Death as a Short Story Element

The short stories "Sweat" by Zora Neale Hurston, "Bright and Morning Star" by Richard Wright, and "A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor, each end with at least one death. The characters that die are all primary characters in the story, meaning that these authors have a specific purpose behind the use of death in the stories. The three also stories share an element of Christianity in them. In the Christian belief, human souls go to either heaven or hell. In Christianity, death signals a time of ultimate judgment, making the deaths in these stories much more powerful because of the element of finality attached. The deaths at the end of "Sweat" and "Bright and Morning Star" share a sense of triumph and victory, though they differ as to whether the hero lives or dies. The deaths at the end of "A Good Man is Hard to Find," on the other hand, signal defeat and illustrate the negative aspect of humanity.

Hurston's "Sweat," written in 1926, contains only two primary characters, Delia and her husband Sykes. From the beginning, Hurston illustrates the animosity between the two by showing how hard Delia works at her laundry job to provide for the two and how little respect Sykes gives her. He scares her with his whip when he comes home -- she thinks it's a snake and she's deathly afraid of snakes -- and tries to start an argument. To further demean her, "He stepped roughly upon the whitest pile of things, kicking them helter-skelter as he crossed the room." As Delia's "habitual meekness seemed to slip from her shoulders like a blown scarf," she stands up to him by telling him, "'Mah tub of suds is filled yo' belly with vittles more times than yo' hands is filled it.'" But he just calls her an "'ole snaggle-toothed black woman'" and leaves to be with his mistress, an affair he does not even bother hiding from her: "she knew very well that he would not return until nearly daybreak."

Hurston sets up their relationship, which the rest of the story reinforces, to create a triumphal conclusion in his death. Other people in the town also remark on Sykes treatment of Delia: "dey squeeze an' grind, squeeze an' grind an' wring tell dey wring every drop uh pleasure dat's in 'em out. . . .Den dey hates huh fuh bein' a cane-chew an' in de way." Sykes tries to scare her out of the house, the house she earned with her backbreaking labor, by bringing home a live snake, which he later puts in her laundry basket. She is so afraid of snakes she spends the rest of the night in the barn where "she lay sprawled upon the hay a gibbering wreck." But while she is there, her fear turns into "a cold, bloody rage," and then "an awful calm." In this mood she finally sleeps, suggesting that she has moved beyond her terror. In the morning, she knows Sykes is inside the house and she knows the snake is inside the house because she hears it rattle. However, she does not warn him of the dangerous and now-hungry rattlesnake, which proceeds to bite him on the neck and kill him. This is her triumph.

Sykes is the one who brings the deadly creature into the house in the first place, perhaps only trying to scare her. She survives his threats and his tricks, but the only way she can truly triumph is if he dies. He, who does not work and openly cheats on her, does not deserve to be with her, but she does not win if he leaves with his mistress, Bertha. As he is dying, and calls for her to comfort him, she from him. As the final touch to her victory, her laundry baskets are sitting where he cannot miss them, meaning that he "must know by now that she knew." He knows that she knew the snake was loose in the house, but did not tell him. His wife lets him die, and he dies fully aware of this fact.

Concluding the story with this revelation leaves the reader with the sense that Delia is the victor not by accident but by her own purposeful actions. She does not warn Sykes, instead waiting for him to discover the snake as she "crouched beneath the low bedroom window." She is a devout churchgoer, which means she must have a knowledge of heaven and hell. Hurston creates in Sykes a character that is certainly not going to heaven, thus, Delia condemns her husband to eternal damnation by not telling him of the snake's whereabouts. This story was written recently after the conclusion of World War I, suggesting perhaps a larger consciousness on the part of the author and the audience to ideas of good and evil. This story tells of good winning over evil by standing firm, despite the fact that the evil is stronger and braver.

Another story that ends with a triumphal death is Wright's "Bright and Morning Star," written in 1940. Although this time the hero, Sue, and her son, Johnny-Boy, are brutally killed by the sheriff's men, Sue's death is a victory because she gives up her life instead of letting them take it from her and she redeems her misdeed of telling Booker the names of the members of the Communist group. Even though she does not survive, Sue is victorious in her own small way, through her act of defiance.

Johnny Boy makes a brief entrance into the story when he comes home to eat and leaves quickly. Sue knows he will probably not return from this trip, thinking to herself, "'Hes gone! Lawd, Ah know hes gone!' Her blood felt cold." Her other son was arrested for his political beliefs and never came home, just as she thinks Johnny-Boy will not, especially as the sheriff is coming closer to getting names and making arrests, helped by an informant within the party. He and his men even come to her house in the middle of the night looking for Johnny-Boy. She defies their threats, saying, "'Ef telling yuh t git outta mah house is sass, then Ahm sassy!" But when Booker comes later, she tells him the names of the party members, then learns from Reva that he is the informant. Sue must redeem her actions or else many people will die at the hands of the sheriff.

She beats Booker to his rendezvous with the sheriff, hiding a gun under her white sheet, which the sheriff tells her to bring to cover Johnny-Boy. She waits for Booker to arrive, watching the sheriff torture her son, so she can redeem her mistake. She shoots Booker as he arrives, before he can spill the names. Before she can put Johnny-Boy out of his misery, the men are on her, but, "she was suddenly at peace." As they decide what to do with her, "She waited, giving up her life before they took it from her; she had done what she wanted." She succeeds, then she and Johnny-Boy are killed: "She gave up as much of her life as she could before they took it from her." As she dies, she tells them, "'Yuh didnt git what yuh wanted! N yuh ain gonna nevah git it!"'

Like Delia, Sue has a moment of control at the end, despite the much more powerful people that surround her. She gives up her life by being at peace with her actions and ready to die, instead of having her life wrenched from her. The death of Booker also signals Sue's victory because he failed to give away the names. But, her triumph is smaller than Delia's. Her action only temporarily slows down the sheriff. He will find another way to break apart the Communist group. The racial tensions rampant in the story are not solved by Sue's death. No easy solution to the larger problems in the community exists, to be experienced by the "doomed living." In "Sweat," the elimination of Sykes eliminated all the problems in the story.

Sue dies "Focused and pointed. . . buried in the depths of her star, swallowed in its peace and strength." That star is the bright and morning star she sees as she dies, which is also a name for used Jesus Christ. In the Christian belief, Jesus died to save the lives of many, just as Sue dies to save the lives others. This story was written just before World War II, a time when the world was realizing the awful power of the Nazi regime. This story reflects that mood. Despite Sue's triumph, the evil of racism, which drove her sons to the Communist party where they "began to boast of the strength shed by a new and terrible vision," still exists. Powerful evils are not so easily eliminated.

Unlike the deaths in "Sweat" and "Bright and Morning Star," the deaths that conclude "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" are not triumphal for the heroes because they signal a fallen world, full of evil and without much hope. The six deaths at the end are the most of the three short stories. The Misfit's men murder every member of the grandmother's family, including the baby.

Perhaps the worst part about these deaths is that the characters surrender to the Misfit and their eventual fate without a fight. When they meet the Misfit, he calmly tells Bailey and John Wesley, "'The boys want to ast you something. . . . Would you mind stepping back into them woods there with them?" At this hint that they are about to be murdered, Bailey speaks and his voice cracks, signifying his distress, but he lets Hiram, one of the Misfit's men, pull him up from the ground "as if he were assisting an old man." With that, the doomed family members walk back into the woods without struggle or flight. They accept the idea that the Misfit is a dangerous criminal and they are under his control, thus they will be murdered. When the Misfit asks the mother if she would like to join her murdered husband, she answers, "'Yes, thank you'" and calmly takes her baby and her daughter with her into the forest.

The Misfit sees the world as an unfair place, which contributes to Wright's portrayal of an evil world. The Misfit tells the grandmother, "'Does it seem right to you, lady, that one is punished a heap and another ain't punished at all?" He believes in Jesus, but does not quite believe in the miracles associated with Jesus, according to Christianity, because he tells the grandmother, "'If He did what he said, then it's nothing for you to do but thow away everything and follow Him, and if He didn't, then it's nothing for you to do but enjoy the few minutes you got left the best way you can -- by killing somebody or burning down his house or doing some other meanness to him.'" The Misfit does not have an optimistic view of life and tells the grandmother he only takes pleasure in meanness. The grandmother tries to reach out the him, even touching him on the shoulder, which immediately causes him to jump "as if a snake had bitten him" and shoot her three times. This is the last death in the story. This death is not a victory for the Misfit because he says of it, "'It's no real pleasure in life.'"

The deaths conclude the story with a tone of gloom and a loss of hope. At the slightest sign of human touch, the Misfit recoils and reacts violently. The family surrenders to their deaths as if it is something to be expected, and perhaps in the dark world that O'Connor portrays, it is. As a story written in 1953, just after World War II, it is quite pessimistic. The deaths portray an evil, fallen world devoid of justice. Although the Allies won the war, perhaps this is a reminder that evil still exists and the world is still a place that can create the horrors associated with the war.

The death at the end of "Sweat" is Delia's triumph. She has rid herself of Sykes and is free to live in peace. The deaths at the end of "Bright and Morning Star" are also a victory because Johnny-Boy dies for the cause he believes in and Sue dies to right her wrong and save the lives she endangered. Although these characters who die are victorious in their own small ways, the world they live in is not much better for their deaths and is still full of division and conflict. The deaths at the end of "A Good Man is Hard to Find" are far from those in "Sweat." The victims surrender to their fate without a struggle and let the evil characters triumph easily. But even the Misfit, who is victorious, takes no sense of satisfaction in his deeds and finds the world an ugly place.