Blog Entry #3

In our recent readings there has been a common theme of love and marriage. In Zora Hurston’s "The Gilded Six-Bits" we see a true loving marriage that is tested by a woman’s actions. While in stories such as "The Birth Mark" we see a marriage challenged by conceitedness. Some marriages last while others don’t.
In "The Gilded Six-Bits" we see an African American working class couple that has complete love for each other. In the beginning of the story we see the couples love through there weekly ritual. We get the picture that they don’t have a lot of material things but have love for each other. Then the wife gets tempted by a wealthier man who promises to give her his gold coin that the whole town admires. She ends up cheating on her husband with the wealthy man, and her husband walks in on them. Like most people in this situation the husband goes into shock and doesn’t know how he feels. He is obviously hurt by her deception. He stays with her, but they rarely talk or have the usually fun they had. The wife has a child and the husband remembers how much he loves her. In the end he returns and starts the usual Saturday ritual and the wife joins in. This story showed how some marriages are so rooted in true love that they can survive the worst kind of problems. This husband loved his wife so much that he was willing to swallow his pride and forgive the one person he loved.
In Nathaniel Hawthorn’s "The Birthmark" we see how some marriages are driven by an individuals own self-determination. The husband in this short story was self centered, and did not care about his wife’s feelings or opinions. The wife was a beautiful woman that had a birthmark that did not bother most people. Most people thought the woman’s birthmark made up part of her beauty. The husband hated the birthmark and kept bringing up the fact that she could get it removed. The women kept hearing his belittling comments and agreed to have it removed. After having the birthmark removed the woman died. The wife had love for her husband and in the end was willing to give her life for him. The husband couldn’t care any less about her. He wanted her to look more beautiful by removing one of her most unique features, and eventual made her make the biggest sacrifice for him.