In her essay, “How It Feels to Be Colored Me,” Zora Neale Hurston recounts her experience of becoming a “colored” woman in a segregated society. She begins the essay by asserting her racial identity and her lack of circumstances that justify her skin color. She says that the only thing that makes her special is the fact that she is the only black woman in the United States who did not have a maternal grandfather who was not an Indian chief.
Hurston then describes her life in the Negro town of Eatonville, Florida. She notes that white people passed through the town but never lived there. She describes watching them from her favorite vantage point, the top of the gate. Hurston notes she was the first “welcome to our state” Florida resident (Hurston 3). Hurston says that to her, white people were different from colored people only in that they went through town and never lived there.
She notes that white people loved to listen to her “speak pieces” and gave her money, while colored people did not appreciate her cheerful mood (Hurston 4). Hurston also talks about the difference between her and her white neighbors. She says that she never has to sit next to a “brown specter” when she sits down to eat and that the game of saving what you have is never as exciting as the game of getting (Hurston 8).
Hurston’s essay clarifies her beliefs by detailing her experience of growing up as a “colored” woman in a segregated society. Crucially, she discusses how she ultimately accepts her race while refusing to let it limit or define her life. She talks about her strength and independence and how she doesn’t cry over the world but gets busy doing her own thing. Her essay also shows that she does not feel tragically colored and that her color does not define her life.
Specific words from her essay that reflect her ideology include, “No, I do not weep at the world—I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife” and “Slavery is the price I paid for civilization, and the choice was not with me. It is a bully adventure and worth all that I have paid through my ancestors for it” (Hurston 6, 7). These words show that she is not lamenting over her past but believes she has been given an excellent chance for glory.
Work Cited
Hurston, Zora Neale. How It Feels to Be Colored Me. Applewood Books, 2015.