Preview

The Gilded Six-Bits and the Pardon: Stories of Betrayal and Forgiveness

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
596 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Gilded Six-Bits and the Pardon: Stories of Betrayal and Forgiveness
Ivan Nouel
Professor Brahlek
Enc1102 – 10:00am
July 10th, 2012

The Gilded Six-Bits and The Pardon
The Gilded Six-Bits by Zora Neale Hurston and The Pardon by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings both have several things in common as well differences. These are both short stories that were written in the 20th century that have to with betrayal as well forgiveness. A psychoanalytic approach of these two stories would be an examination of characters; comparing and contrasting the characters personalities and situations.
The main characters names in these stories are Adam and Joe. In The Pardon Adam is white and in The Gilded Six-Bits Joe is black. Both men seem to be kind hearted individuals who love their wives. In The Pardon Adam is excited to see his wife, which shows how much he’s missed her, and in the Gilded-Six-Bits Joe and his wife have a traditional game they like to play on Joe’s pay day, which shows that they like to fool around and have fun. Despite all this love for their wives though, they are both betrayed.
In the Pardon, Adam goes to jail for quite some time leaving his wife alone at home. After a certain amount of time, a person will do just about anything for some company. In The Pardon, Adam’s wife says to him “’I had to have help on the place. A woman can’t farm it alone. The fence was near about rotted to the ground’ ” (Rawlings Kinnan, Marjorie). This was her excuse for cheating on him and having another man’s baby. In The Gilded Six-Bits, Joe’s wife sleeps with Slemmons while Joe is at work for some money. In the story, she says “’Oh Joe, honey, he said he wuz gointer give me dat gold money he jes’ kept on after me’ ” (545). The way both men reacted to this was both similar and different.
Adam is shocked when his wife admits to cheating on him, but he remains calm. The same goes for Joe when he finds his wife with another man (Slemmons) in his own home. Even though you can tell that Joe is a tad bit frustrated, he keeps his cool and prevents



Bibliography: Rawlings Kinnan, Marjorie. When the Whippoorwill. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1940. Print. Hurston Neale, Zora. “The Gilded Six-Bits.” Literature Craft & Voice. Ed. Nicholas Delbanco and Alan Cheuse. New York: Mcgraw-Hill, 2010. 541-547. Print.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    There are six sins that can keep you from going to heaven if committed. These sins include gluttony, envy, pride, laziness, anger and lechery. Greed can blind a man to taking the evil path and thinking it is the right one. It can also make it hard to differentiate between right and wrong. The Pardoner’s Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer is a tale showing gluttony taking the life of three so called faithful friends. The desire for money and wealth makes one discourteous, greedy and sinful as portrayed by the three friends stabbing each other in the back. These three men got their share of consequences accordingly to their unmannerly behavior. The first act will show the three rioters coming to ignorant conclusions while being drunk. The next act will show how the three companions act with the old man. Then the last act will show how the greediness for treasure and wealth takes over the three companions and makes them stab one another in the back.…

    • 711 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Hawthorne, N. (2009). Young Goodman Brown. In M. Myers, The Compact Bedford Introdution to Literature (pp. 325-333). Boston: Bedford/St.Martin 's.…

    • 1670 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    A true story of how a man was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death, May God Have Mercy exposes the imperfections in the criminal justice system and how it led to the death of an innocent man. Roger Coleman's case became the main story on nightly newscasts and prominent television shows such as Larry King Live, Nightline, Good Morning America, and the Today Show. Many crucial, yet harmful decisions were made that ultimately resulted in an innocent man's execution at the death house in Greensville, Virginia. The police, the prosecutor, and the Judge can all be held responsible for Coleman's death. However, the reason Roger Coleman was not acquitted of the murder of Wanda McCoy in the first place and thus in a position to be executed was because his original lawyers, Steve Arey and Terry Jordan, did not provide him with adequate representation, as required by the Constitution of the United States of America.…

    • 1746 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Hurston, Zora N. "Zora Neale Hurston 's "The Gilded Six-Bits"" American Literature Research and Analysis Website. University of South Florida in Fort Myers, July 1996. Web. 13 Oct. 2011. <http://itech.fgcu.edu/faculty/wohlpart/alra/hurston.htm>.…

    • 2020 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Both tales exhibit this idea from different perspectives to relfect the values of their context. The Pardoners Tale reflects a religious society where sin is punished…

    • 1254 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Bibliography: The Norton Anthology Of American Literature. 7th. A. New York: W W Norton & Co Inc, 2007. Print.…

    • 1616 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God: A Novel. New York: Perennial Library, 1990. Print.…

    • 1388 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Money is the root of all things evil. When a person put money before their beliefs and values a lot of things can go wrong. Delia and Missie May are the two women Hurston wanted you to see what money do to two different type if people, one self-made and one depended on money given. Delia was the woman that had to work hard for everything she wanted and have. She is not a person who let money define her, whereas you have, Missie May, a housewife and her husband gives her everything she wanted and needed. It’s Funny how Hurston depicted two different kind of bad marriages. In “The Gilded Six-Bits” the wife cheats on the husband where as in “sweat” the husband cheats on the wife. In both stories, Hurston tested a Woman’s strengths and weakness…

    • 427 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Many tales are told in Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. Probably the greatest on is "The Pardoner's Tale". A greedy Pardoner who preaches to feed his own desires tells "The Pardoner's Tale". This story contains excellent examples of verbal, situational, and dramatic irony.…

    • 501 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God: A Novel. New York: Perennial Library, 1990. Print.…

    • 1369 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    We can see in both stories that there is a clear link in the themes concerning the female loss of identity in marriage. Mrs. Mallard realizes this but does not have time to act upon it before she dies. Hers is a story of suppressed desire for freedom that emerges too late in her life. Mrs. Hale succeeds in doing so by defying her marriage's assumed lawfulness. As she sides with the murder suspect, she is siding with an…

    • 368 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Despite their different mediums both composers emphasise that greed challenges virtues such as loyalty, respect and trust , both composers examine the human condition where we struggle with moral issues. Chaucer’s fourteenth century poem “The Pardoners Tale” is influenced by the Pardoner’s role within the church and the abuse that is prevalent challenges the hypocrisy of individuals within the church community. This is evident in the skilful use of irony in lines 916 to 1918, “And Jesus Christ, that is our soul’s physician. So grant you to receive his pardon for that is best; I will not deceive you”. This highlights that Chaucer positions the responder to experience opposing feeling towards the pardoner, the irony is more evident in the fact that while the pardoner appears to be fully aware that he is a scoundrel, the doom from which he is saving others also over hangs him, yet he is not considering it to be his fate, in this point the pardoner has a moment of truth where he…

    • 1043 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Country Lover’s is a short story written by Nadine Gordimer ( 1976 ), that portrays childhood friends growing up together in two different types of lifestyles. They develop a more intimate relationship as they grow older and it ends up being an act of betrayal. Paulaus Eysendyck was a white young man…

    • 1011 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Literature 1865-1912

    • 1225 Words
    • 5 Pages

    References: Reesman, J., & Krupat, A. (2008). The norton anthology: American literature . (7th ed., Vol. 2 p.…

    • 1225 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Woody Allen’s film “Crimes and Misdemeanors,” the main characters face problems with morals, choices, and personal responsibilities that cloud their lives. There are two storylines that at first don’t seem to mix, but in the end come to an interesting connection when both main characters meet. Both stories are tales of adultery, but one also involves murder, and embezzlement.…

    • 592 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays