In "Sweat," Sykes and Delia's decaying marriage exemplifies a paradox that Joe Clarke recognizes in abusive relationships. Joe Clarke compares women to sugar cane, and suggests that men wring all the sweetness out of their wives, effectively depleting them—and then resent their wives for not having any sweetness left. In other words, they make their wives miserable and then despise them for being miserable.
Joe Clarke outlines this paradox:
There's plenty men dat takes a wife lak day do a join uh sugar-cane. It's round, juicy an' sweet when dey gets it. But hey squeeze an' grind, squeeze an' grind an' wring tell hey wring every drop uh pleasure dat's in em out... Dey knows whut dey is doin’ while dey is at it, an’ hates theirselves fuh it but they keeps on hangin’ after huh tell she’s empty. Den dey hates huh fuh bein’ a cane-chew an' in de way.
Clarke uses a simile—comparing women to sugar cane—to illustrate this paradoxical relationship between abusive men and their wives. Sykes is a prototypical example of this kind of man; when he married Delia, she was a "pretty little trick," but Sykes's treatment has drained the life and beauty out of her:
Too much knockin' will ruin any 'oman. [Skyes] done beat huh 'nough tuh kill three women, let 'lone change they looks.
While Delia's lost youth is the direct result of Sykes's abuse, Sykes also claims it as the reason why he has moved on to another woman. Sykes tells Delia that he "hates skinny wimmen" and spends his time with Bertha, a woman whom Clarke describes as "fat." The physical difference between Delia and Bertha tracks the metaphorical "squeezin' and grindin" that occurs in an abusive relationship—because Delia has spent years with Sykes, she has become "skinny," while Bertha, a new addition to Sykes's life, is still "big." The paradox of this passage lies in the fact that while Sykes resents Delia for being a shadow of her former self, he has only himself to blame for her "empty" state.
