Hurston was a relative newcomer on the literary scene when this short story was published, but eventually had greater success with her highly acclaimed novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God.
It portrays the life of two happy newlyweds who both test their relationship and their love for one another when a charismatic outsider comes into their community and into their home.
The story embodies Hurston's typical writing style in which it focuses on the common African-American lifestyle, represented by regional dialect and metaphors, and is set in her native town Eatonville, FL where it reflects the traditions of the community.
Like always, she pretends to be mad that he is throwing the money and playfully chases him, then goes through his pockets to find a little present that he has bought her.
That night, with the silver dollars placed next to Missie May's plate during dinner, Joe tells her that he is going to take her out to a new ice cream parlor opened by a new rich black man in town from Chicago, who goes by the name of Otis D. Slemmons.
Missie May cannot understand why Joe does not leave her, but he continues to torture her by carrying around the golden coin Slemmons left behind to symbolize the affair.
[2] Appearance vs. reality: Hurston dramatizes this theme by portraying that objects are covered to make them better than they are, which can be seen with the gilded half-dollar.
Marriage is also a disguised form of prostitution, the flexible use of language makes communication impossible, and the double meaning of words functions as the representation of fraud as seen by the six bits.
Just as Joe threw silver coins in the house to Missie May, with fifteen shekels and some barley, Hosea attempts to buy back his wife.
"The Gilded Six-Bits" was influenced by her educational endeavors in anthropology and her unsuccessful marriage with Herbert Sheen.
The film aired on the Showtime cable network in February 2001 and was written for the screen and directed by Booker T. Mattison.