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.

In The Gilded Six-Bits by Zora Neale Hurston, the presence of money, or lack of it, shapes the story and the lives of the characters and their personalities. Joe’s wife Missie May cheats on him with a wealthy man. This shows the presence money plays in this marriage; Missie May cheats on her husband to feel “rich” with her wealthy partner. Joe quickly forgives his wife for cheating on him and even let “her cook him some breakfast” (Hurston 6). Joe and Missie May lack money, so Joe chooses to ignore the fact that his wife is cheating on him because the man she is cheating with is wealthy and will give Missie May, and ultimately Joe, money. The lack of money in Joe and Missie May’s lives allows the two of them to have an extremely unhealthy marriage and horrible individual lives.