affair with her coming from Delias point of view.

The narrator says just then Delia drove past on her way home, as Sykes was ordering magnificently for Bertha. It pleased him to see, this is where we get the notion that he really is having an affair but if Delia would have been saying this I would have just thought that she was over reacting because I wouldnt have known that it pleased Sykes for her to see him with Bertha (Hurston 1025). We would have just taken her thinking he was cheating as an assumption or accusation. Delia never really physically caught him in the action cheating on her she just went off what she saw around town and by the way Sykes acts and the type of person he is. This would have caused me to be sympathetic in a way at first because he is being accused of something she never saw him do and the last thing I want to do is give Sykes the benefit of the doubt of feeling even one bit of sympathy for him. But when you put this whole situation in third person it is someone looking in from the outside therefore you believe the narrator more then you would Delia on her own.

Reading the story I even doubt that Delia herself would have even included him cheating judging from her character because she avoided the villagers and meeting places so that she wouldnt have to deal with it and so that she could pretend it wasnt going on (Hurston 1026). With this being said I strongly doubt she would write about it if she didnt even want to believe herself that it was happening and avoiding people so she wouldnt have to deal with it. The narrator knows whats happening and therefore I give her credibility. This in my opinion made the story so much better to me.

A part in the story that stuck out to me and this is the part when the men were talking about Delia and Sykes relationship and their opinion of how Sykes treats Delia. They were comparing how Sykes treats Delia to sugar cane saying that at first she is lively but he keeps using her up until he has taken everything and then shes left with nothing (Hurston 1025). This gives me credibility because not only is the narrator saying Sykes is abusive the narrator gives us examples of people living in the same village that feel the same way so the appearance of the narrator on the outside looking in made me even more sympathetic for Delia.

Although writing this story is third person helped with the characters and getting to know what type of people they are there is one problem I had with the third person narrative. This was the racial inequality. The narrator touches on it a few times but in my opinion it would have been a little more interesting for the reader to hear more of Delias feeling and thought from her point of view. The racial issues in the story were mostly addressed by the narrator and Sykes making comments about Delia working for white people. But rarely do we hear from her about the issues except for when she talks about working for them to support her family. I would have loved to hear how she felt about the things going on and also even about Sykes comments towards her. She herself is an African American and is having to go through these things so to hear from her would have made the story a change for the better for me.

All of the important things in the story lead back to the narration oh the story. The plot, interactions between the characters, and even the symbolism all come from the narration but the most important, which the point of view makes the story that much better and that more interesting. It gives it that something extra to keep the reader interested and also able to understand the story and characters better from the background we get in the beginning of the story. Zora Neale Hurston definitely made the right choice by choosing to write the story in third person point of view.