Stylistic and rhetorical strategies used in How It Feels To Be Colored Me include anecdotes, metaphors, and similes. The use of the anecdote relating to Hurston's younger life in Eatonville helps the reader identify and understand how Hurston grew up without understanding the difference between her colored self and the white people who would travel through her all black town. The use of anecdote helps the reader understand the backstory of Hurston and her inability to be depressed or saddened due to her race’s history. The use of similes and metaphors helps Hurston explain her racial differences apart from others and help the audience comprehend how Hurston differs from her peers. These stylistic choices affect the overall tone and meaning
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With this, Hurston's main thesis is “ I am me” whether she feels unaware of her race or celebrates it in full capacity. This can be seen when Hurston states “I am not tragically colored” , “At certain times I have no race” and ,“I am so colored”. In all three instances, Hurston recognizes that she is simply who she is despite what surrounding influences may make her feel. While Hurston may feel discriminated against, she exclaims “it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company!” In this, it can be seen that Hurston wishes to share with the audience that race is irrelevant towards who she is as a person. As Hurston uses a simile to describe herself as a brown paper bag, she proclaims that if all bags were “dumped in a single heap” the bags could be “refilled without altering the content of any greatly”, again highlighting how her pride in her race remains immaterial against any …show more content…
The piece was also written for people of the Harlem Renaissance, which celebrated the African-American culture and their various types of art. In addition to this, How It Feels To Be Colored Me was published in The World Tomorrow a year before the American stock markets crashed. While the black community was said to be outraged by Hurston's depiction of their race, Hurston wished to share to everyone what it felt like to be an African-American woman in a society that was still facing segregation and racial discrimination. Altogether, Hurston speaks to the people stuck “sixty years in the past” who relinquish in their skin colour and their history with slavery. With this, Hurston announces that “No one on earth ever had a greater chance for glory. The world to be won and nothing to be lost,” that being her overall message to the many races
With this, Hurston's main thesis is “ I am me” whether she feels unaware of her race or celebrates it in full capacity. This can be seen when Hurston states “I am not tragically colored” , “At certain times I have no race” and ,“I am so colored”. In all three instances, Hurston recognizes that she is simply who she is despite what surrounding influences may make her feel. While Hurston may feel discriminated against, she exclaims “it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company!” In this, it can be seen that Hurston wishes to share with the audience that race is irrelevant towards who she is as a person. As Hurston uses a simile to describe herself as a brown paper bag, she proclaims that if all bags were “dumped in a single heap” the bags could be “refilled without altering the content of any greatly”, again highlighting how her pride in her race remains immaterial against any …show more content…
The piece was also written for people of the Harlem Renaissance, which celebrated the African-American culture and their various types of art. In addition to this, How It Feels To Be Colored Me was published in The World Tomorrow a year before the American stock markets crashed. While the black community was said to be outraged by Hurston's depiction of their race, Hurston wished to share to everyone what it felt like to be an African-American woman in a society that was still facing segregation and racial discrimination. Altogether, Hurston speaks to the people stuck “sixty years in the past” who relinquish in their skin colour and their history with slavery. With this, Hurston announces that “No one on earth ever had a greater chance for glory. The world to be won and nothing to be lost,” that being her overall message to the many races