African American writer, Zora Neale Hurston was born into a Negro community of Eatonville, Florida and wrote "How it Feels to Be Colored Me" in 1928. Hurston wasn’t aware of the significance of her racial identity until she was sent to school in Jacksonville at the age of thirteen. In a primarily white community, she soon realized that she was distinguished only by her physical characteristics and not “Zora of Orange County”. Colloquial and sincere, Zora Neale Hurston in "How It Feels to Be Colored Me" exposes racism and the issue of racial identity among colored people. The author 's confident standpoint is depicted through the use of strong-willed tone, assured diction, and vivid metaphors which augments the difference between her racial
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The author presents this when she states, "I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife." This metaphor makes an allusion to the proverb, “The world is my oyster.” This is significant because Hurston asserts that she will not feel ashamed of her racial identity and this metaphor shows her confidence in herself. 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. Another key point would be when the author concludes the essay with, "Perhaps that is how the Great Stuffer of Bags filled them in the first place? Who knows?” This metaphor first begins comparing different colored bags propped against a wall to the races in the world; in this statement the “Great Stuffer of Bags” refers to God, the creator of the world, who purposely made each person unique. Hurston reveals to the audience that we are not different from each other, despite our races, and what matters the most is what’s inside. Moreover, the vivid metaphors used throughout the text exposes her standpoint as a
The author presents this when she states, "I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife." This metaphor makes an allusion to the proverb, “The world is my oyster.” This is significant because Hurston asserts that she will not feel ashamed of her racial identity and this metaphor shows her confidence in herself. 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. Another key point would be when the author concludes the essay with, "Perhaps that is how the Great Stuffer of Bags filled them in the first place? Who knows?” This metaphor first begins comparing different colored bags propped against a wall to the races in the world; in this statement the “Great Stuffer of Bags” refers to God, the creator of the world, who purposely made each person unique. Hurston reveals to the audience that we are not different from each other, despite our races, and what matters the most is what’s inside. Moreover, the vivid metaphors used throughout the text exposes her standpoint as a