Silent Suffering and Loud Resistance: A Comparative Feminist Analysis of Kate Chopin’s "Desiree Baby" and Zora Neale Hurston’s "Sweat"

https://doi.org/10.55966/assaj.2025.4.1.0105

Abstract

This paper offers a comparative feminist analysis of "Desiree Baby" and Sweat by Kate Chopin and Zora Neale Hurston, respectively, with a focus on the theme of silent suffering and loud resistance among the contexts of gender, race, and class. The analysis itself is based on the intersectional feminist theory and follows a qualitative approach, to explore the emotional and psychological response of the protagonists to oppression through the means of a thematic analysis. The paper unveils how the passive resistance exhibited by Desiree’s in the story Desiree’s Baby reflects the constraints of the 19th century social principles and racial bigotry, but the aggression and defiant nature of Delia in the story Sweat represents an unveiled resistance against domestic violence and a larger gender inequality. Also, the study delves into the connotations of motherhood, sexual banishment, and gender-based oppression as having an influence on how the characters feel in their agency and power. On the backdrop of these two narratives, the study sets out the complexity of relationship between gendered and racial identities, providing a deeper understanding of the ways women have developed resistance in their silent and outspoken forms under oppressive societal structures. The current paper contributes to feminist literary criticism by illuminating how women reacted to systematic degradation in various ways, emphasizing that the ability to speak up is not the only important reaction to oppression in the quest to achieve autonomy.

Keywords: Feminist Literary Criticism, Intersectionality, Silent Suffering, Loud Resistance, Gender, Race, Class, Agency, Feminist Theory, Domestic Abuse, Sexual Violence, Motherhood