How Does Zora Neale Hurston Represent In The Gilded Six Bits

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

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 Harlem Renaissance marked the coming out of many brilliant black authors and thinkers. Names like Jessie Redmon Fauset, Alain Locke, Ralph Waldo Ellison, Langston Hughes, and Zora Neale Hurston marked the scene. Hurton portrays many messages in her stories without having to explicitly spell it out. This among other reasons make Hurston's writing so rich. Two of her almost fable-like stories, "Sweat" and "The Gilded Six-Bits", each portray powerful messages individually. In "Sweat," you get a message of "whatever goes over the Devil's back, is got to come under his belly." You will reap what you sow among other messages. In "The Gilded Six-Bits," you learn that time will heal, money is the root of all evil, and other morals. These

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

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?

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 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.

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.

He wants to run a town and the only way he feels he can look good is to have a pretty woman by his side. In the beginning of their marriage Joe treats he like a queen. He tells her that his woman needs to relax in the shade sipping on molasses water and fanning herself from the hot sun. Janie fell in love with the idea.

Zora Neale Hurston, known as one of the most symbolic African American women during the Harlem Renaissance in the 1930’s. Hurston was known as a non fiction writer, anthropologist and folklorist. Hurston’s literature has served as a big eye opener during the Harlem Renaissance, celebrating black dialect and their traditions. Most of her published stories “depict relationships among black residents in her native southern Florida, was largely unconcerned with racial injustices” (Bomarito 89). Hurston was unique when it came to her racial point of views, promoting white racism instead of black racism. Even though her works had been forgotten by the time of her death, now her literature has left a bigger impact to future literature

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.

     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.

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: