Comparing Sweat And In Search Of Our Mother's Garden
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The fundamental difference between both readings is that Zora Neale Hurston’s "Sweat" is a short story and "In Search of Our Mother's Garden" by Alice Walker is an essay. Both readings share the common themes of oppression, self-actualization and liberation. The concepts that Hurston explores in ‘Sweat’ manifest themselves in Walker’s essay. In my opinion, ‘Sweat’ is a direct reference to the idiom ‘by the sweat of a man’s brow, he shall eat,’ as we read of Delia, a black woman who works hard to make her way through life, despite being the victim of perpetual domestic abuse and infidelity from her husband of 15 years. It is Delia’s hard work that has fed them and paid for the house, yet her unemployed husband tries to have dominance over her.