How It Feels to Be Colored Me

In the essay How It Feels to Be Colored Me the author Zora Neala Hurston has a unique purpose. Instead of focusing on what its like to be colored, Hurston focuses on what it is like to be her. She explains how her color does not effect the way she looks at herself. She didn’t even realize she was colored until she moved out of her childhood town that was all black. When she moved away she became “colored” however not “tragically colored”. Although in the end she is very confident with her color she does talk about times she felt different. For example when she took a white friend to a restaurant and she truly felt the music and danced her heart out while her white friend sat, moitionless. She is proud of her color but does not let it define who she is. She doesn’t direct the essay to whites or blacks; this is clearly shown in the extended metaphor in the last paragraph. Hurtson compares herself to a brown bag stuffed with knick-knacks. There are all different color bags, which are stuffed with very similar things. This metaphor is showing that no matter what color someone is, the things inside are essentially the same and your color is not what defines you. Not only does this metaphor show the authors audience but it also helps accomplish her purpose in showing color shouldn’t matter. The essay was written in 1928 at the time of the great depression. The author seems to be positively influenced by the economic turmoil, as it helped her find herself. She also states that slavery was “60 years in the past” therefore it has no effect on her perception of herself. She also uses imagery to show her comfort with herself. Zora describes herself strutting down the street confidently not caring about her skin color but feeling comfortable with herself. 

Title: Confidence over Color
This picture shows how confident Zora is. The reason I
didn't choose a picture about the color of your skin is because
Zora doesn't let her skin color affect her confidence, showing
she has invincible confidence.
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Corn-Pone Opinions

The second essay I read was Corn-Pone Opinions by Mark Twain. Mark Twain is a pseudonym of Samuel Langhorne Clemens. Clemens was an journalist, humorist, and novelist who is one of America’s most beloved writers. Twain wrote this essay with the objective to inform people of his position that peoples actions and thoughts are greatly impacted by others. Twain believes that your opinion is not formed on your own it is formed by the general publics opinions. He disagrees that people can make their own independent opinion with no effect from the public. However his tone throughout the essay was not harsh or scolding, it was interested and curious. He establishes this disagreement slightly disagreeing with Jerry’s beliefs. Twain used an anecdote of a black slave that preached to him. This successfully introduced his argument in a compelling way. The anecdote also leads him to establish what his belief is and what he’ll be talking about. Later in the essay he uses many relevant modern examples including hoopskirts, bloomers, and wineglasses. By doing this he is appealing to logos. At the end of the essay he capitalizes “Voice of God” which personifies it and incorporates it to make his point. Twain also uses the subordinate clause in the middle of Paragraph 13 to further prove his argument by giving many examples. By the end of the essay Twain solidly established his position on the public impacting individual decisions and actions. In the beginning of the essay he used “I” to make it clear it was his opinion. Later, he started using “we” for example, “we are creatures of outside influences”. He refers to everyone as a group in order to prove his point. Twains audience in this essay is very broad. He directs his essay to the general public hoping to inform them of his beliefs. Although his audience is not very specific, the essay wasn’t released until after his death.

Title: Media Influence
Media is only one of the things that can influence your opinions. In this
photo the different types of media are trying to persuade and influence the man.
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Women and Honor: Some Notes on Lying

The first essay I read was Women and Honor: Some Notes on Lying by Adrienne Rich. The author was among the most influential poets and essayists of the late 20^th century. She was also a massive women’s rights activist and a very prominent writer in the lesbian community. The essay was written in 1977. At this time heterosexuals were less accepted then they are now however not shunned. This essay is a hodgepodge of advice and knowledge on the reasoning and meaning behind lying. It includes many reasons people lie, how society causes and creates lies, habits of liars, and what trust means in relationships. Rich directed this essay to women, particularly in relationships. Because she is writing about lying, she is given a lot of pathos. She discusses that the society lies about heterosexuality through silence and suppression and states that she spent “half a lifetime in the lie of that denial”. Rich was married with children before she came out of the closet. Not only does Rich have pathos but she also establishes logos. Rich states that women lie because of fear, not fear of anything in the world like racism or capitalism but fear of something within them. Rich uses Virginia Woolf words calling this “the dark core”. Rich uses Woolf, a popular writer, as credibility. The authors use of an anaphora helped me better understand her message. Rich states that in a relationship the truths that can be shared must be refined. The repetition of the phrase “it is important to do this because…” draws attention to the significance of the action being referred to. The many ideas talked about through the essay all contributed to how and why women lie in this day and age, which was Rich’s purpose. Ways that women lie span from plucking eyebrows to being happily married. And reasons they lie go from survival in their world to fear and the need to control. These ideas were all discussed separately in the essay however in the end they could be put together in a meaningful way.

Title: Make-up Before and After
This is just one of the many ways women lie, although it may be unintentional.
It is not always this extreme however the after picture is not her true self.
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