Author Question: What importance does the setting of Sweat have to its action? What will be an ideal ... (Read 72 times)

itsmyluck · **on:** Jul 20, 2018

What importance does the setting of Sweat have to its action?

What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

Is Paul a static character or a dynamic one? If you find him changing anddeveloping in the course of the story, can you indicate what changes him?

What will be an ideal response?

Jody Vaughn · **Reply #1 on:** Jul 20, 2018

Answer to Question 1

The story takes place mostly in a house on the outskirts of a small Florida town (which critics identify with Hurstons hometown of Eatonville). The isolation of Delias home is essential to the plot. Its distance from town means that she has no protection there from Sykess violence, just as its isolation ultimately gives Sykes no escape from his slow, painful death by snakebite. The setting is also important to the storys motivation. Delia has bought the house with her own hard work. Sykes wants to kill her for the house so that he can bring another woman home to it. The house also becomes a symbol to the otherwise disappointed Delia of what she has managed to accomplish in her hard, painful life. (It was lovely to her, lovely.)

Answer to Question 2

The only change in Pauls character during the story seems to be the fairly minor one mentioned in paragraphs 4243. Once settled in at the Waldorf, he realizes he is no longer dreading something. Is this change enough to justify our calling him a dynamic character? The change seems to signal in Paul a deepening involvement in an unreal world rather than any growth. We think hes a static character. His perceptions and values, and the actions that follow from them, remain unchanged.