Gilded Six Bits Stereotypes

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The Gilded Six-Bits tells the story of a black family dealing with social restrictions and expectations during the 1930s. The story begins with a picturesque snapshot of a newlywed couple in Eatonsville, the first black integrated community in the United States. Zora Hurston in The Gilded Six Bits demonstrates gender stereotypes through a newlywed couple’s dialogue in the early 1900s. The quintessential women in American society was still the bosomy beautiful homemaker with a penchant for cooking and cleaning. The husband was usually placed on a pedestal as the breadwinner and had the more power in the household and in their marriage. The typical woman during the 1930s was expected to cook, clean, and take care of the household chores.
Woman during this time were worthy only if they were beautiful and often treated as their husbands belongings. Joe says “Ah’m satisfied de way ah is so long as ah be yo husband, ah don’t keer bout nothing else.” (p.1442). He is proud she is very attractive and treats her as an object and feels he owns her. Joe also feels the need to parade Missie around to show she belongs to him. Joe advises his wife to eat only one portion of sweet potatoes in an attempt to make sure she keeps her figure and aesthetically pleases her husband. Joe represents the typical man …show more content…

A husband is thought to be a money maker, a powerhouse, and a leader while a wife is thought to be a cook, a cleaner, and a follower in Gilded Six Bits. The reader recognizes Hurston's representation of gender stereotypes through the typical southern dialect between Missy and Joe, and joe's reaction to Missy after she is caught cheating. Hurston demands the reader to question power inequality in marriages during the 1900s. The Gilded six bits illuminates the haunting idea that female stereotypes to this day may not have completely

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