How It Feels To Be Colored Me By Zora Neala Hrston Analysis

To grasp an understanding of the Southern States of America is something that Edward L. Ayers argues is hard to achieve: “When they speak of 'Southern culture' they are creating a fiction...as The South's defenders claim, it is not easily understood by outsiders; as its critics claim, it is apparently not understood much better by its resident defenders.”1 This might be the case, however, it is the experiences, although they might differ from one another, that contribute to an understanding of the South. When focusing on the racial aspects in Southern culture, it is an essential aspect in understanding the South as racism due to the legacy of slavery was still very much present in the early twentieth century. Therefore, Zora Neala Hurston perhaps deviant experience to other African Americans, reflected in her essay 'How it Feels to be Colored Me', illustrates the different issues that play in Southern society. Hurston's essay 'is an essay that highlights the author's experience of being African American in the South and in American in general and shows her pride in being the person that she is. In this paper, there will be an analysis of Hurston's essay and its significance in understanding the South. First, it will focus on what it means to be a coloured woman in the South and how her controversial ideas highlight the South's mindset by
Inferiority in relation to white people is something that she mentions again through her essay. For instance, her metaphor of being a “dark rock surged upon, overswept by a creamy sea” and her noticing her skin difference when she is “thrown against a sharp white background.” Hence, it illustrates how she can feel overwhelmed by the superiority given to white people and consequently her lack of power and voice in society