Zora Neale Hurston Use Metaphors In How It Feels To Be Colored Me

Zora Neale Hurston, known as one of the most symbolic African American women during the Harlem Renaissance in the 1930’s. Hurston was known as a non fiction writer, anthropologist and folklorist. Hurston’s literature has served as a big eye opener during the Harlem Renaissance, celebrating black dialect and their traditions. Most of her published stories “depict relationships among black residents in her native southern Florida, was largely unconcerned with racial injustices” (Bomarito 89). Hurston was unique when it came to her racial point of views, promoting white racism instead of black racism. Even though her works had been forgotten by the time of her death, now her literature has left a bigger impact to future literature

“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.

Paragraph: Published in during the 1900s, at a time when being colored was considered unbeneficial, “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” depicts Hurston’s audacious (for the time) pride in being an African-American woman. In order to emphasize her thesis, she employs pathos and figurative

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 is defined as the state of being mentally aware of something: oneself, in this essay. Therefore, we can now define double consciousness as the state of an individual being mentally aware of “two selves”: one as you see yourself and the second as

Hurston stays who she is, no matter what people might think of her. In her non-fiction text she especially manages to convey this by using Humor, that creates Ethos within the text. The first words of “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” include “I am the only Negro in the Unites States whose grandfather on the mother’s side was not an Indian chief”, in which Hurston makes fun of all the Afro-Americans at the time who were trying to claim Native American heritage. This start into the text creates a lighthearted atmosphere, in which the author acknowledges her less than perfect living circumstances, but showing that she will not crumple beneath them. Before being sent to a racially mixed boarding school in Jacksonville, Zora Hurston lived in a town in Florida. She always welcomed white tourists looking at their town and states that she was “the first welcome-to-our state Floridian”, hoping “the Miami Chamber of Commerce will please take notice”. Of course, at the time, it was impossible to involve the government in a personal wit, so the author uses the sarcastic information to show the reader that she would live her life no matter what the social norms might have been in the 1920s. In the second half of her text, Hurston includes the Irony “How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It’s beyond me”, showing that she knows that some people would view her as being socially unacceptable, however Hurston does not care, as long as she can stay true to her own character. Through the humorous tone created, the reader acknowledges that Hurston is light hearted and sympathizes with her

"How it Feels to be Colored Me" was written in 1928. Zora, growing up in an all-black town, began to take note of the differences between blacks and whites at about the age of thirteen. The only white people she was exposed to were those passing through her town of Eatonville, Florida, many times going to or coming from Orlando. The primary focus of "How it Feels to be Colored Me" is the relationship and differences between blacks and whites.

Even though both Hurston and Hughes grew up around the same time period, they had very different ideals regarding their experience as African American’s as well as a different voice used within their works to convey their ideals. Hurston in her 1928 essay “How it Feels to be Colored Me” describes her childhood and coming of age with a delightful zest that cannot be contained. Although the essay does contain some dark moments such as when she describes her experience with her friend at the jazz club and the sudden realization of the racial difference between her and the other patrons, for the most part the work exudes her keen sense of dignity despite the popular opinion of the masses during that period. Lines in her essay such as “But I am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow dammed up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes…I do not 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” (Abcarian, Klotz, and Cohen 812) beautifully express her sense of self dignity and refusal to give in to the negative energies surrounding her race. Despite the many hardships that the color of her skin caused her she was proud and determined to never let that stand in her way of

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).

Zora Neale Hurston was one of many authors who left an impact on society, particularly black America. Hurston is a remarkable author who reflects her life in most of her writings. She was a writer during the Harlem Renaissance Era. After much success, she was acknowledged as “Queen of the Harlem Renaissance,” yet her literary work was not given proper recognition in the beginning because she chose to write things in a different perspective than the normal political mindset dealing with race. Hurston explored women empowerment and feminism in her writing. She developed very strong, resilient women, but these women were placed in a society where they had to submit, be ladylike, and

In “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” by Zora Neale Hurston, she intrigues me with her imagery, which plays in when say talks about the music and how it made her see herself in colors. “ It constricts the thorax and splits the heart with its tempo and narcotic harmonies.(...) I dance wildly inside myself; I yell within, I whoop; (...) My face is painted red and yellow and my body is painted blue.” (2) It intrigues me that she felt so proud in her skin, even when she was surrounded by (pardon me) white people. Even now, though we claim racism isn’t as bad as it was, I am still not comfortable with my skin, and it intrigues me she is. At that time, it intrigues me that she overlooks her skin color and focuses on her feelings. We should all worry

Hurston prides herself on who she is because of her background. Her identity of being a black woman in a world

Zora Neale Hurston was one of the greatest authors in the Harlem Renaissance era, and it saddened me to discover that she died before seizing the benefits of her literary work of arts. Ms. Hurston was often criticized for her substantial use of southern country dialect and folk dialogue; she was a master at creating realistic African-American works of fiction. Hurston’s style of narrative is divided into direct and indirect dialogue. In her writing, she would employ a third-person narrative voice that was vastly intelligent with scholarly techniques such as formal grammar, rich vocabulary, vivid imagery, and allegories to define her settings, locations, and portrayals. Contrariwise, in the same piece, she would display a narrative voice in first-person and third-person using slang language, informal grammar, and irregular speech patterns. Through Hurston’s fictitious creations it enables us to appreciate how significant linguistic choices are used to enrich the production of contemporary literature and how different dualistic styles of narrative can work together in depicting the narration within that story.

“How it feels to be colored” written in 1972 by Zora Neale Hurston is a very descriptive piece in which the author, talks about what it was like growing up in all black community where she felt no race, until stepping into a more mixed and diverse environment. Surrounded by more people of the white origin, where she begins to feel the feeling of being different “Colored”. Neale uses a very descriptive word choice and attention grabbing metaphors to help portray her belief That it doesn’t matter the shade nor color of an individual’s skin, when judged based on personal morals and the desire of one’s wellbeing we do not differ so much at all and in fact we all share similar characteristics. Zora helps bring to light the social indifferences a colored person may have felt in those times. I believe her work helps portray that given the short end of the stick, life is what you make it; and how you perceive things. Once an individual has self happiness theirs not a person or thing that can take that away from them.

Zora Hurston illustrated “Someone is always at my elbow reminding me that I am the grand-daughter of slaves. It fails to register depression with me. Slavery is sixty years in the past. The operation was successful and the patient is doing well, thank you. 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”(902). lines:45-50)”. It is evident that Hurston speaks alongside Brooks with feeling pride in being African American. She talks about how people always try to remind her of her ancestors and the past involving slavery and racism, and she makes it very clear that it does not phase her. She has the strong pride of being African American and how to live her current life honoring what her ancestors did rather than sit and sulk. Hurston used the device of an extended metaphor by how she explains how racism does not phase her by connecting the fact of how different generations in the past treated slaves and how far they have come and it is a good thing. The extended metaphor was effective because it allowed a string comparison and a bold highlight of the topic of how slaves were treated versus how African Americans are treated today. Meanwhile, Gwendolyn Brooks reinforces Hurston in her poetry

A sophisticated writer as herself, Hurston became aware that black authors appeared to concentrate on one theme- “the race problem” (“Zora Neale Hurston”), and how to deal with race segregation. An Essay,