SOURCE: Jones, Evora W. “The Pastoral and the Picaresque in Zora Neale Hurston's ‘The Gilded Six-Bits’.” College Language Association Journal 35, no. 3 (March 1992): 316-24.

In the following essay, Jones contends that “The Gilded Six-Bits” reflects elements of the pastoral and picaresque literary traditions.

The history of a people, recorded through folklore, reveals unique, significant, complex, and even virtuous behavior patterns of a culture. This kind of history is one of the contributions of Zora Neale Hurston, anthropologist and folklorist, and includes literature reflecting the pastoral and the picaresque. It also includes literature which maintains readability, relevance, and its rightful position among belles lettres. Characteristic of such history is Zora Neale Hurston's “The Gilded Six-Bits.”

The term pastoral embodies many characteristics, the first of which is a “contrast between two worlds—One identified with rural peace and simplicity—the other with power and sophistication.”¹ This contrast pervades the story. While...