In the story “How it feels to be colored me” by Zora Neale Hurston we are able to view Hurston’s complex expression of racial identity in the united states. It celebrates the distinct cultural of African American, she has pride on her race more of her color; she is expressing her cultural and racial pride. In her work, we are taken from her childhood to her adult life. It deeply spokes of the Harlem Renaissance on race in the United State and on the African-American representation of racial identity “I do not belong to the sobbing school of negrohood” (539). She is exploring the old views of her race while finding her own personal view and accepting herself, as she is a value human just as equal as any other person. Her tone and use of imagery …show more content…
suggest her views on life, a feeling that remarkably suggest that she does not care what race she was born in more so that her race is the human race. Due to Hurston being raised in a Eatonville “It is exclusively a colored town” (538).
She was shelter from the cruelties of racialist. Hurston uses “How it feels to be colored me” as a vehicle to vividly describe the expressions of her self-realization, she sees herself as the official greater of Florida “welcome-to-our-state” (539). Not until she is in Jacksonville that comes to the realization of her color and what exactly it meant for her “I became a fast brown” (539). Yet we can still see how she remains high-spirited and continues her outspoken style. She writes about the ways she feels about color then goes back how she does not feel her …show more content…
color. We see many of Hurston allusions through her story, she makes certain remarks about the bible one particular example is the very connecting to Jesus life and to the one of the slaves “Slavery is the price I paid for civilization, and the choice was not with me” (539). “No one on earth had a greater change for glory” (540). “The spectator not knowing whether to laugh or to weep” (540). We see that she is referring to the life God paid; he gave up his only son to save all humans, just as her ancestors paid the price of freedom with their life. When Hurston describes “I feel like a brown back of miscellany propped against a wall. Again a wall in company with other bags, white, red and yellow. Pour out the contents, and there is a discovered a jumble of small things priceless and worthless” (541). Not only Horston uses this imagery to emphasis on her point of self-worth but also as a metaphor to God whom is believed to have created the world and all humans. “Perhaps that is how the Great Stuffer of Bags filled them in the first place” (541). Hurston ends the story with the intent for the reader to grasp her final point. Hurston uses very vivid imagery to emphasize her point towards race and color significance during the Harlem Renaissance.
Readers can see the contrast Hurston make between white and colored people “he is so pale with his whiteness then I am so colored” (540). Not only she is stereotyping the white race for not being connected to Jazz but readers can see her passion for her roots the Jazz music has remain a stereotype for African- American as well. In the beginning we are also given a strong imagery “But the Northerners were something else again. They were peered at cautiously from behind curtains by the timid” (539). Hurston descrives the Black in the town reaction to seeing the Northerners White when they pass through. They were nervous looking somewhat weak, compared to the Southern White how did not show any nervousness or fear. There are many other imagery but perhaps the most intense is “The terrible struggle that made me an American out of a potential slave said “on the line!” The Reconstruction said “Get set!” and the generation before said, “Go!” I am off to a flying start and I must not halt in the stretch to look behind and weep” (539). This shows Hurston courage, the use of analogy of the race represent the struggle and the progression of African-American, she knows she must move forward and not dwell on the pass. The use of this images give more powerful vision of what it was like for her growing up during a time. Where race was all that matter, Yet her tone and
charisma shows how like this affected her self-worth and how much she value the trouble her ancestors had to overcome to give all African-American the freedom they can now enjoy.
Ethnic group is a settled mannerism for many people during their lives. Both Zora Neale Hurston, author of “How It Feels to Be Colored Me; and Brent Staples, author of “Just Walk On By: A Black Man Ponders His Power to Alter Public Space,” realize that their life will be influenced when they are black; however, they take it in pace and don’t reside on it. They grew up in different places which make their form differently; however, in the end, It does not matter to them as they both find ways to match the different sexes and still have productivity in their lives.. Hurston was raised in Eatonville, Florida, a quiet black town with only white passer-by from time-to-time, while Staples grew up in Chester, Pennsylvania, surrounded by gang activity from the beginning. Both Hurston and Staples share similar and contrasting views about the effect of the color of their
From slavery to the Harlem Renaissance, a revolutionary change in the African American community, lead by poets, musicians and artists of all style. People where expressing their feeling by writing the poem, playing on instruments and many more. According to the poem “ I, Too” by Langston Hughes and article “How it feels to be Colored Me” by Zora Neale Hurtson, the poem and article connects to each other. The poem is about how a African Man, who sits in the dinning café and says that, one day nobody would be able to ask him to move anywhere, and the in the article written by Zora Neale Hurtson, she describes how her life was different from others, she was not afraid of going anywhere. They both have very similar thoughts,
It is strange that two of the most prominent artists of the Harlem Renaissance could ever disagree as much as or be as different as Zora Neale Hurston and Richard Wright. Despite the fact that they are the same color and lived during the same time period, they do not have much else in common. On the one hand is Hurston, a female writer who indulges in black art and culture and creates subtle messages throughout her most famous novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. On the other hand is Wright, who is a male writer who demonstrates that whites do not like black people, nor will they ever except for when they are in the condition “…America likes to see the Negro live: between laughter and tears.” Hurston was also a less political writer than Wright. When she did write politically, she was very subtle about stating her beliefs.
She tell us about her experiences she went through herself while growing up. In her essay she states, "Mixed cultural signals have perpetuated certain stereotypes- for example, that of the Hispanic woman as the "Hot Tamale" or sexual firebrand" (page 105) because she gives us an example how men think a Latina woman is sexy female with an attitude that can be explosive. She did not believe that she should be judge by how society images a Latina, nor how they should act. In Zora Neale Hurston essay "How It Feels to Be Colored Me" she feels judge when she moves from cities. Zora was a African American living in Eatonville, Florida a little Negro town where she was never judge for the color of skin, yet until she had to move to Jacksonville. She states in her essay, "It seemed that I had suffered a sea change. I was not Zora of Orange County any more, I was now a little colored girl" (page 186). Zora Neale was never judge for the color of her skin in her old town but when she moved to Jacksonville she realized that the world wasn 't how she pictured. She was being treated different for how she looked like. Both essay had the same situation of being judge for their race, yet how their alike their too are
In ‘How it feels to be colored me’ Neale Hurston opens up to her pride and identity as an African-American. Hurston uses a wide variety of imagery, diction using figurative language freely with metaphors. Her tone is bordering controversial using local lingo.
The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B Dubois is a influential work in African American literature and is an American classic. In this book Dubois proposes that "the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line." His concepts of life behind the veil of race and the resulting "double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others," have become touchstones for thinking about race in America. In addition to these lasting concepts, Souls offers an evaluation of the progress of the races and the possibilities for future progress as the nation entered the twentieth century.
Abstract from Essay The reader can contemplate the passage of Du Bois' essay to substitute the words "colored" and "Negro" with African-American, Nigger, illegal alien, Mexican, inner-city dwellers, and other meanings that articulate people that are not listed as a majority. Du Bois' essay is considered a classic because its words can easily reflect the modern day. -------------------------------------------- The Souls of Black Folk broadens the minds of the readers, and gives the reader a deeper understanding into the lives of people of African heritage.
Marriage is a concept that society takes extremely inaccurately. It is not something one can fall back from. Once someone enter it there is no way back. In Zora Neale Hurston’s short story “Sweat” she tells the story of Delia, a washerwoman whom Sykes, her husband, mistreats while he ventures around with other women and later attempts to kill Delia to open a way for a second marriage with one of his mistresses. By looking at “Sweat” through the feminist and historical lens Hurston illustrates the idea of a sexist society full of men exploiting and breaking down women until men dispose of them.
Though her race was a victim of brutal, harsh discrimination, Hurston lived her life as an individual first, and a person of color second. In the narrative “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” by Zora Neale Hurston, Hurston says, “The cosmic Zora emerges. I belong to no race nor time. I am the eternal feminine with its string of beads” (Hurston 3). She feels as though an extraordinary form of herself is brought out. This form is not bound by physical traits and is the everlasting woman with the cards she is dealt. The “cosmic Zora” emerging represents the empowered, fearless Zora from Orange County, Florida. When she says that she belongs “to no race nor time”, she means that her race and background do not define who she is as an individual. “The eternal feminine” symbolizes the
In “How it feels to be Colored Me”, Zora Hurston is trying to explore her own identity and find who she is in a world full of discrimination. She is a young black girl who is living during a time when it is tough to be black because of the way they are treated and used. In “Theme for English B”, Hughes writes about a young black man about the age of 22 who is given an assignment by his teacher to write a one page report from the self. The young man questions whether or not his paper will have the same truth behind it as a young white man’s paper. I am comparing these two works because the setting is similar. They are both in school during a time that blacks and whites were still trying to get used to being around each other in a learning atmosphere.
Hurston does not concern herself with the actions of whites. Instead, she concerns herself with the self-perceptions and actions of blacks. Whites become almost irrelevant, certainly negative, but in no way absolute influences on her
In “How It Feels to Be Colored Me,” Hurston breaks from the tradition of her time by rejecting the idea that the African American people should be ashamed or saddened by the color of their skin. She tells other African Americans that they should embrace their color and be proud of who they are. She writes, “[A socialite]…has nothing on me. The cosmic Zora emerges,” and “I am the eternal feminine with its string of beads” (942-943). Whether she feels “colored” or not, she knows she is beautiful and of value. But Hurston writes about a time when she did not always know that she was considered colored.
Lynch is a writer and teacher in Northern New Mexico. In the following essay, she examines ways that the text of The Souls of Black Folk embodies Du Bois' experience of duality as well as his "people's."
In “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” Hurston undergoes many obstacles such as challenges because the colored of her skin, her change of life style, but the most important aspect is her attitude, the way she react towards these obstacles. Hurston nightmares starts when her life style changes. She moves to a town in which people of colored do not have good relationship with white. She is going to thirteen when she becomes colored she says. She becomes such because people (white) around keep reminding her of what she is. However, she never cares because she already knows that. Hurston
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, and Wallace Brown.