Who is the narrator, can she or he read minds, and, more importantly, can we trust her or him?
Third Person Omniscient
As with many Hurston stories, the narrator in "The Gilded Six-Bits" is omniscient. How do we know this? The narrator reveals the thoughts of both Missie and Joe, as in the following passage:
Missie knew why she didn't leave Joe. She couldn't. She loved him too much, but she could not understand why Joe didn't leave her. (97)
In this story, the narrator knows everything that's going on and passes on the information to us through thoughts, dialogue and observations.
And, why, you ask, is it important to know this information? Why, empathy, dear shmoopers, empathy. We're going to go out on a limb here and guess that the vast majority of us are not African-Americans who grew up in Eatonville, Florida in the 1930s—you'd have to be going on at least 75 years old, and if you're 75 years old, you probably have a lot of other things to do than check out Shmoop.
By being inside the heads of the characters, we get to know them quite intimately, and get a peek at what life was like in Eatonville back in the day. We know the characters' joys, their pain, and their flaws. Hurston brings her readers into the lives of others to make us realize that we actually have a lot in common. Jealousy? Yep, we've felt that. Mistakes? Sure, we've made a few. Love? Yeah, we want some.