How It Feels to Be Colored Me

In How It Feels to Be Colored Me, Zora Neale Hurston uses a great deal of figurative language to describe her feelings regarding her position in the world as a person of color. In particular, she...

Hurston humorously claims she's "the only negro in the United States whose grandfather on the mother's side was not an Indian chief" to reject the common tendency to enhance status by claiming...

Zora Neale Hurston's essay "How It Feels to Be Colored Me" explores her identity as a Black woman with a positive and defiant tone. Hurston describes how her sense of self evolved when she became...

In "How It Feels to Be Colored Me," Zora Neale Hurston uses vivid imagery, metaphor, and a conversational tone to explore her identity and experiences as an African American woman. She contrasts her...

In "How It Feels to Be Colored Me," Hurston calls herself a "brown bag of miscellany" because no one can tell what is inside her from observing her color. What is inside, and what is inside everyone,...

As she describes in "How It Feels to Be Colored Me," being the granddaughter of slaves does not cause feelings of depression in Zora Neale Hurston because slavery ended sixty years before she wrote...

Zora Neale Hurston's essay "How It Feels to Be Colored Me" explores her experiences as a Black woman in early 20th-century America, emphasizing a positive and self-assured identity despite racial...

At The New World Cabaret, Hurston feels deeply connected to the jazz music, experiencing a vibrant and wild transformation internally, contrasting with her white companion's calm demeanor. This scene...

In "How It Feels to Be Colored Me," Zora Neale Hurston’s perspective is confident and self-assured, celebrating her identity. Her tone is upbeat and unapologetic, using vibrant and vivid word choice....

In lines 57-59 of "How It Feels to Be Colored Me," Hurston means that she, as a black person, is not haunted by guilt or sorrow over the legacy of slavery. The "brown specter" and "dark ghost"...

As Hurston implies in "How It Feels to Be Colored Me," to be "tragically colored" is to dwell on the abuses Black people have suffered and continue to suffer instead of making the most of the present...

In "How It Feels to Be Colored Me," Hurston uses the word "circumlocutions" as a contrast between the way she and her white guest approach the jazz music they are listening to. It contributes to the...

In paragraph 8 of "How It Feels to Be Colored Me," Hurston highlights the absence of racial guilt in her life, contrasting with the "dark ghost" representing white fears of black advancement. This...

When Hurston states, "I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife," she is stating that she has no time to complain about racism holding her back. Instead, she will prepare to search for what is...

In "How It Feels To Be A Colored Me," the items in the paper bag symbolize the shared human experiences and intrinsic qualities that transcend racial differences. Each item, such as a diamond or a...

Zora Neale Hurston embraces her identity as a Black woman with pride and resilience. She acknowledges the complexities and challenges of racial identity but refuses to let it define her limitations....

Race is an important aspect of Zora Neale Hurston's identity, influencing her interactions with a racist society. However, in "How It Feels to Be Colored Me," she asserts that race is not the sole...

In "How It Feels to Be Colored Me," race and jazz performance profoundly impact Hurston's life by highlighting her sense of identity and pride. She describes feeling most connected to her African...

The objects Hurston describes include a first-water diamond, which represents the most valuable attribute of a person's character (perhaps love, courage, honor, or honesty). There is also an empty...

Zora Neale Hurston's "How It Feels to Be Colored Me" is a personal essay exploring racial identity through her experiences and reflections. The essay uses ethos by grounding its argument in Hurston's...

In "How It Feels to Be Colored Me," Zora Neale Hurston explores her racial identity and self-perception by contrasting her experiences with those of others, particularly within the Harlem...

In "How It Feels to Be Colored Me," Hurston uses "brown specter" to describe the lingering presence of racism that haunts others but not herself. She asserts that she does not feel oppressed by her...

Ethos is used in "How It Feels to Be Colored Me" as Hurston uses her own life experiences to build credibility on the subject of racial identity and ultimately a sense of shared humanity among races.

The phrase "sharpening my oyster knife"primarily conveys relish and excitement at the possibilities which lie open to Hurston if she approaches the world in the right spirit. It refers to...

Zora Neale Hurston's experience with jazz music in "How It Feels to Be Colored Me" is deeply internal and cultural, contrasting with her white friends' perception. While Hurston "feels" the music as...

Zora Neale Hurston's "How It Feels to Be Colored Me" targets a broad audience, celebrating her individual identity and pride beyond racial constraints. Originally published in a Christian magazine,...

At age 13, Zora Neale Hurston experienced a significant change when she "became colored" after moving from the all-black town of Eatonville to a school in Jacksonville. This transition marked the...

In "How It Feels to Be Colored Me," Zora Neale Hurston describes the day she "became colored" as the moment she moved to Jacksonville and experienced racial differences firsthand. This transition...

In "How It Feels to Be Colored Me," the town reacts with curiosity to white Northerners but ignores white Southerners.

There is verbal, situational, and dramatic irony in "How it Feels to Be Colored Me." Hurston uses verbal irony for comic effect when she states, I am the only Negro in the United States whose...

Zora Neale Hurston writes that she feels her race more when it is in stark contrast with white people. She gives two examples of this, one in which she is surrounded by mostly white students when she...

Leaving Eatonville significantly impacted Zora Neale Hurston as it exposed her to racial dynamics she hadn't experienced before. In Eatonville, a self-governing black town, she felt a sense of...

In "How It Feels to Be Colored Me," Zora Neale Hurston uses central images to anchor each section. In the first section, she uses childhood anecdotes to depict her exuberant identity. The second...

Zora Neale Hurston writes in "How It Feels to Be Colored Me" that she first learned she was "colored" when she went to school in Jacksonville at age thirteen.

The townspeople of Eatonville viewed white Northerners as foreign and a curiosity, often peering at them cautiously or watching them with interest. In contrast, white Southerners were familiar to the...

The language in this passage illustrates Hurston's connection to her African roots and her pride in her heritage. However, she is also aware of the negative impact that white society has had on her...

In "How It Feels to Be Colored Me" by Zora Neale Hurston, the author clarifies that she never felt excluded from any of the communities she has been a part of during her life. In the community of...

Zora Neale Hurston feels being a person of color is advantageous because it enriches her life experiences and contributes to her identity. Her pride in her identity, formed by diverse experiences...

Hurston might include Langston Hughes and Richard Wright in the "sobbing school of Negrohood," as both used their work to highlight racial oppression. Hughes, a Harlem Renaissance poet, combined...

Hurston uses her essay to express pride and contentment in being African American.

The final paragraph of "How It Feels to Be Colored Me" is an extended simile, containing subsidiary metaphors and other visual imagery, illustrating a rhetorical argument.

In "How It Feels to Be Colored Me," Zora Neale Hurston highlights the advantage of her positive attitude as a black woman in a predominantly white society. She contrasts her outlook with the guilt...

While both Zora Neale Hurston and Audre Lorde deal with issues of racial discrimination in their essays, Hurston adopts a light, joking tone and refuses to get caught up in anger and negativity,...

From lines 4-25, it can be inferred that Hurston's character is curious, bold, and unafraid to step outside societal norms. Unlike others who hid behind curtains, she confidently sat on the porch,...

Zora Neale Hurston's "How It Feels to Be Colored Me" and Kiese Laymon's "My Vassar College Faculty ID Makes Everything OK" critique American exceptionalism by highlighting racial discrimination in...

Race is significant in Zora Neale Hurston's "How it Feels to Be Colored Me" as it explores racial identity and societal perceptions. Hurston recounts her realization of her racial identity upon...

Zora Neale Hurston's "How it Feels to Be Colored Me" is a short story about the author's life experience. In the beginning of the story, Zora describes her feelings of being born a colored girl and...

Hurston's tone is a key part of her article; it helps her get her points across. However, it was not an everyday tone for African Americans to assume in the 1930s.

Zora Neale Hurston writes in "How It Feels to Be Colored Me" that she became a "little colored girl" when she went to school in Jacksonville for the first time at age thirteen. There, her identity as...

Cisneros and Hurston use metaphors to explore identity in "My Name" and "How It Feels to Be Colored Me." In "My Name," Esperanza compares her name to "sadness" and "waiting," symbolizing her desire...