What does How It Feels to Be Colored Me mean?

Q: What is the main idea of How It Feels to Be Colored Me?

In her 1928 essay How It Feels To Be Colored Me,” African-American writer Zora Neale Hurston argues that race isnt an essential feature that a person is born with, but instead emerges in specific social contexts.

Zora Neale Hurston is an American author, anthropologist, and filmmaker who was born January 7th, 1891. She was a writer who was very strong, and resilient, and failed to let anything get in the way of her personal contentment, and overall success as an African American woman during her time of racial discrimation. She refused to accept being seen as “other”, or that she wasn’t capable of the many achievements that she knew she was bound to excel in. In her writing, “How It Feels to Be Colored Me”, any typical reader would automatically assume that this writing would predominantly be surrounded around the idea of an African American describing the troubles of their life during this time of racial struggles, or challenges they’ll face being colored. However, this is not what this writing is about. Zora refuses to let the past struggles of her slave ancestors define her as a person. Zora does not let what the world’s image of her as a colored person stop her from striving in life.

Table of Contents Show

What is the main idea of How It Feels to Be Colored Me?
What is Hurston's point in How It Feels to Be Colored Me?
How does it feel to be colored me the eternal feminine?
How It Feels to Be Colored Me The Jungle way meaning?

Zora quotes…

“But I am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow dammed up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes. I do not mind at all. I do not belong to the sobbing school of Negrohood who hold that nature somehow has given them a lowdown dirty deal and whose feelings are all but about it. Even in the helter-skelter skirmish that is my life, I have seen that the world is to the strong regardless of a little pigmentation more of less. No, I do not weep at the world–I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife.”

Zora does not see herself as a sob story. She refused to be pitied as a colored woman. She knows that the world may look at her and expect less from her, and disregard her true potential due to the color of her skin, but she does not let overcome her. Zora refuses to have resentment in her heart. She does not walk with the idea that good would not come her way because of the color of her skin, she looks beyond that. She sees her potential, and that’s all that matters. She’s well aware that she is likeable, that whites do find her appealing due to her talents, and her way of dancing. But, Zora will not allow herself to believe that whites are of more power, or are superior than her. Zora ends off this part of the passage saying, “No, I do not weep at the world–I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife,” this is a very powerful way of ending off this part of the passage. Zora knows, and is aware of the disasters that surround her in this world. She is well aware that those disasters are there to bring her down, and destroy her and her person. However, she will not mourn at the loss of the world, instead she will not stop. She will not stop aiming for higher. She will not stop going after what is hers. And she will continue to polish herself, and continue to build the empire that she was meant to have. And sure enough that’s exactly what she did.

I believe we can all take from Zora, whether we be colored or not. Zora Neale Hurston is a true inspiration, and she is who embodies strength and what it means to be unstoppable. As a young girl growing into the adult that I am today, I am well aware of the sorrows and grieves that take place in this world, but I would not let that be my story. I will not be a sob story. I will not let my circumstances be the reason for my downfall. Zora is an inspiration to me, and is very similar to me at that because I refuse to sit in a depression. I want better, so I strive to get better. Zora Neale Hurston is a strong African American woman, and sets an example for many women refusing to be held back from the sorrows of this world.

1)Hurston’s opening paragraph in “How it Feels to Be Colored Me” functions as a joke that aims to lessen the stigma around discussing race in the 1920s. The phrase “extenuating circumstances” is defined as lessening the seriousness of a situation and therefore reducing any consequence that may emerge from her controversial stance. Hurston’s assertion that her “grandfather on the mother’s side was not an Indian chief” is intended to bring humor to the African American tendency to claim Native American ancestry in order to raise their social status. Her sarcastic juxtaposition of accepting her color versus colored people distancing themselves from it creates a colloquial tone that illustrates her defiance of social stigmas and norms. This biting opening paragraph intrigues the reader and allows her audience to grasp the overall purpose of the…show more content…
Her initial metaphor concerning a procedure done on a patient symbolizes slavery as a disease towards African Americans and its cure was its eventual abolishment. The blunt “the patient is doing well, thank you” is aimed towards whites who continue to view colored people as inferior beings that require special attention when, in fact, they don’t. Hurston further portrays the abolishment of slavery as a metaphorical race for freedom and civilization. With each major time period and reform movement, the race draws closer to starting. With the final “Go!” from the previous generation, Hurston is hurled towards a new era where she may succeed. The race, however, still continues and she “must not halt in the stretch to look behind and weep” for those who laid the path before her. These simple but purposeful metaphors allow the audience to sympathize with the plight of African Americans as they struggle to create themselves in a world that perceives them as lesser

What is the main idea of How It Feels to Be Colored Me?

In her 1928 essay “How It Feels To Be Colored Me,” African-American writer Zora Neale Hurston argues that race isn't an essential feature that a person is born with, but instead emerges in specific social contexts.

What is Hurston's point in How It Feels to Be Colored Me?

Popular thought holds that race is an essential or biological characteristic of an individual. By stating that she “became colored,” Hurston argues that race can be more a matter of social reinforcement and changing perspective. In short, she was not colored until people made her feel that way.

How does it feel to be colored me the eternal feminine?

I belong to no race nor time. I am the eternal feminine with its string of beads. I have no separate feeling about being an American citizen and colored. I am merely a fragment of the Great Soul that surges within the boundaries.

How It Feels to Be Colored Me The Jungle way meaning?

In like manner, the author compares listening to jazz orchestra music to living in the jungle in the following statement, "I am in the jungle and living in the jungle way.” This vivid metaphor shows Hurston's emotions at the times she feels colored in which she felt distant from the lives of others.