Exploring Capitalistic Patriarchy: Zora Neale Hurston’s “The Gilded Six Bits”
“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.
The relation between capitalism and patriarchy is that they work together, they both adapt to one another. Capitalism stems from the Marxist theory, while patriarchy stems from the Feminist theory; taken alone, is insufficient when explaining the oppression of a woman in a capitalist society/marriage. Feminist criticism suggests that women are oppressed by patriarchy economically, politically, socially, and psychologically. According to Shorter “…the essence of capitalism has had generally negative consequences for women, lowering their status, depriving them of independency and autonomy at work, subordinating them economically to exploitation, and sexually to male domination.” In the text we see the dominance Joe holds over Missie economically and psychologically. He makes all of the incoming money and only gives Missie an allowance in exchange for affection, “Who dat chunkin' money in mah do'way?” In the text we also see the dominance Slemmons holds over Joe economically, socially, and psychologically. Slemmons appears to Joe as a “rich fat man” that he desperately wants to be like causing Joe to feel psychologically oppressed; Slemmons have more money and a fat belly and Joe has his underpaying job and slender build. This psychological oppression branches off to the social patriarchy that Slemmons holds over Joe. Joe knows he can never compete with...
... middle of paper ...
... grab more power in make her more dependent on him. Missy May thought by sleeping with Otis Slemmons that she could get more money for the house. Missy May seem to never have the thought of actually just learning how to make her own money to make them more wealthy but rather she views sleeping with Slemmons as the only option to please her husband.
“The Gilded Six Bits” by Zora Neale Hurston centers on the views of capitalism and patriarchy. This short story is not only about love, betrayal, and reconciliation. “The Gilded Six Bits” conveys a deeper message about race, class status, power, and money. These messages all tie in together with the capitalistic-patriarchy that distorts Missie May and Joe marriage. Although Joe does not leave Missie May the reconciliation between the two is left unassured causing Joe to still have dominance over his wife Missie May.
Joe Sparks and Vergil Tea Cakes: Comparative and Contrast. All over the world, marriage is one of the main things that define a woman’s life. In fact, for women, marriage goes a long way to determining much of their lives, including happiness, overall quality of life, whether or not they are able to set and achieve their life goals. Some women go into marriages that allow them to follow the paths they have chosen and achieve their goals, while for other women, marriage could mean the end of their life goals. For Janie, the lead character in Zora Neale Hurston’s
At several points during the course of the novel, Holden asks as to what happens to the ducks who are normally on a pond in Central Park, when winter comes and the water freezes. On page 60, Holden asks, "You know those ducks in that lagoon right near Central Park South? That little lake? By any chance, do you happen to know where they go, the ducks, when it gets all frozen over?
In America today, race/ethnicity, class categorization, and gender inequalities are just some of the most controversial issues that have created social division in every facet of our society. Gender inequality for one, remains a significant issue from the past up to this day. Looking at history, women have struggled to gain equal rights as well as equal pay against their male counterpart. As described in her book, “Cutting into the Meatpacking Line”, Deborah Fink detailed the inequalities against women and ethnic groups in the meatpacking plant where she had a first-hand experience as a worker. Furthermore, capitalism played an important role in the inequalities in race, gender, culture, and ethnicity, and it has also legitimized the disparities
The major idea I want to write about has to do with the way Mrs. Hale stands behind Mrs. Wright even though it seems like everyone else especially (the men) would rather lock her up and throw away the key. We see this right away when she gets on the County Attorney for putting down Mrs. Wright’s house keeping. I find this to be wonderfully symbolic in that most women of this time usually allowed the men to say whatever they wanted about their sex, never standing up for themselves or each other
Champion, Laurie. "Socioeconomics in Selected Short Stories of Zora Neale Hurston." Gale Artemis Literary Sources (2001).
in all but one of his subjects. He does not like to talk about his
I wanted my painting to resemble everything that is happening inside of Holden’s mind. As he is standing in the middle of New York City, his eyes are closed, showing that the whole painting is a dream. He imagines both the good and bad parts of his life in this painting. On the left side, the colors are very dark, including a palette of black, brown, white and dark blue. This side of the painting displays the bad things in his life such as Pencey Prep in the background and the ducks flying over his head, displaying his fear of people leaving him. I decided to make the sky on the left side black to represent the storm that is Holden’s life. Also, the left side of the canvas is painted to be winter, the same time that this novel takes place. As the viewer's eyes follow the path
Commodities are at the top of this chain. A commodity is anything that is produced for exchange. They have two parts to them, the use of the commodity and its value. With women, and men the use of the human body is humanity, doing whatever it is that pleases you, whether it be riding your bike, reading, dancing, whatever, it comes down to your humanity. Their humanity is turned into a value when women have to sell their use to obtain different forms of commodities, to then exchange those commodities for more commodities. In capitalism women are defined by their bodies, and judged by what their bodies can do, and look like. Women have to sell their humanity because in capitalism that’s the only thing people have to sell. In capitalism it doesn’t matter who or what you are, as long as you’re producing something that will make money. Women sell their humanity in different ways, there seems to be a same scale in place with women’s jobs, modeling (which is at the far right), stripping (somewhere in between), and prostitution (which is at the far left). Most wouldn’t connect these three with having any basic ground (maybe stripping & prostitution), but their basic ground is that women are all selling there use for some form of a commodity, which most of the time is money.
Late one Saturday night, Holden drives a cab around New York City. Holden has just returned from a visit to Ernie’s Bar and is feeling even more lonely and depressed. Holden asks the cab driver if he knows anything about “the ducks that swim around” (Salinger 81) in the pond near Central Park Lagoon. He wonders where they reside to “in the springtime” and “where they go in the wintertime” (Salinger 81) as well. The ducks are symbolic to show change, one of Holden’s many fears in life. Just like the ducks leave every winter and come back every spring, Holden is terrified of this idea of change and transitioning from one point to another. The pond itself is used as a metaphor and is “partly frozen and partly not frozen” (Salinger 154). The pond transitions from one state to another, just as Holden transitions between childhood and adolescence. Holden is curious about change and references the ducks to show his own transition as
Harris, Trudier. "Celebrating Bigamy and Other Outlaw Behaviors: Hurston, Reputation, and the Problems Inherent in Labeling Janie a Feminist." Approaches to Teaching Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God and Other Works. Ed. John Lowe. New York: MLA, 2009. 67-80. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Lawrence J. Trudeau. Vol. 285. Detroit: Gale, 2013. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 14 Jan. 2014.
From dreams deferred to identity affirmed Lorraine Hansberry’s, “A Raisin in the Sun,” presents readers with many differing themes. The most prevalent and reoccurring theme is the effect money plays on society’s views of manhood and happiness. Readers are shown multiple characters with a diverse view on manhood. From Walter Lee with his matching societal views that a man should be able to provide whatever his family needs or wants to Lena whose views are a biased compilation of her late husband’s behavior and her own ideals, that a man should maintain his honor and protect his children’s dreams.
Gimenez, Martha E. "Capitalism and the Oppression of Women: Marx Revisited." Science & Society 69.1 (2005): 11-32. ProQuest Central. Web. 29 Apr. 2014. .
Edith Wharton, was the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize in literature, she wrote a lot of stories that focused on marriage. Many of her stories are set in the high society world of America in the 1900’s. An example of this, is the short story she wrote called “The Other Two” which takes place in 1904 in New York. “The Other Two” discuss the concepts divorce in the early 1900’s and adaptive behavior which is based on Darwin’s theory of “Survival of the fittest”.
During this era, women’s roles changed greatly as the new high social class females called the “flappers,” developed. The flappers set ideal qualities such as beauty for a woman that high class men such as Gatsby sought after. The flappers in exchange for their beauty wanted access to the material wealth from the men. Fitzgerald shows the influence that American capitalism had over this development in women through Daisy’s relationship with Tom and Gatsby. American capitalism dictates relationships, “Even in the early stages of their relationship, part of his attraction to Daisy arises from his considering factors akin to the laws of supply and demand that influence a commodity’s price” (Little). Daisy’s reason for marrying Tom Buchanan was only so she could gain the riches that Tom possessed. While Tom’s purpose was to care for Daisy in order to keep her by his side to maintain his social appearance. This social exchange forms a perception that women were nothing but extravagant economic tools for men. As both men and women desired the economic benefits of the other, the social aspects of marriage became more about greatening each other’s social status instead of one 's pursuit of love and happiness. However, since Tom is part of the old rich, the new American social marriage belief does not affect him greatly as it does with the new rising rich class because to the old rich this is very similar to their usual marriage traditions. Evidence as Tom says to his new baby girl, “I hope she will be a fool – that is the best thing a girl can be in this world” (Fitzgerald 17). This is an indication that females should stick to their roles as being social tools for their husbands. Because female involvement outside social issues meant that husbands were
Women’s subordination within the labour market is seen by Marxist feminists as suiting the needs of capitalism as women are considered a ‘reserve army of labour’ as they are a more disposable part of the workforce. According to Beechey (1986) women are a cheap ‘reserve army of labour’ that are brought in during economic booms but then thrown out during slumps. Women are often not members of trade unions and are prepared to work for less money as their wage could be a second income. This benefits capitalism as a group of unemployed people looking for work creates competition and exploitation. Employers are given an advantage which allows them to reduce wages and increase the rate of exploitation. Benston (1972) supports this as women are used to benefitting the operation of the capitalist economy by carrying out unprepared work in the home. This proves that patriarchy dominates women which leads to women’s subordination. Hartmann (1981) believes that patriarchy and the economy both play a crucial role in explaining and understanding gender inequality. Historically, men have controlled women especially by control of labour power. This can come through legislation that operates economically to the benefit of men, for example Maternity and Paternity Rights. This proves that patriarchy and economics together explains gender inequality. However, Walby (1986) argues that women staying at home can actually harm capitalism because if women were to compete for jobs with men this would lower wages and increase profits. Women who earn also have superior spending power which would boost the economy and benefit