Consider of money and the presence or lack of it–wealth and poverty–on the shape of the story and on the lives of the characters and their personalities.

The lack of money represents happiness for the characters. Joe works hard for 7 dollars and comes back to his wife and chucks the coins at the door. This signifies that he does not care about how much he has and only works so he can provide for him and his wife. When they lacked money, Joe and Missie May were at their happiest (beginning and end of the story). Joe and Missie had a routine where Joe would come back after working for a week and playfully mess around with his wife, almost like they were children again. But in the pursuit of greed and money, Missie decided to cheat for a “gold coin” and broke the trust between the two. Joe, however, forgave her and towards the end, when he spends the fake gold coin Missie “earned”, he seemed to be a lot happier and finally forgave her completely. Giving away the money away made their happiness come back, similar to their situation in the beginning of the story.