The Gilded Six-Bits, by Zora Neale Hurston - Research Paper Example

?Money and Marriage Today: United They Stand, Divided They Fall The Gilded Six-Bits, by Zora Neale Hurston, illustrates several principles about money and how it is viewed by two people that are married, including paydays and having a savings account before any life-altering events, such as having children. It also brings forth the significance of not falling victim to appearances, as things are not always what they seem to be at first glance. Furthermore, it brings home a vital point of financial practices in a marriage, which is that important decisions should always be discussed and agreed to by both partners; acting alone when it comes to money that affects the entire household can cause feelings of deceit, mistrust, and betrayal. Missie May and Joe both look forward to their Saturday ritual of him bringing home his pay. They even have a private game that they play, with him “throwing” his money in the door for her to “pile beside her plate at dinner” (Hurston). Freud, in 1961, argued that “the two great wellsprings of mental health are love and work.” (Price, Friedland, and Vinokur 303). If this is truly the case, Missie May and Joe can be counted as a very happy couple, as they both love each other and Joe has work that brings home a steady paycheck. The argument of Freud can be applied to couples other than Missie May and Joe. It is not hard to understand why the paydays of today are anticipated with any less excitement by married couples, including the possessions and presents that can come with them. However, when a loss of income occurs, the consequences are soon felt throughout the household (Price, Friedland, and Vinokur 305). Both job loss and extended periods of unemployment, along with job uncertainty, have been found to have negative emotional outcomes in a marriage, contributing towards a wide array of symptoms that lead to distress and depression (Vinokur, Price and Caplan 166). It is almost as though the marriage is sucked dry of any sort of love and replaced with bickering and arguing over where money could, and would come from (Price, Friedland, and Vinokur 305). The routine of payday, and the standard ability to pay the bills from the money that is brought home through that payday, can be central to happiness for some couples. Without a regular income, disaster looms on the horizon. After being sent home early from work, Joe thinks to himself about how long they have been married, as well as the fact that they have “money put away” and that they should be “making little feet for shoes”, or preparing to have children (Hurston). Joe and Missie May have waited until they had savings established before thinking about enlarging their family, a decision which does not always take place in marriage today. It is a given fact that children are a primary reason for marriage and that having children is a “forward-looking” activity (Wooley 132). However, children also have a significant impact on the financial practices of the marriage, not the least of which is that there is another mouth to feed. There is also a potential loss of income if one parent decides to no longer work outside the home. As it was, Joe stopped Missie May from chopping wood, saying “Ah’m not blind. You makin’ feet for shoes” (Hurston). Even though Missie May did not work outside of the home, she could not work very hard or do strenuous chores, such as chopping wood, while pregnant. In marriages today, sooner or later, a woman that does work outside the home must take at least some time from work (Wooley 133). Sometimes, this must occur sooner than planned, for example, if unforeseen medical complications arise. Having savings built up before choosing to have a child can have a positive effect on a marriage, as it will pay for unexpected expenses and bills while this happens. It can be inferred that Joe was considering dipping into the family savings for when the baby was born, to provide for the things would have been needed. Missie May becomes enamored of Mr. Otis D. Slemmons, a newcomer from Chicago who owns the new ice cream parlor. This is mostly due to the fact that he wears gold, as well as having gold teeth. To her utter dismay, she soon finds out that the gold that Mr. Slemmons professed to have and wear was not gold at all, but a “gilded six-piece” (Hurston). What Mr. Slemmons wore was regular, everyday money, it had just been dressed up to look like gold and fool others. She realizes that “he trusted village eyes at a distance not to recognize his stickpin as a gilded quarter, and his watch charm as a four-bit piece” (Hurston). Joe, in fact, had realized what others did not the night he found Mr. Slemmons in his home; Mr. Slemmons was all about appearances, while having no truth or substance to him. Just as Missie May realized her error too late, and had to deal with the feelings of guilt and shame over it, current marriages often find that they are in the same predicament. Though it may be unknown to everyone outside of the household, often couples will walk around in “debt up to their eyeballs” from the things that they have purchased, but they are only keeping up appearances (Berthall, Crockett, and Rose 130). In reality, they are walking a very fine line between making ends meet and financial disaster (Bernthall, Crockett, and Rose 130). The use of credit cards and means of buying things on accounts has skyrocketed to the point where, in 2003, the American economy was showing “revolving credit or credit card debt” at just under $1 trillion dollars (Bernthall, Crockett, and Rose 130). Instead of saving for purchases with cash, the syndrome of using a Visa card as “plastic money” has become a way of life; many married couples do not realize how close they are to financial ruin (Bernthall, Crockett, and Rose 134). Though Missie May and Joe do not seem to have this problem, as Joe is only shown using and spending cash when “making his market” in town (Hurston). However, in marriages today, it can affect couples to the point of causing the dissolution of the marriage. Missie May also makes a fundamental mistake in the world of marriage finances when she goes about choosing to obtain gold for Joe. She makes the decision on her own, sticks to it, and acts on it, all without speaking to her husband. This is especially insightful because he has specifically told her “Don’ be so wishful ‘bout me. Ah’m satisfied de way Ah is. So long as Ah be yo’ husband” (Hurston). Joe, in doing this, is telling her that he is satisfied with the way things are. There is no need for her to try to change them, yet she does so anyways. Acting alone when it comes to financial practices, especially major purchases, can spell doom for a marriage. It does not matter whether that marriage is new, or a couple has been married for years. Missie May truly believed that she was going to improve the well-being of her husband by obtaining gold for him, and that he would be happy by having and wearing gold. The fact that her husband had specifically told her that he was happy the way he was did not enter into the equation. Although it is valuable in a marriage for couples to each retain some control over their own personal finances, the best practice of thinking is “this is ours”, and not “this is yours, this is mine” (Rich and Kravitz 92). Setting a budget that works for everyone, and sticking to it, along with healthy discussion before making any budget choices, can often be all-important in a marriage (Rich and Kravitz 69). At one point, after Missie May tells him that gold would suit him, Joe asks “Where would a po’ man lak me git gold money from?” (Hurston). This makes it obvious that the couple does not have any extra money for gold and/or foolish purchases. The money that they have saved is for emergencies, and for when babies are born. In choosing to act alone, Missie May has undermined the authority of her husband and, through her actions, betrayed any trust whatsoever that he felt for her. She also hurt him deeply in the process, and should consider herself lucky that Joe loved her enough to stay beside her at all. Despite her deceitful acts, Joe forgave Missie May for what she was trying to do and her lust for what she thought was gold. They once again begin to play their game, with Joe throwing his weekly pay in the door for her to pick up. Unlike some marriages today, where spouses choose divorce and are unable to reconcile their financial practices, Missie May and Joe were able to go back to their simple lifestyle. They are seen picking up where they left off before Mr. Slemmons had entered their lives, and it is quite probable that gold will no longer be an issue in their relationship. Works Cited Bernthall, Matthew J., David Crockett, and Randall L. Rose. “Credit Cards as Lifestyle Facilitators.” Journal of Consumer Research. 32.1 (2005): 130-145. Web. 12 Nov. 2011. Hurston, Zora Neale. The Gilded Six Bits. Redpath, 1986. Web. Price, Richard H., Daniel S. Friedland, and Anuram D. Vinokur. "Job Loss: Hard Times and Eroded Identity." Perspectives on Loss: A Sourcebook. Ed. John H. Harvey. 1st Edition. Philadephia, PA: Taylor & Francis, 1998. 303-316. Web. 14 Nov. 2011. Rich, Hilary, and Helaina Laks Kravitz. The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Perfect Marriage. Indianapolis, IN: Alpha Books, 2001. Print. Vinokur, Amiram D., Richard H. Price, and Robert D. Caplan. “Hard Times and Hurtful Partners: How Financial Strain Affects Depression and Relationship Satisfaction of Unemployed Persons and Their Spouses.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 71.1 (1996): 166-179. Web. 12 Nov. 2011. Wooley, Frances. "Control Over Money in Marriage." Marriage and the Economy: Theory and Evidence from Advanced Industrial Societies. Ed. Shoshana A. Grossbard-Shechtman. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2003. 113-126. Print. Read More