The Gilded Six Bits - Themes, Influences, and Symbols

Themes, Influences, and Symbols

The Gilded Six-Bits: The short story was coincidentally published the year the United States went off the gold standard and Franklin D. Roosevelt asked loyal Americans to exchange their gold for silver and paper money. This type of money had significance in the story in which it personifies the character, Otis D. Slemmons as having gold money and symbolizes him being known as a counterfeit.

Appearance vs. Reality: Hurston dramatizes this theme by portraying that objects are covered to make them better than they are, which can be seen with the gilded half-dollar. Also, people are seen as two faced, which can be seen by both Otis D. Slemmons and Missie May. Marriage is also a disguised form of prostitution, the flexible use of language makes communication impossible, and the double meaning of words functions as the representation of fraud as seen by the six bits.

Biblical Allusions: In Hosea 1:2, considering the story of Hosea, it is found that the prophet commanded to "marry an adulterous wife" as it can be compared to Hosea and Joe with Gomer and Missie May. As it can be understood, at the end of the story when Joe's mother explains that she never thought he would end up with Missie May because she was liable to go astray as it can be understood with her affair with Slemmons. This can be compared with Hosea and Gomer because Gomer was an adulterous wife and did not remain faithful to her husband. Just as Joe threw silver coins in the house to Missie May, with fifteen shekels and some barley, Hosea attempts to buy back his wife. Also, after the night of the affair, at breakfast Joe tells Missie May she cries too much. He compares her to Lot's wife. He states, "Don't look back lak Lot's wife and turn to salt."

Influences from Hurston's own life: Hurston was married and divorced twice. Her rocky marriage occurred just prior to the writing of The Gilded Six-Bits which portrays a marriage full of hatred and infidelity. In the story, Missie's infidelity tests the strength of the marriage with Joe, a marriage which ultimately surpasses its weaknesses. The marriage is spared because, despite Hurston's hardships in her own marriages, she saw marriage as an important foundation capable of providing possibilities in life. The Gilded Six-Bits was influenced by her educational endeavors in anthropology and her unsuccessful marriage with Herbert Sheen.