Comparing The Gilded Six Bits, By Zora Neale Hurston

Harlem Renaissance was a cultural and intellectual explosion throughout the 1920s. It was a movement to normalize African American culture. Zora Neale Hurston was a leading writer in this particular movement. Hurston didn’t agree with communism like other artist in the Harlem Renaissance and was rejected during that time but was very popular later on in life. According to Kaplan, D. (2010), “Zora Neale Hurston was the best and most prolific African American woman writer of the 1930’s” (para. 2). She was very focused on the idea of otherness and being against the societal norm. She wrote pieces that reflected the culture of African Americans. Accomplishing that concept by writing about events in her life that meant something to her and reflecting others life within her writing. Hurston illustrates the idea of otherness in her characters by going against what was socially acceptable at the time.

In “The Gilded Six Bits,” Zora

In the Harlem Renaissance, writers tried to convey that even if society portrayed something as abnormal it does not have to be. In “The Gilded Six Bits,” Zora Neale Hurston creates the idea of otherness in Missie May by cheating on her husband, just so she could receive the “gold coin” for him. In “How it Feels to Be Colored Me,” Hurston creates the idea of otherness in herself by not knowing about how society views her race, and going against it. It has been shown that Hurston creates otherness within her characters. In fact, much of her writings are autobiographical most of the time. The characters are always showing determination and courage to do anything. Particularly, having some similar qualities as Zora Neale Hurston. As mentioned before, her stories did not agree with the ethics of racial division or other ideas of the Harlem Renaissance. And by her; sometimes, rejected for that, she always wanted to deliver some form of message to