Delia Jones Timeline and Summary

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• Mrs. Jones sorts clothes in the kitchen on a Sunday night in small town central Florida.
• She hums and wonders where her husband Sykes went off to with her horse.
• Speak of the devil—Sykes sneaks up behind her and wraps his bullwhip around her shoulders.
• Delia mistakes the whip for a snake and freaks out.
• Delia says what he did is a 'sin' and that her pony "aint fuh you to be drivin' wid no bull whip" (7).
• Sykes ignores her and kicks her hard work around. Her response? "Ah aint for no fuss t'night Sykes. Ah just come from taking sacrament at the church house" (12).
• Still, he keeps on and she threatens him with an iron skillet.
• Before she goes to bed, Delia says, "Oh well, whatever goes over the Devil's back, is got to come under his belly" (27).
• Summer comes and Delia keeps working hard while her husband cheats with a big, ugly woman named Bertha.
• One day, Sykes brings home a snake and Delia exclaims, "Syke! Syke, mah Gawd! You take dat rattlesnake 'way from heah! You gottuh" (65).
• Does he listen to her? Of course not.
• Does she finally let him have it? Yes: "Ah don't wantuh see yuh 'roun' me at all. Lay 'roun' wid dat 'oman all yuh wants tuh, but gwan 'way fum me an' mah house" (79).
• Goodbye, misery. Well, almost…the snake's still in the house.
• While working, Delia finds the snake in her hamper.
• She freaks out and runs to the barn. She lies there full of fright, rage, and "Out of this an awful calm" (93).
• Sykes comes back to the house. The rattlesnake bites him, and Delia sees and hears everything.
• Instead of helping, she runs to the chinaberry tree and there "she waited in the growing heat while inside she knew the cold river was creeping up and up to extinguish [Sykes's] eye" (108).