What Is Freedom In How It Feels To Be Colored Me

“How It Feels To Be Colored Me”, a piece by Zora Neale Hurston, was written to allow readers to look through the eyes of a colored woman. Specifically, a colored woman living in early segregated America. Hurston described her experiences through emotion, credibility, reasoning, and appropriate timing. With these techniques, she clearly displayed pathos, ethos, logos, and kairos in her writing. Through these appeals, she successfully creates a strong case for her purpose in writing the essay. She intended to not only share her experiences, but to let readers perceive her emotions as well. Hence, the title stating how it “feels” to be her.

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

Women’s equality is an issue that has been around for awhile. While women have been given many rights to increase equality, including the right to vote and go to college, the problem hasn’t completely vanished. One area that still sees this is in sports. Women’s sports do not draw nearly as many fans and are not covered in the media as much as men’s sports, pay differences between male and female athletes are large, and female athletes have to wait longer to start their professional career than men, which risks their professional career before it even starts.

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.

During a time where African American literature was fueled with racial segregation and pride in ones race during the Harlem Renaissance, Zora Neale Hurston offers a different and controversial approach with her literary work “How it feels to be colored me”.(13) In the works Hurston uses several colloquialisms, anecdotes, imagery and figurative expression to invite the reader on an adventure filled with pleasure. The poem takes the reader from the beginning of the Hurston’s childhood back in Eatonville, Florida into adulthood in Orlando, Florida. Hurston proves that overcoming racism can be accomplished by uniting the public and ignoring the visual difference in a person’s outer appearance. Hurston’s strength, individuality and resilience scream

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.

“I was not Zora of Orange County any more, I was now a little colored girl” (Hurston, 1928). She finally got a taste of discrimination. In Barbara Johnson’s journal entitled, “Thresholds of Difference: Structures of Address in Zora Neale Hurston,” she mentions that there is a loss of identity. “The ‘I’ is no longer Zora, and ‘Zora’ becomes a ‘she’” (Johnson, 1985). In a way, there is a theme of adaptability. This move did not break her spirit. This is known because she says that, “I am not tragically colored” (Hurston, 1928). Zora makes it known that she is not ashamed to be colored. Though white people would make it a point to mention how blacks are progressing in times, she refuses to stay tied to the memory of slavery or feel disgraced because she is

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.

Occasionally, once in a great while, a unique person comes along. Zora Neale Hurston was one of those bigger than life people. She would have told you so herself. She was just as she should have been. She was, "Zora."

How It Feels to be Colored Me is an essay by Zora Neale Hurston published in the World Tomorrow on May 1928. In the essay she describes her first experience with racism. The purpose of the piece is to show self-confidents and pride in her identity. She shows the reader the positives of embracing your identity and not letting society affect your true selves. Stating “I’m not ashamed to be colored.” (pg.416), meaning that no matter what anyone saying about her being black, she still has pride in herself.

Racial bias and discrimination have historically constricted African Americans from living free and prosperous lives. Especially, in America’s Progressive Era when “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” happened to be published. This groundbreaking essay, written by Zora Neale Hurston, provided African Americans with a unique approach to defying racial discrimination. Namely, Hurston’s unique defense from societal discrimination is in her steadfast optimism towards the limitations of being African American. Therefore, Hurston’s essay achieved more than bringing hope to African Americans it also provided a solution in this period of bitter adversity. This is what distinguishes Nora’s essay from other literary works because it focuses on modeling a beneficial mindset rather than listing the hardships that black people are subjected to. Zora Neale Hurston is an influential role model for African Americans, she argues that racial discrimination and unjust biases can be overcome by having pride and optimism in the progression of one’s race.

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).

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

Today we accept that freedom is a basic right human right but what exactly is freedom. 1On one hand, there is physical freedom. People who are not imprisoned or enslaved are free. On the other hand, there is freedom as a the right to act, speak or think what you want. People cannot reach their full potential if they are not free in both senses of the word.

"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,