Zora Neale Hurston is a master of colorful imagery and child-like nostalgia. In her essay “How It Feels to Be Colored Me,” Hurston remembers her move from a rural, segregated community in Eatonville to Jacksonville, Florida where she became more conscious of her racial identity. In the essay, Hurston learns the power of comparison and how big of an impact that can have on her identity. This essay is an important work of literature, especially when looking at the perspective of an African American woman’s discovery of her own worth and identity. Through two different instances of sound stimuli, Zora Neale Hurston explores the universal theme of identity and the nuanced journey to it.
The journey begins in Eatonville, Florida, as Hurston explains her oblivious interactions with race. When …show more content…
As the musicians kick into their spontaneous whirl of notes, Hurston rises to the beat with a primal dance and animalistic howl. When she returns to her seat, she notices “the great blobs of purple and red emotion have not touched him. He has only heard what I felt. He is far away and I see him but dimly across the ocean and the continent that have fallen between us. He is so pale with his whiteness then and I am so colored” (Hurston 418). The music draws an interesting statement in terms of race. Jazz is an art that was created and has been cultivated by African American musicians. Although the music is not exclusive, Hurston’s reaction to it is her identification. She is relating and conforming to something characteristically African American, and therefore unfolding a part of her identity. Only by comparison, does she feel her race.Without the cool, detached demeanor of her white friend, she would not have realized that her reaction was a signal of her racial
The journey begins in Eatonville, Florida, as Hurston explains her oblivious interactions with race. When …show more content…
As the musicians kick into their spontaneous whirl of notes, Hurston rises to the beat with a primal dance and animalistic howl. When she returns to her seat, she notices “the great blobs of purple and red emotion have not touched him. He has only heard what I felt. He is far away and I see him but dimly across the ocean and the continent that have fallen between us. He is so pale with his whiteness then and I am so colored” (Hurston 418). The music draws an interesting statement in terms of race. Jazz is an art that was created and has been cultivated by African American musicians. Although the music is not exclusive, Hurston’s reaction to it is her identification. She is relating and conforming to something characteristically African American, and therefore unfolding a part of her identity. Only by comparison, does she feel her race.Without the cool, detached demeanor of her white friend, she would not have realized that her reaction was a signal of her racial