Summary
Delia works through another busy week, and the next Saturday she goes in her horse-drawn buckboard as usual to deliver and collect laundry. It is a very hot July day. The village men sit on the porch of Joe Clarke's store chewing sugarcane. It is so hot that "conversation had collapsed under the heat," and they do not even "hurl the cane-knots as usual" (1024) when they are done with them, instead allowing them to collect and fall over the side of the porch. Delia begins to come past the store with her horse and carriage, nodding at the men in acknowledgement as she goes.
Joe Lindsay, one of the village men, remarks on Delia's reliability, noting that regardless of the weather she goes around town on Saturday doing her rounds. Moss says that she needs to be reliable if she wants to eat, because Sykes certainly is not helping: "Syke Jones aint wuth de shot an' powder hit would tek tuh kill 'em. Not to huh he aint" (1024). Walter Thomas agrees with Moss' assessment of Sykes, saying that it is regrettable because Delia was very pretty when Sykes married her. Walter Thomas says he would have married her himself if he could have. Elijah Moseley observes that too much abuse will "ruin any 'oman," adding that Sykes has "beat huh 'nough tuh kill three women, let 'lone change they looks" (1024). He expresses bewilderment at Sykes' affair with Bertha, who he calls a "big black greasy Mogul" and an "eight-rock" (1024). Merchant responds that Sykes loves her because she is big-bodied, whereas Delia is small and thin. Sykes, he says, has always "been crazy 'bout fat women" (1024).
Merchant recounts that Sykes even came to his own house once, trying to seduce his wife by offering a basket of pecans. His wife told Sykes to take them back because Delia spends so much time working that she imagines everything that grows at their house tastes like "sweat an' soapsuds" (1024). Thomas affirms Merchant's account, saying that he constantly sees Sykes making passes at women. But he recollects also that there was a time fifteen years ago when Sykes was much humbler than now, and much more inclined to be good to Delia, because he was afraid to lose her.
Lindsay suggests that there should be a law to make men like Sykes be good husbands, but Joe Clarke, the store owner, speaks for the first time to say that there is "no law on earth dat kin make a man be decent if it aint in 'im" (1025). He suggests that many men treat their wives like they do a piece of sugarcane. "It's round, juicy an' sweet when dey gits it. But dey squeeze an' grind, squeeze an' grind" until every last drop of sweetness and pleasure is wrung out. When this happens, they discard them just as they would a used piece of cane-chew. Clarke observes also that the men are aware of what they are doing when they do this, and that they hate themselves for it. Then, when she is finished, they hate her, for being "a cane-chew an' in de way" (1025).
Old Man Anderson contributes that they should take Sykes and Bertha to Lake Howell swamp and whip them. He says that Sykes has always been overbearing, but has become even more so since a white woman from the North taught him how to "run a automobile" (1025). In fact, Anderson says, they should just kill him. The men grunt in approval. Elijah Moseley, feeling bothered by the heat, asks Joe Clarke to bring out a watermelon for them. Clarke responds that he will bring them a watermelon if they contribute twenty cents each. The melon is brought out, but the men put it away because Sykes and Bertha approach. The men leave.
Delia passes again on her rounds as Sykes is ordering lavishly for Bertha, which gives him tremendous pleasure. He tells Bertha to "git whutsoever yo' heart desires, Honey," requesting "two botles uh strawberry soda-water, uh quart uh parched ground-peas, an' a block uh chewin' gum" (1025). They leave the store and Sykes tells Bertha that he owns the town and she can have anything she wants in it.
The men return after Sykes leaves and eat their watermelon. They discuss Bertha, who Sykes has brought to town from another town named Apopka. They insult her looks again, stating that she looks like "a hunk uh liver wid hair on it" (1025). Dave Carter adds that she certainly has a loud laugh: "No ole grandpa alligator down in Lake Bell ain't got nothin' on huh" (1026).
Analysis
This section is rich in interest for its depiction of the relationship between men and women, particularly in the racial context of the United States. The conversation shared by the men on the porch of Joe Clarke's store, and especially the analogy that Joe Clarke makes of men treating women like they do sugarcane, broadens the significance of the story of Delia and Sykes. It is not simply the story of a bad marriage or of a hardworking and virtuous woman abused by a cruel and irresponsible man. Instead, the conversation between the men makes the relationship between Delia and Sykes symbolic of patriarchal gender relations more broadly, especially as they pertain to the African-American community in the early 20th century.
The conversation between the men, first of all, reinforces the theme of Delia's reliability and resilience. It is so hot that the men cannot even raise the energy to throw the used pieces of sugarcane away as they usually do, instead allowing them to "dribble" off the porch. However, Jim Merchant notes that Delia comes around on her rounds just the same, in all kinds of weather, suggesting the ways in which Delia is remarkably reliable despite tough conditions. Moss adds that she must be if she wants to survive, given that Sykes does nothing to help. This theme is further established when the men discuss how Delia once used to be very pretty, but over the years has been worn down by the penurious life she lives and the terrible abuse she suffers at Sykes' hand. "Too much knockin' will ruin any 'oman. He done beat huh 'nough tuh kill three women, let 'lone change they looks" (1024), says Elijah Moseley. This reinforces the idea of Delia as a figure of effectively superhuman endurance, since she has survived what Moseley perhaps rhetorically says would kill three women.
Joe Clarke's analogy provides a framework for understanding the relationship between Delia and Sykes. Many men, he says, treat a woman as they do a piece of sugarcane. The analogy is very useful, but suggests that the men on the porch might also still be limited in their ability to understand women as human beings, in that it portrays women as a kind of expendable object, something that can be "used up." Joe Clarke says that these men know what they are doing while they do it, but cannot stop themselves. Then, once the woman is beaten down by the abuse, they hate her even more for "bein' a cane-chew an' in de way" (1025).
This seems to ring true for Sykes' relationship to Delia, because it is clear that Sykes is not indifferent and does not simply wish to get away with being unfaithful or lazy. Instead, Sykes goes out of his way to punish Delia, showing that even if it manifests in hate, Sykes is deeply invested in his relationship in some way. Clarke's analogy provides an avenue for understanding that the way Sykes hates Delia may actually be a form of hating himself. This in turn can be considered a commentary on the effects of racial oppression on black men in the United States.
Moss' ambiguous statement about Sykes opens up the possibility of interpreting his character differently. Moss states that Sykes "aint wuth de shot an' powder hit would tek tuh kill' em. Not to huh he aint." As Barbara Ryan points out, readers and critics commonly assume, not unfairly, that Sykes is unemployed and brings in no money (72). However, Ryan observes, we are never actually told that Sykes does not have a job: only that he does not contribute to the household that he shares with Delia, or support her in any way (72). "Not to huh he aint" raises the possibility that Sykes actually is helpful in other contexts, namely in the case of Bertha, whose rent he pays in town and upon whom he lavishes gifts. This hypothesis would also resolve the question of where Sykes obtains the money for these expenses. It seems unlikely that Delia would provide money for this purpose, so unless Sykes is stealing from Delia and the story does not address it, it seems much more plausible that Sykes has his own sources of income. After all, the men also note that once a white woman from the North taught Sykes how to run a car, he became unbearably arrogant (another nod to racial hierarchies whereby proximity to whiteness, whether through association with a white person or being light-skinned, can afford a black person certain advantages). This may be a clue to what Sykes does when he is not at home with Delia.
