The Gilded Six-Bits Symbols

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The biblical story of “Adam and Eve” is one commonly known. In Zora Neale Hurston’s short story “The Gilded Six-Bits” similar themes have arisen. Hurston has found new ways to represent all characters and objects from the biblical story into her own. Not only are the character’s present, but there’s two common themes as well; The concept of eating fruit from the forbidden tree, and the representation of God and religion. With her short story, Hurston has been able to retell the tale of Adam and Eve.
There are three main roles in the tale of Adam and Eve that can respectively represent the characters in the “Gilded Six-bits”. Husband and wife Missie May and Joe represent Adam and Eve. Slemmons represents the serpent. Also, an important setting, the Garden of Eden, is represented as Missie May and Joe’s house. The imagery of the house being happy and white means the home is pure in the same sense the Garden of Eden is, “But …show more content…
In Adam and Eve, God is actually a character, but in the Gilded Six-bits he is more represent through Joe and Missie May’s marriage. He sets out rules for Adam and Eve and tells them they can be happy and enjoy Eden if they don’t eat from one certain tree. Likewise, in marriage, Missie May and Joe can be happy and enjoy their home so long as they keep the sanctity of marriage intact by not committing infidelity. God challenges both of the characters with tests to see how important the rules are to them. Even though Adam and Eve break the rules and are banished from Eden they still believe in God and while they live on Earth they choose to follow his new rules. As for Missie May and Joe, Missie breaks the rules and could potentially ruin her marriage, however the couple manages to fix Missie May’s mistakes and they can move past it, “Perhaps he was through with her punishment. They were man and wife again.” (Hurston, 96) and so if the marriage lasts then so does

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