Sunday, October 23, 2016

TOW #6 | Written - Zora Neale Hurston's "How It Feels to Be Colored Me"

In Zora Neale Hurston's "How It Feels to Be Colored Me," she defines what it means to be colored. Instead of being a characteristic one is born with, she instead associates being "colored" with feeling apart or different from the majority. She uses sharp diction and metaphors to describe her personal experiences of feeling "colored."

Although she does share her experience of how she became "colored," she highlights how being colored did not bring her down in any way. She explained how "there is no great sorrow dammed up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes" (6). The use of terms like "dammed" and "lurking" emphasizes on the normal reaction other people in society have once they recognize that they are colored. By using these strong terms and portraying how Hurston was able to fight against the "dammed sorrow" and the "lurking behind her eyes," it shows how strong Hurston was in those situations. This also reveals to the audience the effect stereotyping can have on people and the importance of standing up for oneself and accepting oneself as who they are as an individual, regardless of the stereotypes that come with certain traits like their skin color.

Hurston also uses metaphor to describe her experiences being the minority. She describes herself as "a dark rock surged upon, overswept by a creamy sea" (10). By describing herself as a dark rock and white people as a creamy sea, Hurston highlights the color of their skin tone to help the audience understand how she felt at the time, being a black individual at the time. The metaphor is also used for the audience to gain understanding of how she felt; she wanted to point out how much these stereotypes and discrimination "overswept her," like a huge sea would do to a small rock that had nowhere else to move.

Sharing her experiences being a black woman, Hurston expresses her discontent with society's stereotyping and discrimination through the use of sharp diction and metaphor.





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