The twentieth century became a turning point in the destiny of women. For many years the most important role of a woman was to give birth to a child and bring up a successful member of society. For many years women had no opportunity to get a good education, not because women are less clever, but because their social role did not predetermine any education except the one which is necessary for the aspect of social role. Women could not take part in such aspects of social life as voting. In other words, a century ago women were devoid of any pleasure and attractiveness of life to which men were accustomed. The range of interests of an average woman was limited by family interests, nothing more, and nothing less.
In the story Sweat by Zora Neale Hurston one can find lots of examples of social inequality of women and men. In the novel, the author highlighted that the position of a woman depended not only on her status as “a woman”, but also on age, income, race, religion, occupation, etc. In other words, the position of a woman was rather difficult for many years. For the clear representation of women who lived at the beginning of the twentieth century, the author applied such a trick as a depiction of local color. On the one hand, it represented a true social situation, and on the other hand, it helped to illustrate the life of Afro-American people at the beginning of the twentieth century. The speech of the story’s character serves as the main technique to underline the culture, religion, social place, and geographical location of the place where the story is held. The author skillfully applies the dialect of the Afro-Americans. For example, in such a way, she demonstrates the level of education of people. If to be more correct, Zora Neale Hurston shows that the majority, if not all, Afro-American people in the 1930s were illiterate. Of course, it could not influence the level of general culture and system of values: “Yo sho is one aggravatin’ nigger woman!” (Hurston 206). From the phrase “Gawd! how Ah hates skinny wimmen!” (Hurston 207) we can see that the author highlighted that level of communication was pure. It was the phrase of Sykes: it is the understandable form it that the man does not respect any woman, for him a woman is a just a miserable living creature, but not a personality.
The dialect used in the story hints that development takes place in the southern part of the United States. In such a way Zora Neale Hurston makes a reader think over a historical context of the area, Eatonville. It is not a secret that the social situation for Afro-Americans was more difficult just there. In this aspect, the author suggests that economical status was another reason for such social problems.
Language was the most important technique to deliver social stagnation in the 1930s. Although Zora Neale Hurston was criticized for she crammed the story with samples of the dialect, still, it is obvious that it was the best way to depict the local color of Afro-Americans in 1930s, making it sound real. The writer applied local speech to deliver to readers, black and white, men and women, the true description of life, culture, and wisdom of Afro-American people at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Work Cited
Hurston, Zora Neale. The Complete Stories. New York: Harper Perennial, 1996. Print.