Zora Neale Hurston Gilded Six-Bits

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Zora Neale Hurston was the daughter of two former slaves. She became important because she influenced the Harlem Renaissance. This experience and many other experiences impacted her writing. Each story has a message we can learn from. She saw the sufferings and struggles of people being treated unfairly, and personally went through poverty and other conflicts. Hurston conveys these experiences through her stories “Sweat” and “Gilded Six-Bits”.
Zora Neale Hurston was a folklorist and writer. She lived in Eatonville, Florida which was the first town that had all African-Americans. Hurston’s mother had passed away and her life became difficult. In order to support herself she was working variety jobs. She decided to join a theatrical company in …show more content…
Every time he gets paid, he gives money to Missie May. Joe told her he would take her to the ice cream parlor that Slemmons opened. Joe introduced his wife to Slemmons, he is a rich business man. Missie May isn’t impressed, but shows some interest. One day, Joe got out of work early and headed home. Joe goes into his bedroom and finds his wife, Missie May and Slemmons in bed together. Joe was angry and attacked Slemmons. The next day, Joe is acting like if nothing ever happened, but Missie May feels miserable and doesn’t know why he is still with her. She then finds out she’s pregnant and doesn’t who is the father. When the baby is born, Joe accepts the baby. The story showed poverty. Missie May and Joe were in a low class, even though they had food, shelter, and clothes. A quote that can support the way they were living is “The front yard was parted in the middle by a sidewalk from gate to doorstep, a sidewalk edged on either side by quart bottles driven neck down to the ground on a slant” (Hurston). Then, there’s Slemmons who is rich, has his own business, and is high class. He made everyone think he had money and fooled Missie May. “She took in into her hands with trembling and saw first thing that it was no gold piece. It was no gold piece. It was a gilded half dollar” (Hurston). This story also showed betrayal and forgiveness. Joe caught Missie …show more content…
They live in Florida. Delia is a washwomen and works a lot of hours, yet her husband doesn’t have a job. Her husband, Sykes beats her. The first time was when they were married for two months only. Sykes tells Delia she needs to move out of the house because his lover, Bertha was going to move in. Delia refuses and Sykes tries finding a way to get her out of the house. He brings a snake to scare her and Delia despites snakes. Delia was washing and finds the snake in the laundry basket. She gets terrified and ends up sleeping in the barn. When she sees Sykes, she goes and check, but Delia hears him scream. Sykes got bitten on the neck by the snake. Delia feels somewhat bad, but she walks away from him and Sykes died. This story presents suffering. Delia could put up with many things, the labor, betrayal, and abuse. All she could do was “Sweat, sweat, sweat! Work and sweat, cry and sweat, pray and sweat!” (Hurston). Delia is a hard worker because she puts in a lot of work and has been working for 15 years. She was part of the minority part since she’d do the white people’s laundry. Faith would also be part of the story. Delia would be dedicated to her work and God. When Sykes would want to start an argument with Delia, she’d bring up God. She was being a good wife, being faithful, and do her duties. She took so much abuse until she realized it needs to stop. “Dat’s de reason Ah got mah letter fum de church an’ moved mah
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