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zora hurston impact on others
zora neale hurston influence
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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
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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
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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
Zora Neale Hurston grew up in Eatonville, Florida also known as “Negro Town” (Hurston, 1960, p.1). Not because of the town was full of blacks, but because the town charter, mayor, and council. Her home town was not the first Negro community, but the first to be incorporated. Around Zora becoming she experienced many hangings and riots. Not only did Zora experience t...
her journey toward self realization. She is forbidden to marry because of a long held
This quote shows how she thinks that she was used as a trophy and as a
Hurston describes Eatonville not in a negative way, but more as a place that is not beneficial to an independent woman like Janie. Janie Starks, the wife of the mayor, is sentenced to spend her days as a worker in the town store, hair tied up, and silent. She must deal with money and figures without being able to enjoy the “lying sessions” on the porch, or attending such impressive town events like the “muleogy.” To the reader, Eatonville represents all that is repressive in life. Janie’s nature is restricted not by the town itself, but by her status in the town.
How does one embrace the message and soul of artwork when you can’t get passed the color of skin in the portraits? Two barrier breaking retrospective artists born with more than 2,899 miles between them have beat down the walls in the art world opening up endless opportunities for female artist today. Carrie Mae Weems and Lorna Simpson specialize in catching the viewer’s eye and penetrating their feelings towards issues of culture, politics, equality, and feminism. It is well established that these woman specialize in identifying problems in their artwork, both artists seem to struggle with not being able to avoid the ignorant eye of stereotyping because they use African American Models in their artwork. Carrie Mae Weems doesn’t see her artwork
Zora Neale Hurston was, the daughter of a Baptist minister and an educated scholar who still believed in the genius contained within the common southern black vernacular(Hook http://splavc.spjc.cc.fl.us/hooks/Zora.html). She was a woman who found her place, though unstable, in a typical male profession. Hurston was born on January 7, 1891 in Eatonville, Florida, the first all-incorporated black town in America. She found a special thing in this town, where she said, "... [I] grew like a like a gourd and yelled bass like a gator," (Gale, 1). When Hurston was thirteen she was removed from school and sent to care for her brother's children. She became a member of a traveling theater at the age of sixteen, and then found herself working as a maid for a white woman. This woman saw a spark that was waiting for fuel, so she arranged for Hurston to attend high school in Baltimore. She also attended Morgan Academy, now called Morgan State University, from which she graduated in June of 1918. She then enrolled in the Howard Prep School followed by later enrollment in Howard University. In 1928 Hurston attended Barnard College where she studied anthropology under Franz Boas. After she graduated, Zora returned to Eatonville to begin work on anthropology. Four years after Hurston received her B.A. from Barnard she enrolled in Columbia University to begin graduate work (Discovering Authors, 2-4). Hurston's life seemed to be going well but she was soon to see the other side of reality.
The contrast between how She sees herself and how the rest of the world sees Her can create extreme emotional strain; add on the fact that She hails from the early 1900s and it becomes evident that, though her mental construct is not necessarily prepared to understand the full breach against Her, She is still capable of some iota of realization. The discrimination encountered by a female during this time period is great and unceasing.
Hurston also failed to write a novel that had a unique perspective on African Americans. It seemed to be that the mission of Ms. Hurston was to write a novel that the Black community could relate to at the time and possibly use as a base for social progress. This novel did not seem to be relatable in any sense to the African American community except for one major factor which would be the use of dialect. Her use of the southern dialect was almost perfect, capturing the unique use of language by those in the Deep South. It is used consistently throughout the entirety of the novel including when someone is describing how beautiful Janie is. Phoebe says, “You’se something tuh make uh man forgit to git old and forgit tuh die”(Hurston__). This is how close Hurston gets to having a unique ‘Negro’ novel. Her representation of the dialect is as accurate as it gets and few have come close to matching its level. Although this is a great accomplishment, this is all she has going for her. Her imagery is bland and predictable, and she does not attempt to cover serious issues in the real world at the time the story was written, one important issue being discrimination and racism in the south. Compared to similar novels this is a childish attempt to cover a serious issue. Mr. Wright’s views on this are extremely similar. In his analysis Mr. Wright says, “Her dialogue manages to catch the psychological movements of the Negro folk-mind in their pure simplicity, but that’s as far as it goes”(Wright__). Mr. Wrights analysis proves that the use of dialect in the novel is the closest Hurston gets to covering ‘Negro Issues’. If she attempted to incorporate a social or economic struggle in the novel, then there would be a different
“Sometimes, I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It’s beyond me.” Full of passion, irreverence, and wit, Zora Neale Hurston was a remarkable individual who insisted on creating her own, unique identity. From Notasulga, Alabama to Eatonville, Florida, she found success and her passion in the wake of heartbreak and loss. She dedicated her life to studying anthropology and folklore which led to the creation of many plays and successful novels. Hurston inevitably became a part of the Harlem Renaissance, the cultural movement that spanned the early 1902s through the 1930s. It was best known as the “New Negro Movement” and while it originated
In “How it feels to be Colored Me”, Zora Hurston is trying to explore her own identity and find who she is in a world full of discrimination. She is a young black girl who is living during a time when it is tough to be black because of the way they are treated and used. In “Theme for English B”, Hughes writes about a young black man about the age of 22 who is given an assignment by his teacher to write a one page report from the self. The young man questions whether or not his paper will have the same truth behind it as a young white man’s paper. I am comparing these two works because the setting is similar. They are both in school during a time that blacks and whites were still trying to get used to being around each other in a learning atmosphere.
Anne Moody’s Coming of Age in Mississippi is a narrated autobiography depicting what it was like to grow up in the South as a poor African American female. Her autobiography takes us through her life journey beginning with her at the age of four all the way through to her adult years and her involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. The book is divided into four periods: Childhood, High School, College and The Movement. Each of these periods represents the process by which she “came of age” with each stage and its experiences having an effect on her enlightenment. She illustrates how important the Civil Rights Movement was by detailing the economic, social, and racial injustices against African Americans she experienced.
In “How It Feels to Be Colored Me,” Hurston breaks from the tradition of her time by rejecting the idea that the African American people should be ashamed or saddened by the color of their skin. She tells other African Americans that they should embrace their color and be proud of who they are. She writes, “[A socialite]…has nothing on me. The cosmic Zora emerges,” and “I am the eternal feminine with its string of beads” (942-943). Whether she feels “colored” or not, she knows she is beautiful and of value. But Hurston writes about a time when she did not always know that she was considered colored.
Hurston, Zora Neale. “How It Feels to Be Colored Me.” Writer’s Presence: A Pool of Readings. 5th ed. Ed. Robert Atawan and Donald McQuade. Boston:Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2006. 166-170. Print
. This story embodies how the author saw her experiences that she had lived through.
In the art and the anthropology, the avatar chromaticity colors indicate the use of colors as a symbol in all cultures. Psychological chromatography refers to the effect of color on human behavior and emotions, as distinct from light indications. Moreover, avatar colorimetric and the color psychology are based on the cultural links with varying according to the era, place, and culture. In fact, one of the colors can have many symbols as well as different psychological effects in the same place. Broadly, the avatar colorimetric is a continuous field of ongoing studies relies on a wide range of anecdotal evidence heritage and also the scientific researches. Furthermore, no one has asked him/herself why he/she prefers a special color and the response is that according to the research, because the colorful dresses enhance your mood and lead to the atmosphere of fun, in contrast to the dark colors which indicate some of inwardness and sensitivity.