Theme Of Forgiveness In The Gilded Six Bits

Marriage and Forgiveness

Zora Neale Hurston’s The Gilded Six-Bits is a beautifully written short story about marriage and forgiveness. This story tugs at the heartstrings, as Hurston paints each scene with vivid imagination. The characters, their surroundings, and their behaviors are visually and emotionally illustrated.

The Gilded Six-Bits was written during the Great Depression and takes place during the same era. Blacks were still segregated in the 1930’s. The author, Zora Neale Hurston is black. The story’s main characters are all black and live in an exclusively black community. The two main characters still manage to find happiness, even though they are poverty-stricken and racially downcast. Much of their perspective and behavior can be attributed to their positions in society.

Joe and Missie May Banks are husband and wife. They live in a black community in Eatonville, Florida. Hurston writes, “It was a Negro yard around a Negro house in a Negro settlement that looked to the

Missie May aims to please her husband in more ways than one. Hurston portrays her taking a bath before her husband comes home. We get a glimpse of her physical body and attractiveness. Hurston writes, “Her dark-brown skin glistened under the soapsuds that skittered down from her washrag. Her stiff young breasts thrust forward aggressively, like broad-based cones with the tips lacquered in black” (Hurston, "AALBC.com, the African American Literature Book Club). Although her surroundings are impoverished, Mattie Mae is still beautiful. She aspires to be presentable to her husband in the same way she has made their home presentable. 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