How It Feels to Be Colored Me by Zora Neale Hurston

Glass Beach by Christopher Jobson

Zora Neale Hurston’s essay, How It Feels to Be Colored Me, provides an interesting insight into her unique mindset about being “colored.” Hurston was a renowned author who wrote African-American literature in the twentieth century. This particular essay was published in 1928, at a time when segregation was still prevalent between African-American and white people. As a result, this essay seems to be directed towards the American society and suggests Hurston’s view of equality between people of different races. Hurston writes, “A bit of colored glass more or less would not matter. Perhaps that is how the Great Stuffer of Bags filled them in the first place--who knows?” (4). Hurston uses a child-like tone when referring to “the Great Stuffer of Bags,” which demonstrates her opinion that segregation is an immature action. This quote seeks to make the reader feel foolish when Hurston uses glass in bags to symbolize society and the lack of importance of the glasses’ colors (similar to the lack of importance of people’s colors). Hurston includes multiple other objects in her figurative bag as symbols for different aspects of life, as well as personal anecdotes about her life. These anecdotes strive to create a stronger connection between Hurston and the reader on a more personal level, which helps to more easily portray to the reader the triviality of skin color. Additionally, Hurston aims at making a connection with her audience in the beginning of her essay when she says, “I am colored but I offer nothing in the way of extenuating circumstances except the fact that I am the only Negro in the United States whose grandfather on the mother’s side was not an Indian chief” (1). By saying this, Hurston is explaining that she is an ordinary American, just like her reader, and there is nothing special or different about her. By making these connections with her audience through the usage of personal anecdotes and by explaining her average life, Hurston is able to accomplish her purpose of explaining the importance of equality between races. Through these connections, Hurston is able to reach her audience’s emotions and cause them to agree with her opinion on equality. Furthermore, her simplistic symbolism of items as pieces of society give the reader perspective on the childishness of segregation.