Nichole Duncan
Professor Engel
English 1302
July 23, 2015
The Gilded Six-Bits
The story is told from a third person limited point of view. This is important because it keeps the suspense alive for the reader. This particular mode of telling events keeps the reader at the same level of information as the characters. For instance, we find out that Missie Mae has been unfaithful at the same time her husband surprises her and finds out. a short story written in 1933 by Zora Neale Hurston, is tale about forgiveness. The story takes place in a small African-American town of Eatonville, Florida, in the early 1930s. It is a complex tale of love, desire, indiscretion, anger, fear, uncertainty, disappointment, bewilderment, need, reconciliation, and finally, acceptance. The main
His lot is a limited one, as Hurston makes clear in her opening reference to the couple 's life in a mostly black town whose economy is driven by Joe 's employer, the local fertilizer plant. Still, the couple 's economic situation doesn 't stop Joe from indulging in such playful behavior as throwing half dollars at his wife, an analysis from the University of South Florida suggests. This quality enables Joe to forgive Missie May for straying, which Hurston makes doubly ironic by waiting until the last line to reveal his surname.
Missie May Banks
Missie May 's character is among the most complex in "The Gilded Six-Bits," whose writing followed the breakup of Hurston 's rocky first marriage in 1931 (which ended after just four years, the university 's website notes.) Missie May 's claims of Slemmons 's jewelry looking better on Joe are belied by her own ambivalence about staying in the marriage. This feeling is consistent with the story 's main theme of appearances not being what they seem, Gorman says. However, the realization of Slemmons ' own phoniness is enough to send Missie May back to her loyal husband.
Otis D.
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.
In Their Eyes Were Watching God and Seraph on the Suwanee, Zora Neale Hurston creates two protagonists, Janie and Arvay, and depicts their rich relationships with Tea Cake and Jim, respectively. This brief paper compares these two women and their interaction with their husbands. Contrasting the similarities of these relationships helps underscore deeper themes that Hurston draws from two ostensibly different women.
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.
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...
She dreams and wonders about her future life with the perfect man. Her journey can be compared to our own personal pursue for self-happiness. This captivating novel begins with a statement that makes the readers contemplate. The author, Zora Neale Hurston, begins the book with “Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board. For some they circle with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon… That is the life of men” (1). These “ships” symbolize a person’s goals and wishes in life. The journey to chase and obtain these ambitions is exciting and unpredictable. Likewise to Janie’s journey, there will be struggles along the way. However, one can continue their journey and learn from their experiences. In life, there are many complications and harsh experiences. Some people have more of these memories than others. Janie views her eventful life as “a great tree in leaf with things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branches” (8). Janie has many pleasant and horrible memories and experiences. From the horrific incidents, she learns more about herself and what she truly needs. These memories make her a stronger, independent woman. We, the readers, can learn from Janie and apply her knowledge to our everyday
Janie’s first attempt at love does not turn out quite like she hopes. Her grandmother forces her into marrying Logan Killicks. As the year passes, Janie grows unhappy and miserable. By pure fate, Janie meets Joe Starks and immediately lusts after him. With the knowledge of being wrong and expecting to be ridiculed, she leaves Logan and runs off with Joe to start a new marriage. This is the first time that Janie does what she wants in her search of happiness: “Even if Joe was not waiting for her, the change was bound to do her good…From now on until death she was going to have flower dust and springtime sprinkled over everything” (32). Janie’s new outlook on life, although somewhat shadowed by blind love, will keep her satisfied momentarily, but soon she will return to the loneliness she is running from.
Janie’s life with Joe fulfilled a need -- she had no financial worries and was more than set for life. She had a beautiful white home, a neat lawn and garden, a successful husband, and lots of cash. Everything was clean, almost too clean. A sense of restraint is present in this setting, and this relates to the work as a whole due to the fact that this is the epitome of unhappiness for Janie.
The story is set in a rural town in Florida in 1920. It was the time of racial division and gross inequality in the deep south of America. Black people consider white people are considered as devils. In the story, Sykes, calls Delia hypocrite for washing devil’s (white peoples) clothes and quarrels with her. Delia as a washerwoman presents the socioeconomic condition of black people. In addition to this, the story portrays the unmatchable marriage system and women as a domestic worker in that time. Delia works hard just to buy foods and pays bills however she gets abused and tortured by her unsympathetic husband who doesn’t even think of the family but sleep with other women. This is the scenario in the 1920s where the women were suppressed in the society. Eatonville is a rural part where Hurston grew up. According to Laurie Champion, “Hurston's choice of Eatonville as setting reflects one of her major artistic philosophies, central to which is her need to celebrate African American culture”. In the springtime, rural Eatonville is famous for the land of snakes, gators, and oppressive heat. Hurston beautifully matched up the presence of rattlesnake in the springtime. In the story, Hurston describes the daily life events of the Eatonville’s people from her personal
“She saw a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight,” (11). The novel, Their Eyes Were Watching, God by Zora Neale Hurston, tells a story of a woman, Janie Crawford’s quest to find her true identity that takes her on a journey and back in which she finally comes to learn who she is. These lessons of love and life that Janie comes to attain about herself are endowed from the relationships she has with Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, and Tea Cake.
Just like any other narrative, “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,” by Harriet Jacobs is a narrative telling about a slave 's story and what slaves go through as they execute the socioeconomic dictates of their masters. It is important to note that more than five thousand former slaves who were enslaved in North America had given an account of their slave life during the 18th and 19th centuries. Many of their narratives were published on books and newspaper articles. Most of the stories of these slaves were centered on the experiences of life in plantations, small farms owned by the middle class natives, mines and factories in the cities. It is undeniable that without those slave narratives, people today will not be able to know how slaves
Joe is considered an average man with big dreams before arriving at the town. After taking control as mayor his whole demeanor changed. Using a banker as inspiration Joe becomes someone solely focused on image and being above the other people in the town. The life he claims as is own is nothing but a façade with Janie as an ornament. Joes view on what Janies role was going to be was clear from the beginning he believed that a “pretty baby-doll lak you is made to sit on de front porch” making it clear that Janie is a valuable thing not a person (Hurston 29). Joe’s continues the show he is giving the town until Janie tires of them and embarrasses him on the stage he has built in front of his entire audience. The destruction of the façade that has been created over the years causes him to self-destruct, literally. His image is everything to him and once it is ruined he has nothing to live for anymore. The people he believed were below him now laugh at and no longer take him seriously. His life solely depended on keeping him self above the other people in his community without that ability he no longer had anything to live for. As shown in Larsen’s novel living with this idea of classism sometimes goes hand in hand with a struggle with
...ers today. Character disposition, an idealistic dialect, and the ability to work past an issue all work together to prove that Joe and Missie May’s lives are not strictly revolved around money.
“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.
Love is something not easily or even completely understood, it is an always too hard to but it 's only to look but not touch. But how far can temptation go before it turns into desire? In Zora Neale Hurston’s short story “The Gilded Six-Bits”, marriage and betrayal are something that is wired in the heart of many people. Marriage creates a bond within the institution of any relationship that can make it more emotionally connected to the spouse. Betrayal can tear the most delicate flower into dust; it violates any type of trust in the relationship. Hurston gives an example of three stages in a relationship which consist of Love, Admiration, Betrayal and Forgiveness in this story. The character Joe Banks love his wife Missie May, but her infidelity
Though Janie had three marriages in total, each one drew her in for a different reason. She was married off to Logan Killicks by her Grandmother who wanted her to have protection and security. “Tain’t Logan Killicks Ah wants you to have baby, its protection.” (Hurston 15) says Janie’s grandmother when Janie said she did not want to marry Logan. Though Janie did not agree with her grandmother, she knew that she just wanted what’s best for her. Next, she married Joe Starks, Janie was unsatisfied with her marriage to Logan so Joe came in and swept her off her feet. Janie did not like the fact that Logan was trying to make her work, so Joe’s proposition, “You ain’t never knowed what it was to be treated like a lady and ah want to be de one tuh show yuh.” (Hurston 29) was too good to pass up, so she left Logan and married Joe. Janie’s last marriage was to Tea Cake. Fed up after having been treated poorly by Joe, Janie finally found someone who liked her for who she was. “Naw, ...