Animal Symbolism - "Sweat" and "Revelation"

            Many stories use symbols to help explain the moral of the story using visual stimulation instead of just using words. Authors may often use animals as such symbols. Some common animals that many authors use include snakes, pigs, dogs, horses, and some use sheep as well. It is often difficult to understand what each symbol means in a story, especially an animal's meaning. To understand the meaning better, one must analyze the story as a whole and not just the symbol. Many events that happen in a story may link to the symbol in a deeper way than one may first think. Two short stories that use animals to symbolize a part of the story include "Sweat" by Zora Neale Hurston, and "Revelation" by Flannery O"Connor. .
             "Sweat" has many symbols, including the snake in which Sykes torments and attempts to murder his wife Delia. Sykes and the snake are similar in many ways; they both represent evil, control (power), masculinity, and fear. Delia is deathly afraid of snakes, which is apparent when Sykes throws a whip on Delia's back. She responds in a very frightful manner, "Sykes, why you throw dat whip on me like dat? You know it would skeer me - looks just like a snake, an" you knows how skeered ah is of snakes." Both the snake and Sykes torment Delia in evil ways; causing her to practically lose her mind beyond her control. Possibly the only thing protecting Delia from Sykes and the snake could be her Christian beliefs. However, despite being a Christian woman, the snake may also represent Delia's evil thoughts. She is afraid of the snake just as she is afraid of her own thoughts and feelings about her husband, Sykes, being killed by the snake at her fault. Her beliefs as a Christian banish her thoughts of killing Sykes herself; therefore, she does nothing about the snake to move it out of the house. Nevertheless, when Sykes comes home, the snake bites him, and Delia does nothing about it.