How It Feels To Be Colored Me Analysis

864 Words4 Pages
Zora Neale Hurston a writer, and anthropologist wrote about her life in 20th century America in “How It Feels to Be Colored Me.” This work is rendered as an important part of African American history. In this essay, Hurston describes her self-awareness of the injustice as well as her appreciation for herself as who she is. Hurston describes her life until the age of 13 in Eatonville, Florida an all-black town. As a young girl, Hurston portrays her innocence of not knowing the difference between white and black people. She claims that the only difference between whites and blacks was that whites always seemed to pass through town. Hurston describes her adventurous and naive self: she would become aware of her race when all the white folks…show more content…
In Jacksonville, she was not “...Zora of Orange County anymore, [she] was just a colored little girl.” She became cognizant of the racial injustice in her stay in Jacksonville, but still, she was not deeply affected by it. She sought to look at her position in life as not “tragically colored.” She was not mad or upset that she was damned by the creator like those at her high school did (Hurston). Instead, she was thrilled with the opportunity of this racial game, in where she could “..get twice as much praise or twice as much blame.” Over time, she learned to just be herself, no matter the numerous differences that those around her had. Accordingly, Hurston confers that “Among the thousand white persons, [she] [was] [a] dark rock surged upon, and overswept, but through it all, [she] remain[ed] [her]self.” Additionally, Hurston describes her time at the New World Cabaret with a white person. While listening to jazz music, she states that “ The great blobs of purple and red emotion have not touched him. He has only heard what I felt.” Hurston describes this as the only difference she ever felt between whites and blacks. She was subject to emotions due to racial oppression, which in turn showed her
Open Document