How It Feels To Be Colored Me By Langston Hughes

The memoir “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” by Zora Neale Hurston, was first published in 1928, and recounts the situation of racial discrimination and prejudice at the time in the United States. The author was born into an all-black community, but was later sent to a boarding school in Jacksonville, where she experienced “race” for the first time. Hurston not only informs the reader how she managed to stay true to herself and her race, but also inspires the reader to abandon any form of racism in their life. Especially by including Humor, Imagery, and Metaphors, the author makes her message very clear: Everyone is equal.

Zora Neale Hurston’s essay “How it Feels to Be Colored Me” and “I, Too” by Langston Hughes, both have a theme of racism in common. Although these works of literature depict racial inequality, the main characters are portrayed as self-confident and proud individuals. They are not discouraged or disheartened by the attitudes of those who try to oppress them.

In the essay “How It Feels to Be Colored Me,” the author, Zora Neale Hurston, emphasizes points in her life, those being times where she has felt her color and others where her color seemed almost nonexistent. Hurston’s motive for composing this writing piece is to show the readers that race does not solely determine one’s identity. The author skillfully utilizes writing strategies to assert this, which embellishes and strengthens the impact of her words. Some examples of these approaches include Hurston’s use of imagery, metaphors, and symbolism throughout the entirety of her work. Namely, the imagery presented in the essay allows for the reader to perceive Hurston’s surroundings in her time.

I believe that the way we define ourselves is a part of what makes us who we are. In Zora Neale Hurston's essay "How It Feels to be Colored Me" she doesn't just define herself as a girl of color, she also defines herself as Zora. As a little girl, she grew up in colored town, not knowing what a mixed world looked like. Then she just characterized herself as Zora, but when she moved at the age of 13 she wasn't just Zora anymore. she says "I was not Zora of Orange County any more.

The Scramble for Africa can easily be defined as the forced invasion and division of African countries among European superpowers. Those powers included Great Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany, and Belgium. Each superpower wanted control over a certain area on the continent and would do anything to ensure that their area remained in their best interest. To bring the conflicts to the forefront, the countries participated in the Berlin Africa Conference in 1884-1885. In this conference, the issues of Anglo-German relations and everybody’s control in Africa were discussed. As a result of the conference, European control began to overtake the African continent and imperialism became a giant part of the European mark. In his book, “Worlds of Color” W.E.B DuBois discusses the idea of whole colonial enterprise stating that the problem the world faces is the color line. This can easily be interpreted as Dr. DuBois giving the idea that if World, more specifically European superpowers stop viewing the color line and Africa’s color line as something less than them a lot of the world’s issues could be detected and fixed. But more importantly, Dr. DuBois is stating that without the Worlds of Color, European industrialization would not exist.

In Zora Neale Hurston’s short story, “How It Feels to Be Colored Me”, there is a contrast between how black and white people approach things in life. Hurston is an African American woman and she shares her own perspective of how black and white people achieve things in life. She mentions that people are constantly reminding her about how African Americans suffered through slavery however, this doesn’t “…register depression with [her]” (Hurston 976). Hurston instead sees this as an advantage over the white people because African Americans have had several opportunities to prove their achievements in life giving unlike the white people. This would mean that African Americans have an easier approach to achieving things at life because they set

Zora Neale Hurston, in her article titled “How It Feels to Be Coloured Me” (1928), asserts that every person is composed of a collection of their various identities and that all people, no matter how different their various identities are, are thus the same. She supports her assertion by creating racial character metaphors, incorporating cultural identity references, and relaying anecdotal stories. Hurston’s purpose is to illustrate how her different identities shape her as an equal human being and allow her to express herself in order to convince her audience to be proud, not ashamed, of their race, gender, appearance, etc., as each person is a ‘… bag of miscellan[eous]’ identities where ‘a bit of color… more or less [does] not matter.’

Zora Neale Hurston, the author of “How It Feels to Be Colored Me,” speaks about her experience as a black American. She does not perceive her identity of being a black woman as being a factor that impedes her progress in life. Hurston specifically uses a distinctive first-person narrative, which differs from many who tell their experience with the group narrative of how “we” should feel. Hurston tells her story and embeds it with personal opinion, allowing the reader to take away relative aspects at their own will. Hurston realized she was black at the age of thirteen, and she became more observant of how physically segregated the whites and blacks were.

When researching the phrase “self-awareness”, one definition seems to be very common. That is, “an awareness of one's own personality or individuality”(Merriam Webster). One day the class was put to the task of coming up with our own definition of self-awareness, and I had completely drawn a blank, and could not seem to come up with anything. After class, that assignment really intrigued me, and I wanted to think what self-awareness meant to me. Some time had passed but it finally came to me; to me, self awareness is when someone knows their worth as a person, as well as knowing where they stand in society. It is when they realize who they are, how they got to be where they are, where they belong, and they are conscious of their feelings. All throughout multiple works by Langston Hughes, multiple characters’ success at achieving self-awareness is evident through different quotations.

The Harlem Renaissance was a time period when African American culture came to fruition. Many musicians, artists, and literary authors published their work, and are still read to this day. Some of these works include Langston Hughes’ “Dreams” and Zora Neale Hurston’s “How It Feels To Be Colored Me”. While both these authors faced some of the same problems, they have different attitudes and outlooks toward life.

When we think of the African American culture, the first thing most people revert to is slavery. However, even after slavery ended, African Americans were not given the rights they were promised. They were treated wrongly and their true culture and identities were still widely misunderstood. During the period of Harlem Renaissance, the African American culture and the true identities of the people were revealed along with allowing the world to see them as more than just slaves and servants, but as actual people. Different poets, writers, musicians, and painters displayed the culture in their creative ways one of who is known as Langston Hughes. His works are credited and discussed worldwide till this day and will continue to do so in the future. During the Harlem Renaissance Langston

In the poem “Oppression”, written by Langston Hughes, the author leads us to believe that in many countries there is the oppression of minorities, the fear of punishment for free thinking and yet the hope of freedom. Throughout the world people in many countries suffer from subjugation. “Now dreams are not available to the dreamers…” (Hughes) refers to the suppression of free thinking and aspirations in those lands. Not only does the author make this point about injustice, he uses the metaphor “In some lands dark night” (Hughes) to then later reinforce the idea of suppression and oppression. Much of the population would love to free themselves from such subjugation, but many are frightened of the consequences. Countries like the Soviet

“What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?” This poem, Harlem, created a whole play based on one line (Hughes, 1055-1056). Langston Hughes wrote the poem Harlem due to his major role in the Harlem Renaissance. A Raisin in the Sun was concocted by Hughes one line, this play tells the story of an African American family living in the slums during a time when racial dilemmas were at an all time high. The family receives money from Mama’s husband passing away, but the family has disputes on how the money should be spent (Hansberry, 443-512). Throughout the play the title has significance by Hughes poem Harlem, African American lives in the 1950s, and the different dreams of the family members.

The development of jazz, blues and literature in harlem shine a big light on langston hughes the famous writer .Who was one of harlem 's famous writer for his poetry “ Harlem Dream Deferred”.Langston Hughes is broadly viewed as one of the best artists who ever strolled the earth. A number of his subjects concentrated on the issues that were going up against the race, fairness and

Credited as being the most recognizable figure of the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes played a vital role in the Modernist literary movement and the movement to revitalize African American culture in the early 20th century. Hughes’s poems reflect his personal struggle and the collective struggle of African Americans during this cultural revival.