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.
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| 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. Source |
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