English2010.55

The analogy of sugar cane to domestic violence that Clarke made was a clever way of foreshadowing the end of the story. Just as sugar cane dries out after all the sugar juice is gone, Delia's sweetness towards Sykes had been beaten out through years of torment. Delia didn't want to help her husband in any way becuase it had never been returned. I loved the way Delia was vindicated at the end of the story, when her husband was the helpless one, being bit by the very snake he brought home to scare her with. Her husband was left to fend for himself, finally getting a justifyied taste of his own medicine.