Personal Beliefs Reflected in Fiction

Personal Beliefs Reflected in Fiction

The Gilded Six Bits is a short story written by Zora Neale Hurston, an American author who wrote about her black heritage with great pride. Her short stories did not address the issue of racism but did consist of a setting with an all black community and the use of Negro dialect. Because of those characteristics she was ridiculed by critics and said to be opposing the Jim Crow ideas. Ms. Hurston believed that the blacks or colored people put themselves into their unsatisfactory situations by creating for themselves the things that white people tried to deny them. She was not troubled by the philosophy of segregation. “She said that blacks did not need whites to gain education or to succeed” (Boyd, 64). “When Hurston portrayed black characters not as victims of society but as individuals who were as capable of succeeding and living and loving as anyone else, she was accused of being naпve and ignoring social realities” (Robinson). She lived the life of segregation and she used her experience in all of her works.

In the opening statement of the story, Hurston talks about the yard, the house, and the financial state of the family. She says, “It was a Negro yard around a Negro house in a Negro settlement that looked to the payroll of the G and G Fertilizer works for its support” (Hurston, 1273). “A mess of homey flowers planted without a plan but blooming cheerily from their helter-skelter places. The fence and house were whitewashed. The porch and steps scrubbed white” (Hurston,1273). She also uses the outside scenery to show that the couple is ecstatic to be together and that their home is a joyful home. She is getting the mind set to see a poverty stricken image of a home. However, you can also visualize the care that is bestowed upon the flowers and house that is kept as clean as possible.

Next, Hurston shows her acceptance of the black life versus the white life in different scenes throughout “The Gilded Six Bits”. The scene where Joe says “Wisht Ah had a build on me lak he got. He ain’t puzzle-gutted, honey. He jes’ got a corperation. Dat make ‘im look lak a rich white man. All rich mens is got some belly on ‘em” (Hurston, 1276). Missie May responds by stating to Joe that she loves him, regardless of his appearance, his accessories or his financial backing. She says:

“Ah seen de pitchers of Henry Ford and he's a spare-built man and Rockefeller look lak he ain't got but one gut. But Ford and Rockefeller and dis Slemmons and all de rest kin be as many-gutted as dey please, Ah's satisfied wid you jes' lak you is, baby. God took pattern after a pine tree and built you noble. Youse a pritty man, and if Ah knowed any way to make you mo' pritty still Ah'd take and do it". (Hurston 1276).

In this Hurston is displaying how some black people portray what a white man’s physical appearance should be. They should have a gut that would be acquired through