The rural location of Joe and Missie May had a lot to do with their social values and thinking patterns. Joe and Missie May's individual values were reflected by where they lived.

"The Gilded Six-Bits" is one of Hurston's deepest and most passionate stories. It explains the tale of a "Negro" family who is happily married and lives in a rural area. Then, their marriage and love are put on the line when Missie May is caught sleeping with a "rich" black man, Otis D. Slemmons. This is a very hard thing to cope with but the family survives it. This story goes beyond the words written on the pages. It proves that individual values are different for everyone and for many, love brings more happiness than wealth can ever bring. Before this incident with Missie May, Joe and his wife were young "kids" trying to build a marriage. After they experienced this though, they became full adults. They truly grew up. This story shows how the power of love can survive anything, for it is immortal.

Although Joe and Missie May were not very rich (they were a middle class family), they more than made up for this in the love that they had for each other. This is illustrated in the story when Joe was thinking, "That was the best part of life-going home to Missie May. Their whitewashed house, the mock battle on Saturday, the dinner and ice cream parlor afterwards, church on Sunday nights when Missie out dressed every woman in town- all, everything, was right." (Hurston1720). Because Missie May and Joe lived in their own little world, they never saw the need to communicate with others to make themselves happy. One can say that they were somehow isolated from other people. Since they only had each other, they loved each other that much more and hence the closeness of the family. Every payday, Joe would throw his money in the hall and Missie May would go after him and take it. It was a game they played. The location of Missie May and Joe not only reflects their own values, but the values of the whole society. One thing is the dialogue. When speaking to each other, Joe and Missie May, like the rest of their society, use "slang" dialect which is hard to understand many times. If they lived in a different area, this dialogue would be different. Also, if their society found out about what Missie had done, she would become an immediate outcast. What Missie did with Slemmons would be considered breaking her society's values and if the society found out, Missie May and even Joe would become even more isolated than they were because their society would believe that her actions were unacceptable. Where Slemmons comes from, people have different values and they are lower than the values of Joe and Missie. Essentially, Joe and Missie May live a nice, happy life. Their small home contributes to their happiness. The feeling of belonging to one another also explains why they are a happy couple. They have everything they need in their own little world and they don't believe that a higher social class means more happiness. The location of Missie May and Joe help explain why the love that they have

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Approximate Word count = 1974
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)