Literary Analysis Essay on How It Feels to Be Colored Me

Introduction

How it feels to be colored me is a short story that tells of the widespread racial discrimination that African-Americans endured. Racial discrimination was from individuals, financial, educational, and political institutions. Zora Neale says of how the African-Americans had a proneness to cut back on their ethnic identities, thus break free from racial discrimination.it is common for people to claim contrasting ancestry; however, racial identity can be vague and malleable. Zora tells of her story of how she did not run away from her identity, remembering vividly when thirteen she "became colored" (Hurston 900). Zora attempts to explain race as a changing perspective or rather a situation of social reinforcement. In other words, people made her feel she was colored, of which she was not. All her childhood, she was brought up in a black community in Eatonville, Florida. Later getting to Jacksonville, the diversity in the city made her race not visible. Zora quotes, "I was not Zora of Orange County; I was now a little colored girl" (Hurston 902). The short story describes Hurston's experiences of feeling her race; she quotes an instance at Barnard, "among the thousand whites, I am a dark rock surged upon and over swept" (Hurston 903). For Hurston narrating, her encounters of racial discrimination for being black do not get her engrossed in self-pity. For her, racial discrimination gets her to discover her identity. The essay focuses on the contextual analysis of a short story How it feels to be colored me to explore how racial discrimination impacts the discovery of our identities.

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How it feels to be colored me anecdotal short story describes Zoras' exploration of her racial discrimination that made her discover her identity. The short story has employed colorful diction, much of figurative language, and imagery that takes readers to this description journey of Zora. Symbolism is the most style used in this piece; for instance, depicted from the Cabaret scene, "it constricts the thorax and splits the heart with its tempo, my pulse throbbing like a war drum" (Hurston 904). The imagery sends a message of a sense of passion for music and the sound of it. The representation also makes a comparison of the blacks' and whites' culture. It displays the culture of the blacks as of value to celebrate. In Zoras' childhood, imagery is also seen this time using a conversational tone, whereby she describes instances she used to greet neighbors, sing in streets, and dance. The story gives a clear depiction of imagery for the thoughts of the author. Hurston is displayed full of pride just being of color; however, the author sees it differently. Zora, the author quotes of her experiences, "I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background"( Hurston 903). In this case, the white background is being around white people. It is imagery used to depict she was not any different until reminded she was of color.

Besides using imagery, she combines it with an analogy, whereby she uses a thing well known in describing something not well known. All through in the short story, Zora uses race as the analogy. "The terrible struggle that made me an American out of a potential slave. The Reconstruction said, "Get Set!" and the generation before said 'Go!' (Hurston 902). The idea of race is seen in this statement showing African Americans are making headway, and on this development called for a celebration. In this story, another analog of a brown bag is used where Zora quotes, "I feel like a brown bag miscellany propped against a wall. Against a wall in company with other bags, white, red, and yellow" (Hurston 904). The brown bag has items, imagery showing all people are the same from the inside.

The central theme of this piece of How it feels to be colored me is race and its impact on our identities. Zora claims race is not a feature in our genes but comes up in specific social contexts. At the beginning of the passage, the theme is portrayed from Zoras' childhood in the community of all blacks in Florida. At thirteen, Zora is not colored but moving into a diverse city, Jacksonville, and after that, to New York, she is conscious of her race.it makes her know herself as "colored" by seeing the differences she owns when compared to whites. Zora states, "I feel my race" that happens right after moving to a white community from the black community (Hurston 903). It shows the race as a social situation because initially, Zora did not view herself as colored since no person had given her the reasons to see herself that way. For her, the whites were different because they passed via their town, heading to Orlando and did not stay in the same neighborhood with blacks. Young Zora perceives the race as socioeconomic segregation, a circumstance of events differing and not crucial distinction among people. Moving to Jacksonville for Zora, it depicts the theme of race as real because she identifies with it entirely.

With time Zora identifies her identity and attains the power to deny the idea of race. Zora uses the metaphor of a bag with the aspect of its contents. The analogy here frames the contents as aspects of positive and negative personality. The point she tries to pinpoint is a bag exterior never has impacts on its contents; in this context, the metaphor is used to fight common race conceptions as one that controls an individual talent, intelligence, or identity. Zora is seen learning to lean into her identity as black even in instances where her black and white acquaintances malign or mock her identity. Growing up, the forced conscious was she was a "colored little girl" the theme of race is visible, but her experiences show her embracing the idea of the race viewing it as a distinction. A scene described of her with a white friend listening to jazz band, Zora is seen revealing her encounters passionately than her friend who seemed pale with whiteness just stating, "Good music they have here" (Hurston 904). As the orchestra is playing, she portrays her dramatic effect arising from every number representing (Wald 91). The theme of race is framed through Zoras' childhood encounters, illustrating race to be ingrained in the social context, dependent on cultural and environment supplementary. The subject of race gives her the freedom to reimagine her grounds. It stresses on her self-work and subjectivity by adjusting the context of oppression into that of empowerment.

How it feels to be colored me a short story is in a narrative structure describing her self-realization journey. Zora narrates her childhood encounters expressing the unimportance of ones' skin color. The imagery she encompasses in her story gives meaning to her narration. The representation was of her sitting at the top of a gate post, saying, "welcome to our state" Floridian (Hurston 902). For the young Zora, she would entertain and welcome the whites regardless of color because she was not conscious of the racial division existing. Zora narrates her realization of being of color, but that did not make her significantly focus on the racial disparities. Zora tells of her consciousness that made her create a distinction of herself and the "sobbing school of negrohood" (Hurston 902). It portrays Zoras' aspirations of combating obstacles that African Americans faced then and face even currently, which is racism discrimination impacting their identity. The author, from this narrative piece, attempts to achieve in delivering a powerful message of racism that challenged Zoras' mindset and also our mindsets in the current time.

Conclusion

The author of How it feels to be colored me by Zora Neale achieved her goal of exploring self-pride and self-identity through her narration of how racial discrimination impacts our identities. It follows her employing much imagery, use of analogies, her identity, music, and figurative language to this journey of her narration. The piece goes further to have a dramatic impact as Zora; on her realization, she found she is of color but remained robust that she will not be ashamed of being of color. It fully expresses how racial discrimination has had most peoples' identities affected; however, in this case, for Zora, she had a realization of her self-identity and self-pride. Zora quotes, "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" (Hurston 904).

Works Cited

Wald, Priscilla. "Becoming "Colored": The Self-Authorized Language of Difference in Zora Neale Hurston." American Literary History 2.1 (1990): 79-100.

Fields, Barbara J. "Whiteness, racism, and identity." International Labor and Working-Class History 60 (2001): 48-56.

Hurston, Zora Neale. "How it feels to be colored me." Worlds of difference: Inequality in the aging experience (2000): 900-94