When Gertrude gets a withered arm, at first she accepts it as a natural misfortune, but as it gets worse, she is tortured by the belief that the disappearance of the dysfunction on the arm will regenerate her husband’s interest in her. Gertrude’s thinking is caused by Farmer Lodges mood; he was described as “Usually gloomy and silent” page 41. This shows an obvious distance between Farmer Lodge and Gertrude which was caused by both of them; Farmer Lodge because of Gertrude’s dysfunctional left limb and Gertrude because she is very much distanced from him by age and is unable to discuss the misery of her affliction calmly with him. Gertrude then becomes obsessive in trying to heal her arm. Noticing this, questions begin to arise. Is Gertrude healing her arm for herself? No, Why is she going to great measures to heal her arm, if he is her husband he would love her regardless of her looks? However, Farmer Lodge only loves her because of her looks. Gertrude is tying her hardest to keep her looks so that the marriage will not disintegrate. This shows a man driven by the outside and not the inside. Farmer Lodge is quite uncaring, because he is not sympathetic and caring towards Gertrude anymore, in fact his ‘gloominess’ begins to make Gertrude feel alienated. He is unable to give Gertrude the comfort and reassurance that she needs when the withered arm first appears. Farmer Lodge is uncaring towards Rhoda for the fact that she has had his son and he does not keep in contact with him, and he is even able to ignore his son completely and publicly on page 29. Farmer Lodge does not appear to have contributed any of his large wealth towards the upkeep of Rhoda and their son. Farmer Lodge is satisfied being a high known social figure and a successful businessman. As long as his status is good publicly and he looks good, he is content. I think that Farmer Lodge is portrayed as a deceitful person, someone who uses someone to get something. In order for Farmer Lodge to look better, being with a pretty woman would gain more respect, but as soon as Gertrude’s arm becomes withered and as soon as John (his son) dies he disappears with a gloomy behaviour.
Sweat, which was written in the 20th Century, has a setting in Florida – the Deep South. Husband and wife, Sykes and Delia live together. Delia experiences mental and physical abuse almost every day from her husband. Delia helps feed Sykes with her sweat and blood and in return gets nothing.
Delia is a hardworking washwoman and Sykes is an unsympathetic abusive husband. He is portrayed as an uncaring man throughout the story. Sykes enjoys watching Delia suffer. An example of this is when Sykes brought a whip into the house. Sykes knew it would remind Delia of her phobia of snakes, and she is petrified of snakes. This act was on page 39 and it shows a ruthless and unremorseful attitude from Sykes. When Delia said she was scared, Sykes said “Course Ah knowed it! That’s how come Ah done it”.
Delia earns a living from being a washwoman, her job involves her washing white peoples clothes, and this annoys Sykes a lot. Evidence of this is on page 39 when Sykes say “Ah done tole you time and time again to keep them white clothes outa dis house”. “He picked up the whip and glared at her.” The following quotations show that Sykes is quite racists and tormenting towards Delia. Sykes is ungrateful of the fact that Delia is working to bring money for not only her but for him. Sykes tries his hardest to annoy and irritate Delia because of her job. An example of this is when Sykes was kicking the clothes that Delia had to wash on page 40. Delia tried to stop him by saying “Sykes you quit grindin’ dirt into these clothes! How can Ah git through by Sat’day if Ah don’t start on Sunday?” Sykes then replied “Ah don’t keer if you never git through… Ah done promised Gawd Ah ain’t gointer have it in mah house. Don’t gimme no lip… else A’ll throw’ em out and put mah fist up side yo’ head to boot”. Sykes is showing an abusive attitude by threatening Delia that he will hit her. The story also reveals that Sykes has a jealous, babyish and racist attitude because she washes white peoples clothes.
Both Sykes and Delia are both black and they live in a social segregated area, with endemic racism and white supremacist attitudes, this means that black people were poorer and they had to work harder for things. Black people were less well educated and there was lack of mutual respect, which could sometimes lead to violence. For these reasons Sykes detests the fact that Delia is working for white people when blacks are on a lower level than whites. On page 41 Sykes attacks Delia’s self- esteem when she defends herself, when he says, “Well, you better quit gittin me riled up… Ah’m so tired of you Ah don’t know whut to do. Gawd! How Ah hates skinny wimmen!”. This quotation shows how verbally abusive Sykes is towards Delia and her appearance. It seems as if Sykes enjoys being uncaring, malicious and domineering towards Delia. Sykes speaks to Delia as if she is on a lower level than he is. In the story, he is described as an abusive husband in any way possible.
When the village men Walter Thomas and Joe Clarke were gossiping about Delia and Sykes on pages 42-43, their conversation was sympathetic towards Delia. The men discussed that “Hot or col, rain or shine… Delia carries ‘em an’ fetches ‘em on Sat’day. She better if she wanter eat… Sykes Jones ain’t wuth de shot an’ powder hit would tek tuh kill ‘em”. Their conversation shows that they do not see Sykes as anything (worthless and useless). On page 43 Walter said, “It’s too bad, too, cause she wuz a right pretty… Ah’d uh mah’ied huh mahself if he hadnter beat me to it”. It seems as if he is jealous that Sykes got Delia when he wanted her and he dislikes Sykes even more for the fact that Sykes abuses her.
In both stories, the portrayal of the men reflects on the contexts in which the stories were written. One of the things that affected the men’s portrayal in the stories were society. Both Framer Lodge and Sykes had the upper hand in situations, and they caused distress to the women; Farmer Lodge by not taking care of Rhoda and his son and the gloomy behaviour when Gertrude had her withered arm, and Sykes by abusing Delia. Due to the times at which both stories were written, this type of behaviour from men was common and accepted by women. It was disregarded as walking out on your husband because you are there to please him, just as Gertrude was doing by going to extreme measures to cure her arm as Farmer Lodge was so impressed by looks and just as Delia was doing by working her ‘sweat and blood’ to keep Sykes alive and fed. The society in which Sykes and Delia was in made Sykes isolated because he was black, so when he came home he felt powerful by doing those thing to Delia as he is not powerful when he goes out due to the ‘white on black’ situation. Wealth was a factor, which affected the portrayal of both men. Farmer Lodge was an upper class man with pride, and this pride led him to show of his externals e.g. Gertrude and his business rather than to be content with his internals and look after his offspring. The same applied to Sykes, because he was not working and Delia brought all the money home he felt powerful and proud of the fact he has the upper hand and this made him act ruthlessly towards Delia.