Analysis How It Feels To Be Colored Me

Nghi Huynh ( Rough Draft )

Professor Tanika Cain

3/23/2016

ENGL 1301 How It Feels to Be Colored Me “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” is an autobiography essay which was written in 1927

by the first African Americans author named Zora Neale Hurston. She is one of the most

celebrated writers in the Harlem Renaissance when racism was dominating all over the

community. Hurston grew up in a small town full of black people called Eatonville in Florida.

Luckily, she was sheltered from the cruel world of racism

However, she wrote in the essay that “ But I am not

tragically colored”, and she used metaphors to express her self-pride. Based on that, she implied

her wrting purpose that you cannot define who they are just by depend on their skin. Hurston wants to convey her message through the essay for anyone who like to read.

She is speaking not only to her own people but also to whites people. In addition, the metaphor

of the bags in different colors help her reveals the audience as anyone and everyone. If the

contents within is poured out and dumped in one big pile then how could someone tell what

belonged to whom. Those make people who they are but not distinctly different from

others. It is obvious that the audience agree with Hurston. Discrimination and slavery are very

bad and should not be allowed. Despite facing racism, she still not express any anger or hatred.

She wrote “I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me.”

It shows that she displays a pride in her distinctiveness, a pride for her color and her people, and

she succesfully appeals those values to the audience along with asking them to consider

About anecdotes, she uses short story to demonstate a point. For example, she

describe the moments when she greeted her neighbor “They like to hear me speak pieces and

sing and wanted to see me dance the parse-me-la…I belonged to them…everybody’s Zora.” She

uses her experiences to describe the world she was living in where was free from discrimination

and racism. Another example, Hurston describes her child hood :”I remember the day that I

became colored…I was not Zora of Orange County anymore, I was now a little colored girl” She

uses story of her childhood to show her love of her culture and her recognition of her color.

About metaphores, it help her convey emotional and psychological truth, and the

using of metaphors also helps the audience to see something the way she want them to see it. For

example :”No, I do not weep at the world---I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife” She

implies that the world is her oyster which is containing treasure waiting to be taken, and she is

too busy sharpening it to forget about the discrimination pain. Also she consider herself as a

“dark rock surged upon by a creamy sea” to desmonstate that despite she feels colored