How It Feels To Be Colored Me Analysis

In Hurston’s essay, “How It Feels to Be Colored Me,” the tone shifts as the author describes her life in Eatonville, Jacksonville, and New York. Initially, the tone is lighthearted and humorous when Hurston speaks about her childhood in Eatonville. At this time, Hurston is not aware of all the discrimination that African Americans face. In fact, “white people differed from colored to [Hurston] only in that they rode through town and never lived there” (Hurston). However, the tone shifts from welcoming and playful to self-aware when the author turns thirteen and moves to Jacksonville for school. During her time at her new school, Hurston realizes that she is no longer “Zora of Orange County,” rather, “[she] was now a little colored girl” (Hurston). …show more content…
One example of this use of metaphor is “I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife” (Hurston). In the preceding example, Hurston does not wish to squander her time being self-pitying and pessimistic about the discrimination. Instead, she sees the world as being filled with opportunities for her take advantage of even though she is colored. Another example of a metaphor can be seen when the author compares herself to “a brown bag of miscellany propped against a wall” (Hurston). The author continues this metaphor by noting that her brown bag is alongside white, red, and yellow bags. “Pour out the contents, and there is discovered a jumble of small things priceless and worthless. . . . so much like the jumble in the bags, could they be emptied, that all might be dumped in a single heap and the bags refilled without altering the content of any greatly. A bit of colored glass more or less would not matter” (Hurston). In this example, the color of the bags does not matter, as the contents of the bags are fundamentally the same. Therefore, the above metaphors contribute to the theme of the essay, as the metaphors highlight that human beings are the same, regardless of how dark or light their skin

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