How It Feels To Be Colored Me, A Rose For Emily By Hurston
1472 Words6 Pages
Alienation in Modernist Literature
The variations in the level of alienation depicted in the short stories “How it Feels to be Colored Me,” “A Rose for Emily,” and “Hands,” are due to both the characteristics the characters have that ignite the alienation and the forcefulness with which they have been rejected by and from society. In Hurston’s “How it Feels to be Colored Me,” she experiences alienation due to the intersection of her race and gender; society and herself react to these alienations in ways that do not make Hurston remove herself from society. Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” depicts an alienation that also intersects gender with other characteristics. This intersection, and buildup, of factors contributing to her alienation cause…show more content… More specifically, Hurston “is able to subvert a monological view of the African-American as produced only by dominant discourses of racism. In acknowledging the multiple discourses available to her, Hurston also carves out a space for agency in what others would define as a determined field” (O’Connor). Hurston’s alienation is not something she thinks needs to be fixed. She has accepted it and uses it, she mentions, “I do not mind at all” (Hurston 539). Hurston’s self awareness of her high level of alienation in society actually lowers that perceived level. Others try to remind her of her characteristics that have resulted in alienation, but she already knows. She knows she is an African-American woman; the levels of alienation she has experienced have affected the lens through which she views the world. For example, listening to jazz with a white man, “The great blobs of purple and red emotion have not touched him. He has only heard what I felt. [...] He is so pale with his whiteness then and I am so colored” (Hurston 540). She has an entirely different experience from him due to the African-American lens she listens to the music with. She uses her alienation as as weapon for self-protection and as a perspective on