WEB DuBois and Zora Neal Hurston undoubtedly had two distinct ways of writing, one through an analytical form of storytelling with intertwined fragments of moralistic texts and ethical themes and one through short fiction illustrating the distinctiveness of black culture and dialects. Although these styles are diverse, they both speak to the condition of blackness and each present poignant narratives that existed to both study and challenge the position of black people as a whole. Zora Neal Hurston's The Gilded Six-Bits and WEB DuBois's The Souls of Black Folk both place black culture and black intellectualism in the conversation about political and socioeconomic inequality. Additionally, these works forced blacks and whites to evaluate and re-evaluate ideas surrounding identity and what it means to own one's culture and exist in contentment. Joe, Otis T. Slemmons, and WEB DuBois' son all represent the idea that whiteness, through a black cultural lens, is something one carries and despite attempts to escape the Veil, there is a barrier always present which prevents black people from achieving the illusion of happiness. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned"?Get the Original EssayThe transformation of contentment into a materialistic desire for wealth and ideals of happiness almost ruins Joe and Missie May's marriage. It is the need for stability and lineage that ultimately keeps them together. The opening lines of the story create the feeling of a community united by its vision of growth. Hurston writes, “It was a black court around a black house in a black settlement that relied on the payroll of the G and G Fertilizer factories for support” (1033). Joe and Missie May appear happy as they play and perform their game, but it is the underlying sinful desires that creep in despite their attempt to separate themselves from the world around them. Missie May cleans her dark skin with white soup in baths and a galvanized bathtub. When Joe enters the house, he gets rid of the dirty fertilizer. There's a distinct undertone of uncleanliness that lurks just beneath the surface, just on the outskirts of the happily married couple, and that only really surfaces when Otis enters the picture. Just before Joe learns of Missie May and Otis' sexual encounter, he contemplates his future with Missie May, he analyzes, "creation obsessed him... a little boy would be right" (1037). Like many previous authors, including DuBois, there is an incomprehensible desire for a strong paternal lineage; this desire may stem from the separation of families during slavery or from a wide range of ancestral ties, but Joe seems to adhere to this philosophy. In the same way that his community depends on the operation of G and G Fertilizer, Joe puts all his confidence in the stability he believes he has with his wife and in the certainty of an equally stable future. Despite Joe's optimistic view, it is evident that his desire for happiness is different from Missie May's desire for the same thing. Joe explains after returning from work: “You're not hungry, honey...you're a little empty. Ah, I could eat camp meetings, renounce all association and drink dry Jurdan” (1034). Joe compares his hunger to a spiritual desire, he is so hungry that he could fill himself from the Jordan, which has clearly religious connotations. Joe tells Missie May that she is simply empty, meaning there is a need to fill up but not explicitly in a spiritual way. Missie May's emptiness leads her to seek fulfillment in other ways, throughher sexual encounter with Otis and her desire for the golden six bits. After Missie May's brief affair with Otis, she believes her marriage is over, she even debates leaving Joe forever, but she cannot bring herself to leave. Joe reprimands, “Missie May, you cry too much. Do not look back at Lak Lot's wife and do not turn into salt” (1039). Missie May, like Lot's wife, had difficulty believing in the future. Her past indiscretion and adultery hid her hidden desires and vision of happiness, even though, as she would discover, she wanted nothing more than a charade. Otis Slemmons introduces something into the lives of Missie May and Joe, and that is the notion of economic inferiority and material desire and that, regardless of their decision to stay together, destroys their marriage. Otis T. Slemmons represents, as the serpent in the Christian world. creation myth, the introduction of sin, knowledge and desire into the lives of Joe and Missie May. Otis' clothes, girth and money lead the couple to compare him to robber barons such as Rockefeller and Henry Ford. Without his presence, Joe and Missie May would not have become aware of the economic disparities within the black community. Previously, their view of wealth, power, and male superiority only existed as something distinctly white and in a distant community. Joe praises: “He has the finest clothes ever seen on the back of a colored man” (1035). The emphasis on clothing in relation to the way Otis presents his material wealth illustrates two notions: From Joe and Missie May's perspective, economic superiority is represented only by material ownership and whiteness. Once Otis infiltrates their house, he has the power to ruin them, before he is even outside the house. Missie May and Joe only go to the ice cream parlor to see Otis. The moment Joe and Missie May start talking about Otis, lust and jealousy enter their lives and it leads them both to make unusually wrong choices. Missie May desires the "wealth" that Otis has, thinking it will make her happy. Joe, understanding that he cannot compete with Otis's economic status, desires to possess women as Otis does. Joe covets: “I wish it was mine.” And why is it so cool, he has been accumulating money. And the women give him everything” (1035). There is an immediate gender gap between Joe and Missie May's desires: women as a whole become possessions that motivate and empower men. The commodification of Missie May and the expression of ownership and power through possession of the six bits presents the idea that Missie May's sexuality becomes something that is exchanged between men. At the end of the story, Joe throws fifteen coins onto the porch instead of nine, meaning that the desire for economic prosperity rules their marriage and they cannot rid themselves of the sinful desires that Otis introduced into their lives . They are no longer free in the expression of their love but rather oppressed by external forces. The couple can never achieve the contentment they had or the contentment they wanted because their current actions limit their possibilities for serenity. WEB DuBois' unnamed son tragically dies before he can obtain an identity. By dying, he escapes the tragedy of the Veil, or the systematic oppression that locks Black people in a state of inequality and internalized racism. DuBois describes: "He knew no color line, the poor dear, and the Veil, though it cast a shadow on him, had not obscured half his sun" (741). The baby is innocent and he is neither black nor white yet. The Veil is only one.