The Gilded Six Bits
by Zora Neale Hurston

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The Gilded Six Bits: Style 1 key example

Key Examples in The Gilded Six Bits

Style
Explanation and Analysis:

Hurston’s writing style in “The Gilded Six-Bits” combines long swaths of informal dialogue written in a Black Southern vernacular with formal, lyrical descriptions from a third-person omniscient narrator. The first half of the story is nearly all dialogue, with Missie May and Joe bantering lovingly with each other about their relationship as well as the arrival of a newcomer to their town—Otis Slemmons, the wealthy owner of a new ice cream parlor. The two speak in a rural Southern dialect full of informal language, punctuated every so often with the formal language of the narrator.