How Does Zora Neale Hurston Represent In The Gilded Six Bits

     Zora Neale Hurston was a phenomenal woman. At the height of her success she was known as the “Queen of the Harlem Renaissance.” She came to overcome obstacles that were placed in front of her. Hurston rose from poverty to fame and lost it all at the time of her death. Zora had an unusual life; she was a child that was forced to grow up to fast. But despite Zora Neale Hurston’s unsettled life, she managed to surmount every obstacle to become one of the most profound authors of the century.

Zora Neale Hurston is unequivocally open about her race and identity in “How It Feels to Be Colored Me.” As Hurston shares her life story, the reader is exposed to Hurston’s self-realization journey about how she “became colored.” Hurston utilizes her autobiographical short story as a vehicle to describe the “very day she became colored.” Race is particularly vital in Zora Neale Hurston’s essay, “How it Feels to Be Colored Me” as she deals with the social construct of race, racism, and sustaining one’s cultural identity.

Longing for her husband’s forgiveness, Missy May promises to obey and fulfill his every desire henceforth. After silent days and nights, Missy May decides to rid Joe of her presence, believing that to be his wish. Reluctantly, she stays to prove her determination and love for her husband. The conception of their first child really sparks the match in Joe’s head that Missy May never meant to do him wrong; after many months of neglect, Joe traveled down to Orlando for errands and took a detour to his favorite candy store. With Otis Slemmons’ gilded coin, Joe spent “all dat in kisses.” While there, he though of his “lil boy chile [at] home now. Tain't a week old yet, but he kin suck a sugar tit and maybe eat one them [molasses] kisses hisself" (p. 11).

In “The Gilded Six-Bits,” Zora Neale Hurston uses several techniques to characterize Joe and Missy May, the main couple throughout the story. Hurston uses her own life experiences to characterize Joe and Missy May and their marriage. She also shows their character development through her writing styles and techniques, which show reactions and responses between Joe and Missy May to strengthen the development of their relationship. Hurston supports her character development through her writing style, her characters dialect, and includes experiences from her own life to portray a sense of reality to her character’s personalities.

Throughout the story. Joe gives coins to Missie May. What is the significance of the silver dollars at the beginning of the story? Contrast this with Joe’s meaning when he leaves Missie May the gilded coin on the table. How has the significance of the silver dollars changed at the end of the story?

Throughout our reading of the provided passage of “The Gilded Six-Bits,” my attention was drawn towards the gilded half dollar. I believe the gold piece is a prominent symbol in the story due to its multiple appearances in the passage and its relevance in the plot of the story. The golden coin was used by Slemmons, a wealthy resident of Eatonville, to pay Missie May to commit devious, extramarital actions."Oh Joe, honey, he said he wuz gointer give me dat gold money and he jes' kept on after me." (page 732) It is later revealed that the gilded piece, which was believed to be a solid gold token, was in fact a 50 cent piece plated in gold. The gold plated half dollar soon tears the love of Joe and Missie May apart as it reminds them both of the

I found that the impression of things; especially, things that are foreign to a person can be misleading. As shown in "The Gilded Six-Bits", by Zora Neale Hurston, Slemmons tricks Missie May into thinking he had gold and would share it with her, but the gold was actually a gilded coin. I found that the gilded coin to be a metaphor for many of life's aspects, that they are desirable at first glance, but after inspection they are gilded. It is interesting that Hurston used money and gold to represent this because money is something everyone needs and uses, though can't allows obtain. While the first impression of the gold or money is of glamor, stability, and happiness, the cost and realities of obtaining the goal may not be up to par. Money

When Nick first arrives at The Buchanans’s, he admiringly points out the “line of French windows, glowing now with reflected gold”(6). Fitzgerald uses the imagery of “glowing…with reflected gold” to create an image of wealth and power. The “reflected gold” contrasts the authentic, traditional old money, to the new money that does not contain any real substance. Moon glistening(AbP), Nick walks around at Gatsby’s first party “with Jordan’s golden arm resting in [his]”(33). The diction of “golden arm” to describe Jordan demonstrates her true old money ways as even she gives off a golden hue. As a professional golfer, her “golden arm” also represents her success and riches from being an esteemed athlete. Fitzgerald uses this diction to repeat the description of old money being gold, as Jordan is a prime example of old money because of her inherited wealth and acceptance into the old money social class (AdvSC). Later in the novel, after Gatsby wittingly remarks that Daisy’s “voice is full of money,” Nick describes her as “the golden girl”(90). The diction that Daisy’s “voice is full of money” exhibits that Daisy’s money was not something she gained, but something she was born with, a chief trait of old money (AbP). The juxtaposition of Gatsby calling her voice “full of money” and Nick then dubbing her “the golden girl” repeats the symbol of gold to represent money and wealth. Fitzgerald describes old money throughout as the color gold, symbolic of their genuine and distinguished wealth

Zora Neale Hurston was born on January 7, 1891 in Alabama. She is known to be one of the most influential novelist of the twentieth century in African America literature. Hurston is described to be a very opinionated woman that stood for what she believed in; which reflected in some of her works. In addition to her many titles such as, being an anthropologist and short story writer, she was closely related and heavily focused on the Harlem Renaissance. Zora Neale Hurston and her political opinions placed her at odds with important figures during that time which I wholeheartedly believe played a part in the undeniable attraction that most people have towards her works. Being that Hurston was such a unique writer, to understand the ethics and themes of her and how she contributed to African American literature comes with an understanding of the background and childhood she had.

Taking a deeper look into Zora Neale Hurston’s The Gilded Six-bits, the story is told in the third person, with a very omniscient point of view. The narrator seemed to give the reader a great picture of what was going on both while the characters were interacting with one another, as well as when they were not interacting. The reader was able to see that while Joe and Missy Mae Banks were not rich by any means, they were happy. Hurston begins the story, “It was a Negro yard around a Negro house in a Negro settlement that looked to the payroll of G and G Fertilizer works for its support. But there was something happy about the place” (p. 541).

Zora Neale Hurston's Gilded Six-Bits has a secondary theme of race in the short story, and explains in a unique way how the narrative deals with the aspects race. Gilded Six-Bits tells of a young black-newlywed couple living in an all-black town in 1933. The story follows the newlywed Joe and Missy May as they are living out their everyday lives until a new guy comes into town from Chicago and attempts to ruin Joe and Missy May’s marriage. The facts that the story is set in an all-black town truly deals with the issues of race, in an town with only black people very little controversies arise about color. Therefor race overall is a secondary theme in the Gilded Six-Bits, the main theme of this story seems to be relationships, more specifically

In Zora Neale Hurston’s short story “The Gilded Six-Bits,” contains many things that could be looked at. Although I found it most interesting that she seems to include abstract feelings through out the entire book. Zora Neale seems to stem away from making humans physical characters, and more of objects.

The short story “The Gilded Six-Bits” by Zora Neale Hurston was published in Story magazine in 1933. The plot of this story takes place in Eatonville, Florida, where Missie May and her beloved quite recently wedded [?its1 year] husband called Joe banter through a play fight every Saturday. They truly cherish the love they have for one another and are happily married although they do not have riches. Joe and Missie go to the newly opened ice cream parlor owned by Mister Otis D. Slemmons, a very wealthy man admired especially for his gold. When Joe finds his wife in bed with Slemmons the relationship turns reserved and cool(distant and cold?) for a long time but, regardless, none [of them] leave[s] the other. Some time later Missie May realizes

In 1933 the short story “The Gilded Six-Bits” by Zora Neale Hurston, an African American writer from the twentieth century, was published in Story magazine and tells the tale of an African American couple that faces trouble due to adultery. The plot of this story takes place in Eatonville, Florida, where Missie May and her beloved husband Joe banter through a play fight every Saturday. They truly cherish the love they have for one another and are happily married even though they do not have many material possessions. The relationship turns from warm and bubbly to reserved and cool when Joe finds his wife in bed with Mister Otis D. Slemmons. Slemmons owns the newly opened ice cream parlor Joe and Missie go to. He

Milly maintained that she would be able to free herself and her child from her father, yet her son's story begins with his struggle even with his first breath. When Joe was born he was pure; a light from the heavens, but the transposition of his persona becomes apparent as his life is abridged by the decisions he makes. Joe hung a chair, his murder weapon, over his head. At that moment he lost all innocence, "The course destiny chooses is in a sense superfluous, for we are not dealing with the kind of fatality which manifests itself in a dramatic progression of events, from which we cannot add or subtract a single one without changing its entire passage, for to do so would be like saying that someone has not fulfilled his destiny.” Pouillon tells of the belief that a man finds himself on a path and makes a decision not in order to achieve his destiny or in a pre determined path, but instead Joe bases his choices when they appear in front of him. He kills McEachern and after has to think about his next move. Running away with bobby was no longer an option after she rejected his marriage proposal. He moves towards the road much like in Frost’s poem: