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Analysis Of Gilded Six-Bits By Zora Neale Hurston

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Zora Neale Hurston was an American novelist who published more than 50 short stories. One of her stories is called “The Gilded Six-Bits” which is a story about a couple who loved each other, until one of them had an affair. The two main characters in the story are Joe and Missie May. Joe loved his wife and brought her chocolate kisses every day. Everything was going perfectly fine until one day a person named Otis Slemmons shows up to open an ice cream parlor and caused havoc in their marriage. Slemmons was wearing gold, which lured Missie May to him. A few days later, Joe returns home early and discovers that, there is something going on in his house when he hears Missie May. Joe was able to see Slemmons and Missie May together having an affair. Joe also managed to hit Slemmons with his gold watch. That is when Joe discovers that the gold Slemmons had was fake. After months go by Missie May becomes pregnant, and their newborn child brings them closer together. Hoeller Hildegard in her article “Racial Currency” states that, Zora Neale Hurston shows that race and money are the same issue. On …show more content…

Chinn claims that the story portrays a realistic life of someone living in the South. During this time everyone wanted to have gold because of its value. Chinn also says that Hurston has been underrated as a folklorist, who had ears, eyes, and fingers on storytelling. In a way Hurston is able to put herself in the story maybe even revealing something about her own personal life. Making money during this time became national concerns as the United States economic crisis deepened. Joe makes all the money, but the family only has necessities, such as fresh newspapers, dollar clock, and a clean meal sack. The couple still had enough to live their lives perfectly fine even though there was an economic

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Even though Missie May and Joe enjoy teasing and making fun of one another, readers understand how much the two characters love each other through the tone and style of writing that Hurston uses. However, the tone of the story quickly changes with the mention of Otis Slemmons. The tone and attitude of Joe turns

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608 Words | 3 Pages

Missy May. At the end of the story, Joe finds out that the gold coin that Slemmons left under the pillow for Missy was fake. He realizes that Slemmons was a fraud the whole time. Zora Neale Hurston uses symbols, characters, and plot to develop the theme of deception.

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In the story, ‘The Gilded Six – Bits’ revolves around the two main characters, Missie May and Joe. They both reside in a predominantly black neighborhood or community. Joe works at G and G Fertilizer. He is the one completes the financial duties.

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Temptation led to forgiveness in aspects of materialistic items. Missie May had an affair with Otis Slemmons, he represents wealth and influence which Missie May does not have the privilege of in her marriage. Zora Neale Hurston emphasizes his wealth in order to

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In both stories, the author uses symbols to show how love is portrayed in the short stories. First, in the story The Gilded Six-bits, the author uses the title to carry the story. A gilded six bit is a fake gold coin, but also the relationship between Joe and Missie May is gilded. The author showed this when Joe taunted Missie and placed the coin under her pillow to represent the loss of their marriage. In the text it says, “but the next day, as she joyfully made up their bed, beneath her pillow she found the piece of money with the bit of chain attached” (Hurston 734).

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Zora Hurston uses vivid imagery, natural diction, and several literary tools in her essay “How It Feels to Be Colored Me”. Hurston’s use of imagery, diction, and literary tools in “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” contributes to, and also compliments, the essay’s theme which is her view on life as a “colored” person. Throughout “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” Hurston carefully incorporates aspects of her African American culture in an effort to recapture her ancestral past. Hurston’s use of imagery, diction, and use of literary tools shape her essay into a piece of Harlem Renaissance work. Imagery in “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” is quite abundant.

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When people are poor, they often have a lot of problems in their life. They struggle through every day, but they learn to appreciate everything that they have. However, when people are going through tough times, they often think that money will solve all of their problems. In “A Raisin In The Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry, she guides the audience through a black family -- impacted by the need for money -- living on the south side of Chicago. The Younger family gets Lena Younger’s dead husband’s insurance check and buys a house in a white neighborhood, and they save the remainder of the money for Beneatha’s medical degree and for starting a liquor store.

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Hurston tells the story of Janie, a black woman who because of her grandmother experiences and beliefs was forced to marry into a loveless marriage with Logan Killicks, a hard-working farmer who had 60 acres of land and could provide for Janie. This marriage ended when Janie ran away with Joe Stark, a man that she fell in love with and thought could give her the love absent between her and Logan. But Janie soon realized that her second marriage wouldn’t turn out better than her first. Joe was just as controlling and degrading as Logan. He hardly expressed his love for Janie and spoke to her like an incompetent child.

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930 Words | 4 Pages

Slemmons is a wealthy, new man in town that everybody is in awe of; Joe especially, and eventually that leads to hardship in the marriage between him and Missie May. She sleeps with Slemmons because he promises gold, but what ultimately leads her to be unfaithful? Is it that she wants it - thinking only of herself? Or, is she thinking that she

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1693 Words | 7 Pages

Overcoming Infidelity The Gilded Six-Bits was published in 1933 by Zora Neale Hurston. Hurston enjoys writing about the celebration of being black in America. Some other works that Hurston has wrote include Sweat, Spunk, etc. Her most famous work was her novel “Their Eyes were Watching God.” The Gilded Six-Bits is about an African American couple who tries to fix their relationship after the wife cheats on her husband with a rich guy.

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Mister Slemmons perceived that the value of money is very important when it comes to the turning point in this story. Mister Slemmons acquired wealth and materialistic possessions gain him a lot of attention. He, his own self allows people such as women, to treat him differently. Mister Slemmons is treated more as an object than a physical human being in which he doesn’t seem to mind. Joe, another character in the book, is absolutely fascinated by Mister Slemmons.

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1992 Words | 8 Pages

Hurston and Janie both endured oppression during their lives based upon their race and gender however, their strong wills propelled them threw unforeseen obstacle. Zora Neale Hurston was a phenomenal African American woman whom despite her rough childhood would become one of the most profound authors of the century. Throughout her lifetime she was the, “Recipient of two Guggenheims and the author of four novels, a dozen short stories, two musicals, two books on black mythology, dozens of essays, and a prizewinning autobiography” (Gates 4). Hurston had to overcome numerous obstacles because of her gender, economic status, and racial identity. Hurston was born in 1891 in Notasulga, Alabama but grew up in Eatonville, Florida.

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In the short story Sweat written by Zora Neale Hurston, she tells the story of a hard-working woman named Delia Jones and her abusive, cheating husband Sykes. Delia and Sykes are drastically different characters. Delia is an honest, church going woman, who cleans white people 's laundry to make ends meet and Skyes is a low-down womanizer who uses his wife 's income to support not only himself but also Bertha the woman he is having an affair with. After years of putting up with her husband 's mistreatment, Delia finally holds her ground. She defends her job with a skillet.

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484 Words | 2 Pages

Hurston’s autobiography, Dust Tracks on a Road marks the popularity of her career as a writer in the Harlem Renaissance. It is an autobiography intertwined with reality, mystery, imagination, creation, humor and wisdom, celebrating Hurston’s struggle from an isolated southern child to a recognized black female writer. It is an autobiography contains a controversial work evoking both recognition and discrete criticism. Starting with the history of Eatonville, the founding of the pure Negro town, Hurston in Dust Tracks locates herself as a carefree black girl in a harmless place immune from threats of the racial segregation, then delineates her life as a wander after her mother’s death. Aside from her journey in life, the alienation of the narrator

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1187 Words | 5 Pages

Historical criticism strives to cognize a literary work by examining the social, cultural, and intellectual context that essentially includes the artist’s biography and milieu. Historical critics are more concerned with guiding readers through the use of identical connotation rather than analyzing the work’s literary significance. (Brizee and Tompkins). The journey of a historical reading begins with the assessment of how the meaning of a text has altered over time. In many cases, when the historical context of a text is not fully comprehended, the work literature cannot be accurately interpreted.

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