In "How It Feels to Be Colored Me," Zora Neale Hurston describes various bags of different colors propped against a wall. These bags are filled with "a jumble of small things priceless and worthless," which include the following items:

A first-water diamond, an empty spool, bits of broken glass, lengths of string, a key to a door long since crumbled away, a rusty knife-blade, old shoes saved for a road that never was and never will be, a nail bent under the weight of things too heavy for any nail, a dried flower or two still a little fragrant.

The first-water diamond is the only priceless, or very expensive, thing in the miscellany. Iago told Othello that "good name in man or woman" is "the immediate jewel of their soul." It represents whatever is most valuable in a person's character: love, courage, honor, or honesty. The empty spool seems to stand for exhaustion. It has fulfilled its function, and is now threadbare and useless. The bits of broken glass superficially resemble the diamond, but they are merely cheap imitations, perhaps attributes that appear more valuable than they are, or pretensions.

The key to a door long since crumbled away is one of the most interesting images, since this is something that used to be precious and meaningful, but has lost its worth with the passage of time. It may stand for the love of a person who died long ago, or perhaps attachment to a dead dream. This sense of loss and nostalgia pervades the last few objects on Hurston's list.