How It Feels To Be Colored Me By Zora Neale Hurston

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

Zora Neale Hurston was born in Notasulga, Alabama on January 7, 1891. Her father, John Hurston, was a minister and he had several years as a mayor for that town. Her mother, Lucy Hurston, seemed to only have her family as any worries. Her childhood seemed to be perfect, it was free from racism and poverty (Zora 1). Although, everything changed when her mother passed away and his father remarried and soon was sent to boarding school. She was then expelled a while after her father stopped paying for tuition so she worked in a theatrical company as a maid (Zora 1). Quitting that job, at

Zora Hurston’s essay “How It feels to Be Colored Me” emphasizes colored imagery to condemn racial pity. Colors infiltrate her emotions and descriptions as she emphasizes that she is not just one color but a part of all America. Through her imagery, she enables the reader to feel as she did as a child living in an all-black town with the rest of the world passing by. In paragraph eleven, Hurston explains very well that the same sounds that assaulted Hurston’s feelings assaulted mine as well. After Hurston’s description of her reaction to the jazz music, the white man’s statement, “Good music they have here,” (243) serves to complement the imagery. Another good example of her imagery is when she says “My pulse is throbbing like a war drum. I

Purpose- Hurston’s purpose is to demonstrate that she is proud of her color. She does not need the bragging rights of having Native American ancestry, nor does she ‘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.’

Zora Neale Hurston is unequivocally open about her race and identity in “How It Feels to Be Colored Me.” As Hurston shares her life story, the reader is exposed to Hurston’s self-realization journey about how she “became colored.” Hurston utilizes her autobiographical short story as a vehicle to describe the “very day she became colored.” Race is particularly vital in Zora Neale Hurston’s essay, “How it Feels to Be Colored Me” as she deals with the social construct of race, racism, and sustaining one’s cultural identity.

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.

Zora Neale Hurston was born and raised in Eatonville, Florida which was the first all-black town in the United States to be incorporated and self-governed. Due to Hurston growing up in an all-black community, she was protected from racism. She states that the only white people she knew were the ones passing through the town going to or coming from Orlando. When she moved from the town of Eatonville to Jacksonville, she was introduced to a different lifestyle where she was

Hurston’s words express the presence of racism even after the time of slavery had passed. She shows that the feeling of whites being superior to blacks still existed through the minds of white people. She even showed, through Mrs. Turner, that people with both white and black backgrounds chose to consider themselves white in order to feel superior. Mrs. Turner even sought out Janie as similar to her, because she was “fair skinned”. Here, Hurston stresses discrimination as a major part of the human condition. She shows, that over time, discrimination will never cease as long as the history between ethnicities exist. Her belief is related to God, seeing all human beings are equal before God, a belief that is occasionally overlooked. All human

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 the early stages of her life, black and whites had little difference in her eyes. In the metaphor of Hurston’s essay she states, “ But in the main, I feel like a brown bag of miscellany propped against a wall. Against a wall in company with other bags, white, red, and yellow”(Hurston 419). This quote is interpreting that all human beings are the same, but just different color. At first, Hurston lived in Eatonville, a town that was solely colored.

How It Feels to Be Colored Me by Zora Neale Hurston demonstrates the theme through pride of her skin color. Hurston says “I have no separate feeling about being an American citizen and colored.” (Hurston). She does not feel that the color of her skin makes her less American or sets her apart. “I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background.” (Hurston). This is another example of Hurston believing that her skin color does not separate her from others. She only feels different when others point it out. “BUT I AM NOT tragically colored. There is no great sorrow dammed up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes. I do not mind at all.” (Hurston). Hurston says

What does it take for a person to feel comfortable within her own skin? Human beings have struggled with the concept of identity for centuries and for good reason. Who we are as people becomes heavily reliant on what society prefers in a person’s character as well as an inkling feeling of how everyone would prefer to express herself. Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, focuses on Janie Crawford’s life as a fair-skinned black woman in the southern United States within the early 1900s. In more ways than one, Janie provides a definitive example of how people struggle with identity within society, and just how much it takes for a person to feel fulfilled with who she has become. Whether through the learning trials of three

“I am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow dammed up in my soul….I do not belong to that sobbing school of Negrohood who hold that nature somehow has given them a lowdown dirty deal….No, I do not weep at the world--I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife” (“Zora Neale Hurston,” 2009). One woman wrote stories focused on the lives and relationships of black people within their communities. In many of Zora Neale Hurston’s written works, she incorporated her beliefs, race, culture, and personal experiences. Hurston included feminism as well as pride of her race in her literary works to combat issues such as sexism and racism.

Zora moved from a small town of all blacks to a bigger city where the differences were much more noticed. The author used several metaphors and imagery to show how she discovered her identity. Nora started out living in Eatonville, an all-black town, not noticing that she was different. It was not until she moved to Jacksonville that she discovered she was a little colored