How It Feels to Be Colored Me Essay

theme of individual versus society from “Girl” by Jamaica Kinkaid and “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” by Zora Neale Hurston. Both of the protagonists seem to battle their individual selves and what society expects from them. Both of the women are young black woman, who are being told what they should look like or act. Girl is a young black woman who has a mother from the Caribbean and instills in her, her traditions, and how to be a woman in society in order to not be a slut. It is noticeable the

Zora Neale Hurston’s “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” can be interpreted as a reverse response of W. E. B. DuBois’ concept of “double consciousness” that he describes in “The Souls of Black Folk.” Hurston shows that not all African Americans experience a sense of double consciousness and that some are instilled with the self confidence required to embrace one’s “blackness.” First, it may be helpful to define consciousness before attempting to explain the notion of double consciousness. Consciousness

experiences and difficulties as a female Black American writer in the early 20th century America to delineate the acceptance of oneself using conventions of colorful diction, colloquialisms, and a comforting conversational tone. “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

locked arms or reached for each other’s hand when they saw me. I’d been a fool. I’d been walking the streets grinning good evening at people who were frightened to death of me. I did violence to them just by being…I began to avoid people…Out of nervousness I began to whistle and discovered I was good at it. On the street at night I whistled popular tunes from the Beatles

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

essay “How It Feels to Be Colored Me,” both faced unfair treatments. In Hurston’s essay, she explored the process that she noticed she was colored and overcome white people’s discrimination. In Lorde’s essay, he described their graduation trip to Washington D.C., However, their families in discrimination. By these relationships, Hurston and Lorde explored African American faced serious unfair treatment, and injustices were presents in many different places. In “How It Feels to Be Colored Me,” Hurston

their early adulthood to truly understand how it affected their writing in terms the similarities and

was definitely a lot harder and that is what “How it feels to be colored me” is about. In this piece, Zora Neale Hurston describes her feelings and experiences as being a black woman in the United States in the beginning of the 20th century. The author wrote this piece in a time when people didn’t want to hear what she had to say, they weren’t interested. She wrote this to convey some perspective on her life, on her town. She wrote this to show how her perception of herself changed over time. She

How it Feels to be Colored Me In “How it feels to be colored me” Zora Neale Hurston begins recanting her life in Eatonville, Florida. This little town was a black community and the only white people who ventured in to Eatonville were tourist either coming from or heading to Orlando which was just south of Zora’s home town, Eatonville. The town never gave much attention to the southerners never stopping from chewing sugar cane as they pasted but the Northerners who came through were a different breed

Part I: While reading Zora Neale Hurston’s “How it Feels to be Colored Me” after I had referenced the historical timeline there were definitely some events within the prior twenty years that could have had an effect on Hurston’s essay. One event that stuck out the most was the race riots that erupted in Chicago in 1919. During the essay Hurston is bringing to light the discrimination she has experienced throughout her life. In doing so she is bringing attention to the problem and