Most good stories start with a fundamental list of ingredients: the initial situation, conflict, complication, climax, suspense, denouement, and conclusion. Great writers sometimes shake up the recipe and add some spice.
Exposition (Initial Situation)
So Fresh, So Clean
Delia Jones is a hard working washwoman, a churchgoer, and an all-around good person. Unfortunately, she's married to a cold, violent man of little talents—except, of course, if you count courting and dating multiple women at one time a talent (which we certainly don't). This dirty life all takes place in small-town Florida, a less-than idyllic place to live post-slavery and pre-women's rights.
Conflict
Domestic Bliss? Not so much.
There's conflict from the get go when Delia realizes Sykes has taken her horse without asking, but things get really hairy when she defends herself from his threats with an iron-skillet. We don't know if she'd actually hit him, but just the fact that she stands up for herself makes Sykes, "a little awed by this new Delia" (25).
Complication
Snake in a box
Delia may have decided to turn the other cheek and not let Sykes bring her down anymore, but that doesn't necessarily mean she's won the war. Out of sheer nastiness, Sykes comes back with a less-than-romantic gift—a rattlesnake. This is the straw that breaks the camel's back. Delia has finally taken all the horse-poop she can muster and says that she now hates Sykes to the same degree that she used to love him.
Turning point
Karma is a big brown snake…
…And it aint' too forgiving. When the snake escapes and drives Delia out of her house and into the barn to hide, Sykes comes back. Does he hope to find her dead? We're not sure, but we do know that he's in the wrong place at the wrong time—it's pitch black in the house and he doesn't have a match. As soon as the rattler starts to whir, we know things aren't looking too good for nasty ol' Sykes.
Resolution
This is (er, was) a man's world!
Sykes's has finally met his reptilian match and we're left with a pretty open and shut case. Delia sees Sykes struggle, hears his screams and pleas and almost goes to help him: "A surge of pity too strong to support bore her away from that eye" […] (108). Do we think she could have helped him in some way? Is she right or wrong in her actions? That, dear reader, is up to you to decide.