Zora Neale Hurston, one of the most
distinguished writers of African American literature in the twentieth-century,
captures her journey of discovering her true identity during a segregated time
period in her renown essay, "How It Feels to Be Colored Me".
Hurston describes her emotional experiences of learning to appreciate herself
despite facing discrimination from her white peers. She strongly emphasizes in
her essay to people of all different races, genders, and ethnic backgrounds
that despite being an African-American, she believes she was created to be
herself. She asserts that the color of her skin does not define her as a person
by utilizing detailed metaphors and powerful symbolism throughout her writing.
In the beginning, Hurston recounts an
anecdote from her childhood when she first lost her innocence to discrimination.
It was through this experience, however, that she began to realize her
true identity. Hurston does not express sorrow, rather pride and determination
stating, "No I do not weep at the world - I am too busy sharpening my
oyster knife" (Hurston 115). Through her powerful metaphor, the author
effectively conveys her point: discrimination will not stop her from moving
forward nor will it change her as a person. The inclusion of strong figurative
language emotionally appeals to her audience, which makes her stance even more
convincing.
To conclude her essay, Hurston also
includes symbolism with a brown bag filled with random objects in order to
reiterate her point of self acceptance. She compares herself with the brown bag to show that
if different objects from different bags were all scattered and then mixed into
her bag again, then "a bit of colored glass more or less would not
matter" (Hurston 117). Through this meaningful symbol, Hurston
reemphasizes her claim that she will not be distressed by her skin color. She
insists that the Creator perhaps intended to create all the different races and
had a meaningful purpose for each color. Hurston’s incorporation of a symbolic
metaphor at the end of the essay builds onto her passionate claim that she
established throughout the narrative and hence, does an effective job
concluding her compelling viewpoint.
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