The two essays “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” by Zora Neale Hurston and “The Fourth of July” by Audre Lorde, both have a similar, constant theme, women speaking back to racism. Black Americans face disadvantages everyday due to their skin color. In the 1800s-1900s, it was even worse for women. They had to deal with both stereotypes of being black and a woman. A majority of white people around the time saw them as nothing but a waste of space. They refused to accept them.
The purpose of both these essays were very similar. Zora was writing to show what it was like for her to realize she was colored. She explained the moment she noticed that people actually judge off of skin color. She expressed how she learned to look past these racial issues
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Her essay, “The Fourth of July”, is a story of her family travelling to Washington D.C. for her graduation present. Andre had worked hard to earn this trip. She had been anticipating it for a long time. Once the trip started, it didn't take long for the racism to begin. Her parents had sheltered her from any racism her whole life, so now that she was in the real world she didn't understand what was happening. Just on the train ride there she experienced her first run in with segregation. She said “I wanted to eat in the dining car because I had read all about them, but my mother reminded me for the umpteenth time that dining car food always costs too much money and besides, you never could tell whose hands had been playing all over that food.”. Audre then later said how her mom had just been hiding the fact that blacks weren't allowed in the dining car in 1947. Her parents worked hard to protect her feelings her whole life. The whole reason she was going to D.C with her parents was because the school couldn’t find a hotel that would allow her to stay there because she was colored. This left nothing but anger and pain in …show more content…
She didn't let herself see from a one side point of view. Deep down, she knew she wasn't any different from whites. A good quote that represents that is when she compared everyone to bags. “I feel like a brown bag of miscellany propped against a wall. Against a wall in company with other bags, white, red, and yellow. Pour out the contents, and there is discovered a jumble of small things priceless and worthless.” Everyone is the same on the inside, and Zora realized that.Audre’s tone was more upsetting. She was angry at two main things. The fact she had to experience such terrible discrimination at a place that is titled a symbol of freedom and the way her parents refused to answer her questions. This could easily appeal to pathos. Her readers would easily begin to feel bad for her. As far as my thoughts go, I was waiting for her to become stronger and realize that she wasn’t a bad person for being black. I wanted her to stop focusing on the
The black women’s interaction with her oppressive environment during Revolutionary period or the antebellum America was the only way of her survival. Playing her role, and being part of her community that is not always pleasant takes a lot of courage, and optimism for better tomorrow. The autonomy of a slave women still existed even if most of her natural rights were taken. As opposed to her counterparts
...dies the theme, because Zora was never a nigger. She tried her best to be everything but that just as she promised the man. Zora was so much more than just a ‘nigger” she brought the best that any black women could bring in that time period. She made sure she stood outside her color where ever she went. Not because she was ashamed of who she was, but because she wanted to be more than her color. Not be black women who have not accomplished much but that black women who open doors. Going through her life making an impact on things she believed in rather it hurt blacks or rather it disappointed whites. She made the best with what she had even though she knew what she had could have been more. You can believe in so much but you have to eventually go out and find out for yourself. Zora proved that quote so many times to ensure that she did what she had to do many times.
Individuals like Sojourner Truth did not receive fair treatment like the white women. In the speech, “ Ain't I a Woman ?” Sojourner Truth states, “ Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud puddles ,or give me any best place! And ain't I a Woman?” Black women were not treated like white women, instead they were treated more like animals. Every individual should be entitled to freedom and human rights equally. Sojourner Truth speech brought awareness to others by informing them that equality did not play a role within women's rights. Both black and white women are humans, therefore their skin color should not matter and they both deserved to be treated fairly. Sojourner Truth struggled for change to inform the listeners to be mindful of the type of treatment these African American women
When write an essay or make a speech, the way a writer use to deliver his message is especially important. A good writer or lecturer is fully aware whom he will be delivering his message to, and what kind of rhetorical strategies he will be using to convince his audience. The purpose of this essay is to analyze the rhetorical strategy of two articles, “Ain’t I a Woman” by Sojourner Truth and “ How it Feels to Be Colored Me” by Zora Hurston. Both Sojourner and Zora speaks about the inequalities that women and blacks faced at that time in America, and their goals is to make their readers--usually the vulnerable groups in society, to pursue their rights of equality and identity. However, the rhetorical strategies
Because of the laws against colored people, Rosaleen, as a black woman, lives with constraints in her life. For example, she cannot live in a house with white people (Kidd, p.8), she cannot represent Lily at the charm school (Kidd, p.19), or even travel in a car with white people (Kidd, p.76). The media is also influenced by racism, and constantly shows news about segregation such as the case of Martin Luther King, who is arrested because he wants to eat in a restaurant (Kidd, p.35), the “man in Mississippi was killed for registering to vote” (Kidd, p.44), and the motel in Jackson, that closes, because the owners don’t want to rent rooms to black people (Kidd, p.99).... ... middle of paper ...
After the Civil War and the abolition of slavery, many African Americans saw the opportunity for freedom and equality. However, that was quickly taken away after the constant racism and oppression that took place after the civil war. In “They Say: Ida B. Wells and the Reconstruction of Race”, James West Davidson tells us about Ida B. Wells and other people of color that tried redefining what it meant to be African American. They wanted to show a different side of themselves, instead of what racist, white journalists and hate groups did. Nevertheless, they still dealt with daily struggles, such as few opportunities in politics, poverty, lack of respect, segregation, and hate crimes.
After reading this essay a few times. I consider this piece does help to highlight that racism in America as being wrong; nevertheless, I do not believe that there is a considerable deal of significance for this narrative taking place on Independence Day. If this story would have happened on any other day would anything changed; nevertheless, the only thing that might have changed is that they probably would not have gone into the ice cream parlor. No matter, when they would have taken this trip to Washington, D.C., the result would have had been the same. Both of the parents planned to take this trip as the outcome of Phyllis being not permitted on the senior class trip; therefore, the parents decided to take all of their children to Washington,
One could also look at the women’s rights movement during that period of time, it focused on women’s right but did not necessarily tackle the intersectional issues surrounding women such as race. As it was expressed in the article, “What a Good Idea! Frames and Ideologies in Social Movement Research”, framing theory “[enables] individuals to locate, perceive, identify and label occurrences’ and ‘selectively punctuate and encode objects, situations, events, experiences and sequences of action within one’s present and past environment” (Oliver & Johnson, 2000:4). For black women, there can be instances or events that can be considered as being an issue of race but then again, an issue can also stem from gender inequalities. The issue of identifying one’s grievance as being either racial or gender based will be further discussed in the
Zora Neale Hurston, born in 1891, is considered one of the most inspirational female black activist for her literary contribution to the Harlem Renaissance. Social activist, novelist, folklorist, short story writer, and anthropologist, lived in an era of total discrimination and women degradation. Her literature, in particular, gave insight to what it meant being an African-American between the 1900s to 1960s. But, it was her tenacity and devotion for writing that persevered despite criticism and unrecognition from the white and her own black community. Her life upbringing influenced her perspective which now reflects in her novels, essays, and short stories. The color of her skin also greatly influenced her career as a writer, namely as a
Audre Lorde in her essay The “Fourth of July”(1982) asserts that freedom is not necessarily for all in the US. She develops her claim by utilizing situational irony, long flowing sentences, imagery. Lorde’s purpose is to show people the cracks in the ideals that the United States of America were founded on in order to get people to challenge those ideals themselves. She adopts a transforming tone to appeal to citizens who are not aware of racial issues that are relevant to them.
In her essay “How It Feels To Be Colored Me”, Zora Neale Hurston combines prose with lyrical language to create a work that explores what it means to live outside of race. The essay defies typical African-American literature notions of revision and repetition. In his essay “American Letters, African Voices”, Henry Louis Gates Jr. argues that revision and repetition are central in African-American literature. However, Hurston crafts an argument that extends beyond the African-American canon. Hurston’s essay argues that it isn’t her color, nor her racial history, that makes her phenomenal, rather it is her ability to exist
In the short story, “Fourth of July”, Audre Lord transmits the main message of how one should resist and retaliate when afflicted to prejudice. Lorde displays the message of prejudice early in the story when she describes the complications Phyllis had trying to get to Washington D.C. with her high school senior class, just because she is a different skin color as the others. Lorde writes “Phyllis’s high school senior class trip had been to Washington, but the nuns had given her back her deposit in private, explaining to her that the class, all of whom were white, except Phyllis, would be staying in a hotel where Phyllis ‘Would not be happy,’ meaning, Daddy explained to her, also in private, that they did not rent rooms to Negroes. ‘We will
In the story “How it feels to be colored me” by Zora Neale Hurston we are able to view Hurston’s complex expression of racial identity in the united states. It celebrates the distinct cultural of African American, she has pride on her race more of her color; she is expressing her cultural and racial pride. In her work, we are taken from her childhood to her adult life. It deeply spokes of the Harlem Renaissance on race in the United State and on the African-American representation of racial identity “I do not belong to the sobbing school of negrohood” (539). She is exploring the old views of her race while finding her own personal view and accepting herself, as she is a value human just as equal as any other person. Her tone and use of imagery
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.
African-American people have had to climb over many obstacles to get to their position today. First, was the selling of their people into slavery. Then, they endured slavery itself, being treated like an animal. After slavery was abolished, Colored people still had to deal with racial discrimination and hatred. If this sounds rough, black women had it worse. African-American women had to deal with all the previously mentioned things, but they were women too! Females were oppressed almost as bad as the blacks. White women were not able to vote until the 1920. Therefore colored women had a double edged sword, they had to fight for freedom, but not be to dominate as to effect the men. Alice Walker's The Color Purple is a good example of colored women's plight. Three obstacles black women had to overcome to be able to express themselves were Racism, the lack of education, and the stereo-type that women are inferior.