Examples Of Imagery In How It Feels To Be Colored Me

In the short story, "How It Feels To Be Colored Me", author Zora Neale Hurston uses many figures of speech, most notably, metaphor to indicate her attitude towards being "colored." Based on her story, she seemingly feels much pride in being "colored." Some examples of figures of speech she uses is personification, analogy, imagery and metaphor. She merges personification and analogy to describe how happy and proud she is of the actions that her ancestors before her took to fight against slavery. "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!' "(1041). She acknowledges the struggles her previous generation went through, yet

Zora Hurston wrote the essay ‘How It feels to be colored” in the 1920s. It is important notice that during that period a strong and open discrimination against black people existed. Racial segregation and unfair treatment added more constraints which made it more difficult for others to see beyond the skin color. The author writes and divides the essay in four different sections. Each part narrates and explains her childhood experience, black heritage, discrimination, social status and how she sees the world around her. As a starting point, Hurston utilized a strong phrase to clearly self-differentiate from others when she says: “I’m the only negro in the United States whose grandfather on the mother side was not an Indian Chief” (Hurston, 144). In the essay, she continuously emphasizes and express how proud she is of her heritage and constantly reminds us that we should be proud of who we are no matter the race, color or where we come from. What really matters is the contributions we as human beings can provide to the society where we live.

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.

In Zora Hurston’s “How it feels to be colored me”, she teaches her readers what it means to be a person of color who loves yourself. While reading “How it feels to be colored me”, the readers are shown that Zora Hurston has great pride and love for who she is as a person and she shows this with the many rhetorical strategies present in her story. In Hurston’s story she establishes her love of self by using connotations about her skin color, metaphors about how she should not be treated differently based on the color of her skin, and imagery to vividly describe the way she is treated by the people of the world.

Realizing the quality of an individual varies depending on the environment they are in. This relates to Zora Neale Hurston in her article, “How It Feels To Be Colored Me.” She states, “I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background.” Hurston does this to convey her ideal message in her article, which is being proud of her race and deterring the racial remarks forced on her even after being put in an environment making her further aware of her color. This statement fuels and is central to her argument by turning her living situation into a sarcastic analogy, as well as using the tool of imagery to help her argument. In turn this simplifies her emotional feelings and transition between locations to allow the audience to

Zora Neale Hurston’s essay “How it Feels to Be Colored Me” and “I, Too” by Langston Hughes, both have a theme of racism in common. Although these works of literature depict racial inequality, the main characters are portrayed as self-confident and proud individuals. They are not discouraged or disheartened by the attitudes of those who try to oppress them.

Zora Neale Hurston never experienced the life of slavery but, she struggle with being defined by race. Almost a century after the life of Sojourner Truth, Hurston lived during the era of reconstruction, and the high times of the roaring twenties. Post slavery meant, “How does it feel to live in the land where your grandparents where slaves.” Hurston demonstrates her frustrations in, “How it feels to be colored me.” Like most innocent children, Hurston never experienced prejudice or categorized people based on color until, she moved to the city for school. She just saw herself as Zora. The frustration of moving to the city only

She grew up in a primarily black town where not many whites come through. So growing up she did not experience much racism until she was older. By her teen years she could not understand why someone would discriminate against her. But she was not insulted by the racism, she simply did not care. In the story she went to a jazz bar with one of her friends who was a white man. She explains her experience as “when I sit in the drafty basement that is The New World Cabaret with a white person, my color shows” (Hurston 977). Throughout the story she talks about how she does not feel any different from anyone else, except this moment. The white man cannot relate to Hurston because of their very different life experiences. Hurston really feels the jazz music and has a personal connection, whereas, the white man just thinks it is good

In “How It Feels to Be Colored Me,” Hurston points out she realized she was colored when she went to Jacksonville. Before Hurston left Eatonille, she lived within a whole African American environment. The authors used metaphor to demonstrate that she felt colored by comparing with other people. She notes, “I found it out in certain ways; I was now a little colored girl. In my heart as well as in the mirror, I became a fast brown-warranted not to rub nor run” (186).

It’s almost as she is ready for war the good music from the orchestra made her feel this way. The metaphors help create a lyrical and candid tone. Zora Neale Hurston used metaphors to describe what it’s like for her being Black in a white world. Her emotions are shown through each metaphor. Although, she loves being Black Zora was frank about her experience being colored using metaphors.

t Feels to Be Colored Me by Zora Neale Hurston and A Letter From Birmingham Jail are both extraordinary literary works written about African Americans and the racism they face. Their differences-such as their audience, tone, and message- make both pieces unique. Hurston holds a more positive and prideful tone, unafraid of the repercussions of her words as she uplifted her race. Alternatively, King was more measured, attempting to appeal to his audience: white Americans, and more specifically, clergymen.

Life experiences often tend to influence thoughts, actions and behavior. It can be seen through poem, criticism or even fictional works. Something as simple as a drawing from a young kid can be influenced by their young years of life to be drawn on a page. Although the experiences can be explained more through literary devices as most authors do to effectively convey to the reader. As in the the case of Zora Neale Hurston's, “How it feels to be colored,” she uses literary devices and personal experiences to show a prideful identify as an African American.

This new media brought the issues of racism to many people's view as well as many other issues that African Americans have been dealing with for years. The short story “How it Feels to be Colored Me” by Zora Neale Hurston and the song “I am not my Hair” by India Arie both use metaphors and rhythm to display how appearance affects your social status.

“Even in the helter-skelter skirmish that is my life, I have seen that the world is to the strong regardless of a little pigmentation more or less”(183, par. 6) is how Hurston views her world as she states in her story, “How it Feels to Be Colored Me”. She took great pride in herself, instead of her ethnicity and showed amazing resistance to stereotypes. The both of us tend to be just alike when it comes to embracing our individuality. Individuality allows others to see the distinguish in a persons valued parts from another, while stereotypes can easily remove that with other peoples expectations. Stereotyping can shape a persons mind to a point where they have a fixate on an image of characteristics over certain groups of people or objects. Each and every person will experience this challenge, sometimes it's hardly noticeable, but at times its so noticeable it becomes extremely annoying. Based on our actions to them more stereotypes can be form and it'll be much harder to resist them.

Zora Hurston was a lady of color who grew up in a town where color was not noticed by her, nor was she influenced by the color of her skin. Zora didn’t realize the difference in color until she left her hometown and went away for school, only then did it become noticeable. What ultimately gave her the insight was someone saying comments on how she was born from slavery, she would be the only one of color surrounded by whites, or one white in a crowd of people colored. The