How Does It Feel To Be Colored Me By Zora Neale Hurston Analysis

In Zora Neal Hurston’s “How Does It Feel To Be Colored Me” the reader could easily misunderstand what Hurston’s message is. After a quick reading the reader may understand Hurston to be saying that race doesn’t matter, isn’t important, or that she just flat out does not care about race. The reader, with this in mind, might see the thesis to be that Hurston analyzes differences in black and white culture to illustrate how race does not matter. This is easily misunderstood because Hurston’s essay contains many rhetorical and literary devices that could be missed after a quick read of her essay. I will try to have a better understanding of her essay by analyzing her piece and looking to understand these devices. Hurston’s essay has a structure that is comprised of stories mixed in with her own thoughts and claims to create her argumentative essay. She does this in five main sections beginning with her childhood. Her childhood is an important section that really sets up her understanding of race and color in the world. Next, Hurston explains that she is not “tragically colored” like the rest of the world would have her believe. Here she explains that she would much rather be black because “the game of keeping what one has is never so exciting as the game of getting.” In the next section she talks about her time a Barnard and how striking the difference was for her being black in a sea of white and seeing the role reversed. Next, she explains the times in which she feels as if she has no race and the feeling it brings her. Finally, she uses the last paragraph to make a metaphor that explains culture and people very well. These sections relate in many different ways but they relate similarly in that they build to finally get to the ending metaphor is really punctuates the piece. In those sections Hurston’s makes a few claims that further her argument. Firstly, in the section where she talks about not being “tragically colored” she claims that she does not have to be sad in order to be black. She makes it clear that it is all about the thrill of gaining things and having “twice as much praise or twice as much …show more content…
She begins building her character in the childhood section. This is where we really see her background that sets her apart from others. The fact that she grew up only around black people and saw very few white people in her younger years is most likely a main factor in the the way she views race now. She also continues to build her character by displaying her knowledge and higher education by analyzing the cultural differences between white people and black people. She establishes pathos by first in paragraphs 6 through 9 by giving these sections a prideful feel. She makes it clear that she is proud to be black and is so unapologetically. She also displays a sense of understanding when in her flashback to the New World Cabaret where she becomes very aware that things that appeal to her because of her culture may not appear the the same to someone of a different culture. Lastly, she creates a feeling of being small in the very last paragraph where she makes it clear that we as a people are all the same on the