The Gilded Six Bits: A complex story of forgiveness The Gilded Six Bits, a short story written in 1933 by Zora Neale Hurston, is about a young, couple Joe and Missie May who have been married and started living together almost for a year. It is mentioned in the story that their house is in the south in “a Negro yard around a Negro house in a Negro settlement” in the town of Eatonville, Florida. This couple seems fine and very happy together. At first every saturday, Joe buys her presents and Missie May cooks up some good foods for her husband. But then a new guy, who is gilded with gold, named Otis, shows up in town from Chicago to open up an ice cream parlor and and eventually he made Joe and Missie May’s relation go through …show more content…
and G. Fertilizer during the week. However, on Saturdays, he has different hours, allowing him to arrive home in the afternoon and have the night off. That’s when he will have time to spend with his wife. Before going home he usually goes to a candy store and buy Missie May candy kisses and other presents. Missy may on the other hand cooks foods and waits her husband after taking shower and being ready. Then she hears coins bouncing onto the front-room floor. It is Joe tossing nine silver dollars from the yard. He then hides behind a jasmine bush. When searching and got his wife cheating with O Joe works in night shift at G. and G. Fertilizer during the week. However, on Saturdays, he has different hours, allowing him to arrive home in the afternoon and …show more content…
According to the modernist theory we can see that Missie May, Joe, Otis and other characters had their own purpose but due to one moment (Missie May cheating with Otis for gold coin) we saw that they lost their purpose and it was obvious how difficult it was either to create or regain their purpose in life. On the other hand when we see the reason why Otis cheated with Missie can be seen from Freudian perspective which is specifically due to unconscious or subconscious sexual desire which in fact led to loss of purpose. So the two literary theories have a very close relation on the purpose of each characters of the
He spends all his daylight hours alone he has lots of time to think about his family's situation.
rest of his family out of bed. He does not get any thanks for doing this, but
The stories that the author told were very insightful to what life was like for an African American living in the south during this time period. First the author pointed out how differently blacks and whites lived. She stated “They owned the whole damn town. The majority of whites had it made in the shade. Living on easy street, they inhabited grand houses ranging from turn-of-the-century clapboards to historics”(pg 35). The blacks in the town didn’t live in these grand homes, they worked in them. Even in today’s time I can drive around, and look at the differences between the living conditions in the areas that are dominated by whites, and the areas that are dominated by blacks. Racial inequalities are still very prevalent In today’s society.
moving in, but even after he will be moving into a new house and away
Bad choices are made every day by everybody. Those bad choices could lead to consequences that are going to bother a person for a long time. Even more, that person may try various ways to correct that error. The intention is good, but things can go even worse if the effort is based on unrealistic fantasies. This effort is presented as a part of modernist ideas. Modernist writers dramatize this effort through the tragic outcomes of the characters. Three modernist pieces, A Street Car Named Desire, Death of a Salesman, The Great Gatsby, all of them sent out a message to the audience, the loss of past and how it cannot be recovered. Each piece features a character who lost hope, strived to recover the hope, and ended with a tragic outcome. A Street Car Named Desire featured Blanche; Blanche spent her whole life trying to get some attentions. Death of a Salesman featured Willy; Willy spent his whole life trying to apply the idea “Be Well Liked.” The Great Gatsby featured Jay Gatsby; Gatsby spent his whole life trying to win back Daisy. All of those characters ended with tragic outcome. Blanche was sent to asylum by her own sister. Willy committed suicide after felt humiliated by his sons. Gatsby was murdered with a gunshot planned by Tom Buchanan. Blanche, Willy, and Gatsby’s tragic fates are caused by their false beliefs about life, which are proven wrong by the contradictions between the reality and the illusion.
Hurston reveals the couple’s relationship dynamics with the ensuing scene. Every Saturday, Joe tosses silver dollars inside the front door and engages his wife in a battle for candy kisses and other tidbits. He purchases the candy kisses from the market in Orlando. Hurston
Hurston, Zora Neale. “The Gilded Six-Bits”. Making Literature Matter: An Anthology for Readers and Writers. 4th Ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin, 2010. 685-693. Print.
completely normal - he has a normal, dull desk job by day, and at home
women other than his wife. But the woman should stay at home, she should be
The beginning of Janie’s marriage to Joe shows promise and adventure, something that young Janie is quickly attracted to. She longs to get out of her loveless marriage to Logan Killicks and Joe’s big dreams captivate Janie. Once again she hopes to find the true love she’s always dreamed of. Joe and Janie’s life is first blissful. He gives her whatever she wants and after he becomes the mayor of a small African American town called Eatonville, they are the most respected couple in town. Joe uses his newfound power to control Janie. When she is asked to make a speech at a town event, she can’t even get out a word before Joe denies her the privilege. He starts making her work in the store he opens and punishes her for any mistakes she makes. He enjoys the power and respect her gets when o...
“The Gilded Six Bits,” by Zora Neale Hurston is about a happily married couple, Missy May and Joe Banks, who discovers that something is missing from their life when sly Slemmons comes to town. The story exhibits how capitalistic-patriarchy dominates and eventually distorts Joe and Missy May’s marriage.
Wendell Berry’s “A Jonquil for Mary Penn” is set on a farm in a small, tight-knit community near the beginning of the twentieth century. The story opens in pre-dawn’s swarthy darkness on a cold March morning. Mary Penn wakes to find herself sick for the first time since she married Elton a year and a half previously at age seventeen. Mary attempts to hide how she feels from her husband as he eats before he heads out to help plow his neighbor’s corn ground. Mary finds herself spending the day engulfed in uncharacteristic self-pity and reflecting on her life. She reflects on how her upper-class family did not accept her marriage to Elton and rejected Mary for as good as dead. She compares
Hurston’s “The Gilded Six-Bits” is a story about the changing relationship of Missie May and Joe Banks after their morals and values are tested with material items. A clear message in “The Gilded Six-Bits” is one that contradicted the beliefs of the American society during this time period, the idea that money or the urban life would bring happiness to the American household. Early in the story, Missie May and Joe Banks are a happy couple. They live an average and modest lifestyle, but are content with what they have because their relationship is what mattered most to them. However, the arrival of a character that represents a materialistic way of life turns their marriage around because they began to want the wealth most people wanted. In “The Gilded Six-Bits”, Missie May’s character is a character that is loving, innocent, and vulnerable, and she provides an excellent example and connection to the themes in Hurston’s story of marriage, love and betrayal.
Another contributor of job satisfaction is work-life balance, which Summer Fridays help to maintain positively. Summer is a time of going to the beach, taking
late and be a little strict. Dads would expect their sons to help him in the garage or any