Preview

How It Feels To Be Colored Me Summary

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
447 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
How It Feels To Be Colored Me Summary
There are many different positions and conditions people are in throughout the world and many do not take this into much consideration. Too many people focus on something that they have just heard, even though what they are hearing is far from the truth. People seem to believe the first thing that they hear which can sometimes be very unreliable. There are many cases that speak of people being in tough situations when in actuality, it is only a few of those people taking part in those situations. People often misjudge others based on unreliable information. One example of this statement is found in a Ted Talk speech given by Ngozi Adichie that explains the danger of a single story. It speaks of how people believe one thing that they have heard, even though the source of the information is untrustworthy. She mentions how people would question how she spoke English so well if she came from Nigeria. Therefore, this shows how people misjudge situations based on a single story since English is a very common language found in Nigeria. David Foster Wallace gave a commencement speech entitled “This Is Water” that speaks out about how people perceive others differently than what they actually are. He describes how someone may see a mom getting angry with her kids as a bad parent when in reality, that woman just got done with a …show more content…
“I am not tragically colored” she says. “I have seen that the world is to the strong regardless of a little pigmentation more or less”(Source D). She indicates through this quote that people may think of colored people as different from them, but in reality, everyone is not as different as some would think. She explains that people are people, no matter what color their skin is. Furthermore, this goes to show how individuals often see people for what they are not and not for what they

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The book that I am reading is called True Colours, by Lucy Lemay Cellucci who is a great author. So far along the book the book I find that the plot of the book is developing well and that the all the details are going being stated clearly and entertainingly. I find that this book is an easy read since there are not many words that I do not understand and that I understand the main theme of the book in the first half. The main theme of the book is animal curtly or animal abusement in general and the book also touches on how animals are being abused in third world countries like India, China, Pakistan, and many others as well. This book tells the reader how in Canada many children care about animals and are willing to help find a way to keep…

    • 1604 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    I think she felt the only place where she felt real love was with African American people and that’s why she stayed with the black man. She wanted to be different and she didn’t want to be like everybody else. She wanted to feel unique like her mother and be different. She doesn’t want to go to the “White” side because she feels that white’s are unfair and not human.…

    • 350 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In "How it Feels to Be Colored Me" by Zora N. Hurston, Zora had realized she had become "colored" when she was sent to school in Jacksonville at age thirteen where she was known as the little colored girl. Nevertheless, Zora describes in extraordinary detail how she is not ashamed of being colored. Therefore, Zora utiliezes self respect and selt commitment as her overall tone. thus, she sets her tone by describing her writing with fascinating phraseology and representation; it's as if her readers were experiencing her journey. "I feel like a brown bag of miscellany propped against a wall. Against a wall in company with other bags, white, red, and yellow." This descriptive phrase is especially strong; Hurston describes herself to a brown bag…

    • 178 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Her mindset is more like that of a white person, since she was very young when she arrived here, and was able to adjust to the American’s way of life. This means that she was separating away from her black culture and entering the white culture. In a way, one can say that she was just a darkened white person. Although, physically she is black, and there is no argument with that, her culture was starting to become more white, meaning she was writing like a white poet. For example, in her poem “On Being Brought From Africa to America” Wheatley clearly accepts the white culture by writing “... Negros, black as Cain, May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train” (7-8). Another example is present in her, mostly white religion themed poem, “An Hymn to the Evening,” where she praises the lord for another day of life, “The living temples of our God below. Fill'd with the praise of him who gives the light.”…

    • 482 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Anne Moody learned about the importance of race early in her life. Having been born and raised in an impoverished black family from the South, she experienced first-hand the disparity in the lives of Whites and Blacks.…

    • 785 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the poem she says, “Taught my benighted soul to understand...Their colour is a diabolic die." She talks a lot about how she got to be raised in a good family, she got to learn how to read and write, she got to live in safe conditions, and best of all she didn’t have to work in fields day after day. Although her time as a slave was great compared to many slaves, she still learned that African-Americans were the “diabolic die” or in other words, evil. Wheatley’s writing wasn’t necessarily intended to be used in a political way, she wrote because she wanted to, and it was the only way she could make money, but it was later used in favor of slavery. If Wheatley was here today she probably wouldn’t want it being used that…

    • 729 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the Anthology the authors wrote about many different complex characters. These characters showed great examples of human nature. In my opinion, three of the best stories in the Anthology that had examples of human nature are How it Feels to be Colored Me, by Zora Hurston, The Necklace, by Guy de Maupassant, and The Rose that Grew from Concrete, by Tupac Shakur. These stories show how humans have different characteristics. These characteristics are determination, intolerance, and the need to have more than what they have.…

    • 455 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Popular phrases such as, “the Blacker the Berry, the Sweeter the juice,” and “If it’s White, it’s gotta be right,” have held opposing views in the African American community on the concept of skin complexion. This idea of a “Color Complex” has psychologically altered the way many African Americans perceive beauty, success, and their personal identity. Although some would disagree, there seems to be a strong connection between skin color and social status in the African American community. It may appear that African Americans are dispelling this theory of “light-skinned and dark skinned” to become a more cohesive group, but the politics of skin color and features still remain. Skin color variations among African Americans play a major role in how they perceive beauty standards, social status and themselves.…

    • 3571 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Maud Martha realized that she was not the cherished one because of her darker skin color at an very early age, thus “to be cherished was the dearest wish of the heart of Maud Martha Brown”.( Brooks 1650) In her own family, her beloved father preferred her sister Helen because Helen was lighter; At school her schoolmates also liked Helen and ignored her; When she grew into womanhood and got married, her husband Paul also showed a partiality to lighter women. Martha’s father, classmates and husband acted this way because as black people they themselves were treated as inferior creatures all the time by white Americans. Under this white gaze, the value that the black was inferior was accepted and internalized by the gazed over time. This internalizing also happened to Martha as she struggled all the way to build up her subjectivity. That accounts for her inferiority about her appearance and jealous of Helen her prettier. When a white schoolmate Charles came to visit Martha, she should feel “a sort of gratitude.”…

    • 883 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In “How it Feels To Be Colored Me”, Zora Neale Hurston presents her attitude about racism while growing up as an African American. Hurston’s views are very similar to Dr. Martin Luther King jr.’s. When talking about racism, she uses her heritage to help present her attitude. Her feelings toward the white folk aren’t hostile, but they aren’t exactly agreeing either.…

    • 334 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Valerie

    • 586 Words
    • 2 Pages

    For a number of many years some people judge another person based on the things the things they heard. What they drive, what kind of car they have, what profession they are a part of, and what race they are from.…

    • 586 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    A Single Story

    • 794 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Adichie argues that “The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story” (Ted). Americans for example, may only see the starving, poverty side of Africa, because that is what is seen in the media. This one-sided view is to the extreme that when Americans tell their children to finish their food, they do so with the reason being that there are starving children in Africa. Now while that may be true, it is only one side of the truth. People may not see the beautiful cities and rich culture of those whom live there and few will ever even go about finding that out for themselves. This way of thinking has a negative effect on how one may view his fellow…

    • 794 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Audre Lorde

    • 986 Words
    • 4 Pages

    She suggests that we live in a world of opposition where difference is viewed as deviance. Those who are seen as deviating from “the norm” are those who are colored, poor, aged,…

    • 986 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Psychologists often wonder why people make unreasonable conclusions like this and argue that it is, because people tend to think of themselves as adaptable and ever-changing human beings. When people look at others, they are not able to make a balanced…

    • 488 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    "But she," her faithful muttered, their heads hanging from shame, "she has no colors. She is black."…

    • 838 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays