How It Feels to Be Colored Me Study Guide
Introduction to How It Feels to Be Colored Me
“How It Feels to Be Colored Me” is a widely anthologized descriptive essay in which Zora Neale Hurston explores the discovery of her identity and self-pride. Following the conventions of description, Hurston employs colorful diction, imagery, and figurative language to take the reader on this journey. She begins with her childhood in the Black community of Eatonville, Florida, where she was “everybody’s Zora,” and recounts the first time she became aware of herself as “colored”: the day she arrived at boarding school in Jacksonville at age thirteen. Despite the legacies of slavery and racism, however, Hurston does not consider herself “tragically colored,” nor does she maintain a constant awareness of her race. Rather, Hurston is simply herself, and she prefers not to dwell on the past or “weep at the world.” She concludes the essay with the memorable image of herself as a “brown bag of miscellany,” filled—like a bag of any other color—with a random assortment of items. If all the bags were emptied, she speculates, their contents would be indistinguishable from one another.
First published in World Tomorrow magazine in 1928, “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” is considered a representative piece of Harlem Renaissance literature and remains one of Zora Neale Hurston’s best-known works today.
A Brief Biography of Zora Neale Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960), like so many writers, was ahead of her time and not fully appreciated by her contemporaries, but she is now considered one of the most important Black American women of the twentieth century. Her most famous work is the 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. One of its key (but controversial) features was the use of dialogue in a Black American dialect. Though some critics at the time, including many from the Black community, viewed the novel’s dialogue as caricatured, it would become a celebrated trademark of Hurston’s writing. Her uncompromising novels later influenced seminal Black writers such as Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, and Alice Walker.
Frequently Asked Questions about How It Feels to Be Colored Me
How It Feels to Be Colored Me
What does it mean to be "tragically colored"?
Hurston contrasts her attitude toward being Black to those of other Black people she knows. She calls them "the sobbing school of Negrohood." In contrast to them, Hurston states that she is not...
How It Feels to Be Colored Me
What is the characterization in "How It Feels to Be Colored Me"?
Because Hurston is writing from her own perspective in "How It Feels to Be Colored Like Me," the characterization in this essay involves Hurston characterizing herself. Hurston presents herself as...
How It Feels to Be Colored Me
Why doesn't being the granddaughter of slaves cause feelings of depression in Zora?
Zora Neale Hurston states she is always being reminded she is the granddaughter of slaves. She says this does not leave her depressed because slavery ended sixty years ago. She notes that a war was...
How It Feels to Be Colored Me
Where did Zora first learn that she was "colored"?
Zora Neale Hurston first learned that she was "colored" when she was sent to school in Jacksonville at age thirteen. Until that time, she had lived a sheltered life in the all-Black town of...
How It Feels to Be Colored Me
How does Zora become a "little colored girl"?
Hurston describes growing up in the all-Black town of Eatonville, Florida, where she was seen in the community as a distinct individual. However, at age thirteen, undisclosed "changes" come to her...
How It Feels to Be Colored Me
What is Hurston's purpose for writing "How It Feels to Be Colored Me"?
The reader of current critical race theory who knows only the title of Zora Neale Hurston's "How It Feels to Be Colored Me" is likely to be completely wrong about what the essay contains. The...
How It Feels to Be Colored Me
What point of view is "How It Feels to Be Colored Me" written from?
Hurston writes "How it Feels to Be Colored Me" from the first-person perspective. Specifically, she is writing from her point of view as an exceptionally talented young Black woman experiencing the...
How It Feels to Be Colored Me
How does Hurston use ethos in "How It Feels to Be Colored Me"?
Ethos is a persuasive device that works with logic and emotion. Ethos is the character a writer projects: a writer with a positive ethos convinces readers that she is authoritative and believable....
How It Feels to Be Colored Me
What is the irony in "How It Feels to Be Colored Me"?
Irony occurs when words mean the opposite of what they state, when situations are the opposite of what is expected, and when readers know what characters in a work of literature do not. Verbal...
How It Feels to Be Colored Me
How does Hurston define herself?
In her essay “How It Feels to be Colored Me,” Zora Neale Hurston defines herself as a unique individual who can’t be readily reduced to any one group or demographic. Moving into specifics, look at...
How It Feels to Be Colored Me
What point is Hurston trying to make in the first paragraph?
The first paragraph of Zora Neale Hurston's "How It Feels to Be Colored Me" consists of a single sentence: I am colored but I offer nothing in the way of extenuating circumstances except the fact...
How It Feels to Be Colored Me
Why does Hurston call herself a "brown bag of miscellany"?
In the final paragraph of "How It Feels to Be Colored Me," Zora Neale Hurston explains why she calls herself a "brown bag of miscellany." She says that all the people in the world are like bags of...
How It Feels to Be Colored Me
What figurative language is in “How It Feels to Be Colored Me”?
Zora Neale Hurston incorporates plenty of figurative language in her essay “How It Feels to Be Colored Me.” She begins with hyperbole when she declares (with tongue firmly in cheek) that she is the...
How It Feels to Be Colored Me
What is the main idea of "How It Feels to Be Colored Me"?
In this essay, Hurston uses herself as an example to demonstrate that a vibrant, can-do, optimistic attitude on life and a willingness to fight to get ahead can bring success and fulfillment, even...
How It Feels to Be Colored Me
In what ways does the town react differently to white Northerners than they do to white Southerners?
Zora Neale Hurston describes her childhood in the small, all-Black, backwater town of Eatonville, Florida. Both Southern and Northern whites come through the town from time to time. The Southerners...
How It Feels to Be Colored Me
What is the overall tone of "How It Feels to Be Colored Me"?
Tone is the emotional attitude a piece of writing conveys. In her essay "How it Feels to Be Colored Me," Zora Neale Hurston communicates a tone of relentlessly vibrant optimism about the...
How It Feels to Be Colored Me
How does Hurston feel about being "colored"?
Hurston conveys positive feelings about being "colored" in her essay. She learns at age thirteen, when she goes to school in Jacksonville, that her individual identity as Zora is erased under the...
How It Feels to Be Colored Me
Where did Hurston live until she was thirteen years old?
Until she was thirteen, Hurston lived in the town of Eatonville, Florida. She describes it as "exclusively a colored town." Southern white people would pass through it on their horses on their way...
How It Feels to Be Colored Me
What is the extended metaphor in "How It Feels to Be Colored Me"?
A metaphor compares two seemingly unlike things to make a point. An extended metaphor is one that examines an initial metaphor in greater depth. A simile is a form of metaphor that uses the words...
How It Feels to Be Colored Me
What time period is "How It Feels to Be Colored Me" set in?
Zora Neale Hurston wrote her essay “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” in 1928. In the piece, she speaks of her early life in Eatonville, Florida, her hometown. Since Hurston was born in 1891, the...
