Hurston Use Imagery And Figurative Language In How It Feels To Be Colored Me

Jacksonville is where she where Hurston “was now a little colored girl.”(14) The pain that discrimination can cause did not affect Hurston her self-pride and individuality did not allow racial difference to effect her negatively. Hurston writes “I am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow dammed up in my soul, I do not mind at all. I do not belong to the sobbing school of Negrohood”. (14) Hurston describes how someone is always reminding her of the past transgressions of the White people. Her response is simply that the past is in the past and we must live in the present. Hurston does describe moments when she feels racial difference and her experiences with it. There are time where being amount thousands of white people the author is “a dark rock surged upon, and overswept.”(14) Additionally there are the times where the author is among just one white person in a sea of black people as she describes in her different experience with a friend at a Jazz Club. With all of these situations of difference the author describes not changing and remaining the same. The author explains pride in oneself multiple times throughout the essay stating “I am the eternal feminine” (14) and “How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my

She depicts herself as likable from the beginning, where she is a sweet, naïve girl. She also establishes humor when she claims she does not want the bragging rights that stem from having Native American blood. Her dry wit increases the congenial response and receptiveness towards her and her work, and as a result of her pathos, Hurston establishes an optimistic and yet unapologetic tone. Her humor, irony, and backbone create an optimistic picture of the African-American woman, but she is not offended that she is African American, on the contrary, she is remorseless. Hurston does not ‘weep at the world--[she is] too busy sharpening [her] oyster knife’, for the world is her oyster ready for the

Hurston, on the other hand, lived in a town where only blacks lived until she was thirteen years old. Therefore, she only knew the “black” self. There was no second identity to contend with. She states that “white people differed from colored to me only in that they rode through town and never lived there.”2 She does not feel anger when she is discriminated against. She only wonders how anyone can not want to be in her company. She “has no separate feeling about being an American citizen and colored” (Hurston 1712).

In Zora Neale Hurston’s essay “How It Feels To Be Colored Me”, her racial identity varies based on her location. Towards the beginning of her life when Zora was in her own community she could be a lighthearted, carefree spirit. However, when she was forced to leave her community, Zora’s identity became linked to her race. In this essay I will demonstrate how Zora’s blackness is both a sanctuary and completely worthless.

The memoir “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” by Zora Neale Hurston, was first published in 1928, and recounts the situation of racial discrimination and prejudice at the time in the United States. The author was born into an all-black community, but was later sent to a boarding school in Jacksonville, where she experienced “race” for the first time. Hurston not only informs the reader how she managed to stay true to herself and her race, but also inspires the reader to abandon any form of racism in their life. Especially by including Humor, Imagery, and Metaphors, the author makes her message very clear: Everyone is equal.

This is explained by the reaction of each to a jazz orchestra at a Harlem night club. The music has a profoundly different effect on her than it does on a white person sitting next to her.

The early 1900s was a very challenging time for Negroes especially young women who developed issues in regards to their identities. Their concerns stemmed from their skin colors. Either they were fair skinned due mixed heritage or just dark skinned. Young African American women experienced issues with racial identity which caused them to be in a constant struggle that prohibits them from loving themselves and the skin they are in. The purpose of this paper is to examine those issues in the context of selected creative literature. I will be discussing the various aspects of them and to aid in my analysis, I will be utilizing the works of Nella Larsen from The Norton Anthology of African American Literature, Jessie Bennett Redmond Fauset,

Even though both Hurston and Hughes grew up around the same time period, they had very different ideals regarding their experience as African American’s as well as a different voice used within their works to convey their ideals. Hurston in her 1928 essay “How it Feels to be Colored Me” describes her childhood and coming of age with a delightful zest that cannot be contained. Although the essay does contain some dark moments such as when she describes her experience with her friend at the jazz club and the sudden realization of the racial difference between her and the other patrons, for the most part the work exudes her keen sense of dignity despite the popular opinion of the masses during that period. Lines in her essay such as “But I am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow dammed up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes…I do not belong to the sobbing school of Negrohood who hold that nature somehow has given them a lowdown dirty deal and whose feelings are all hurt about it” (Abcarian, Klotz, and Cohen 812) beautifully express her sense of self dignity and refusal to give in to the negative energies surrounding her race. Despite the many hardships that the color of her skin caused her she was proud and determined to never let that stand in her way of

One of Hurston’s stories, How it Feels to Be Colored Me, reflects the author’s perspective of the colored race (specifically herself). According to the story, when Hurston reached the age of thirteen, she truly “became colored” (1040). The protagonist was raised in Eatonville, Florida, which was mainly inhabited by the colored race. She noted no difference between herself and the white community except that they never lived in her hometown. Nevertheless, upon leaving Eatonville, the protagonist began losing her identity as “Zora,” instead, she was recognized as only being “a little colored girl” (1041). Hurston’s nickname “Zora” represents her individuality and significance; whereas, the name “a little colored girl” was created by a white society to belittle her race and gender (1041).

In the short story “Drenched in Light” by Zora Neale Hurston, the author appeals to a broad audience by disguising ethnology and an underlying theme of gender, race, and oppression with an ambiguous tale of a young black girl and the appreciation she receives from white people. Often writing to a double audience, Hurston had a keen ability to appeal to white and black readers in a clever way. “[Hurston] knew her white folks well and performed her minstrel shows tongue in cheek” (Meisenhelder 2). Originally published in The Opportunity in 1924, “Drenched in Light” was Hurston’s first story to a national audience.

2, pp. 358). When people reminded her that she is the granddaughter of slaves, it doesn’t sadden her. She acknowledges that slavery is a part of the past and “slavery is the price I paid for civilization” (Hurston, vol. 2, pp. 359). Zora now saw herself differently amongst a sea of white peoples; prior to now she was unaware of any differences. However, even feeling colored she finds herself; the negative doesn’t define her. She doesn’t see the difference she just sees the contrast of color. She notices a contract while at a jazz club with a white male nearby. She becomes consumed by the music from the band and in her head she is in the South African jungle doing a deer dance hunting for prey. The orchestra finishes the song and the white male sitting near only acknowledges it was good music. The song hadn’t touched him like it had her. He only heard the song that she could feel in her bones and that is when she notices the contrast between them. “He is so pale with his whiteness then and I am so colored” (Hurston, vol.2, pp. 359).

At the beginning of the essay Hurston opens up with the statement that she is colored and that she offers no extenuating circumstances to the fact except that she is the only Negro in the U.S. whose grandfather was not an Indian chief. She presents a striking notion that she was not born colored, but that she later became colored during her life. Hurston then delves into her childhood in Eatonville, Florida an exclusively colored town where she did not realize her color then. Through anecdotes describing moments when she greeted neighbors, sang and danced in the streets, and viewed her surroundings from a comfortable spot on her porch, she just liked the white tourists going through the town. Back then, she was “everybody’s Zora” (p. 903), free from the alienating feeling of difference. However, when her mother passed away she had to leave home and

“How It Feels To Be Colored Me” is one of Hurston’s more honest works, honing in on her experiences throughout her childhood. Hurston was the fifth child of eight to John Hurston, a Baptist preacher, farmer, and carpenter, and Lucy

Zora Neale Hurston’s “How It Feels To Be Colored Me” is a collection of metaphor-driven vignettes describing Hurston’s experiences as a ‘colored’ woman. The essay begins with her recounting her early years living in a colored town in Florida. During this portion of the essay, Hurston describes herself as everybody's Zora, or a young talented girl who was there to service anyone when needed. The shift in her mindset occurred at the age of 13 when she was forced to go to school in Jacksonville. Hurston describes how she transformed from a Zora into a “little colored girl”, implying that being in the vicinity of a largely white population made her feel alienated from the rest. This portion is followed up by two more stories describing Hurston feeling colored when “thrown against a sharp white background.” Hurston concludes the story with a metaphor of differently colored bags containing the same fillings. This metaphor likely pertains to how people of different ethnicity look different on the outside but are generally the same on the inside. While the writing and general outline of this story is very intricate and engrossing, the ideas expressed in the stories were less interesting and often repetitive. Hurston is definitely being honest here, but the idea that someone of a certain race feels different when in the vicinity of another race should have been somewhat obvious to everyone even prior to reading this. Aside

"How It Feels to Be Considered Me" is a anthologized expressive article in which Zora Neale Hurston investigates the revelation of her personality and self-pride. Following the traditions of depiction, Hurston utilizes brilliant word usage, symbolism, and non-literal dialect to take the reader on this voyage. Using a conversational tone and numerous idioms, Hurston towards the start of the paper dives into her adolescence in Eatonville, Florida, through accounts portraying minutes when she welcomed neighbors, sang and moved in the boulevards, and saw her surroundings from an agreeable spot on her entryway patio. In those days, Hurston was everyone's Zora, free from the estranging sentiment disparity. In any case, when she was thirteen her mom passed away, and she exited home to go to an all-inclusive school in Jacksonville where she instantly progressed toward becoming colored. Zora Neale Hurston wrote in a period when inclination had displayed predictable and mistreatment that was undaunting. Nevertheless, having been brought up in Eatonville, an all-black town, she was shielded from the harsh racial realities that existed. In her short story, Hurston gives a self-delineating record of the very day that she bent up plainly shaded. Hurston utilizes the work as a vehicle to doubtlessly portray the declarations of her self-assertion. In the essay “How It Feels to Be Colored Me,” Zora Neale Hurston the narrator celebrates the distinct culture and history of black Americans,