Zora Neale Hurston, a known American novelist, speaks about her life in the sense of how she is independent of her race yet still
connected to it. Being a major part of the Harlem Renaissance, Hurston wrote
the piece to convey the individuality in her dark-skinned self as well as point
out the fact that, despite differing skin tones, we are all human inside. She
wrote for the rest of the black community with the intention of letting others
feel self-pride in their own ways as well.
In this essay, Hurston expressed her feelings towards race while growing up. Going into school as a child never made her look back on her identity in a negative light despite being surrounded by lighter-skinned citizens with that exact goal in mind. They wanted her to feel shame, but she never found a reason to fall into despair when the slavery her ancestors were subjected to had ended a long time ago for her. Despite knowing that many people wanted her to feel ‘colored’ in society, Hurston points out that she never felt ‘colored’ unless she was put in a large majority of the contrasting skin tone and vice versa if only for the idea of being the odd one out in regards to appearance.
Hurston’s juxtaposition of certain phrases and use of rhetorical devices such as sarcasm and somewhat elaborate metaphors or analogies was what really enforced her ideas. Her use of sarcasm in one line caught my attention. She wrote, “Someone is always at my elbow reminding me that I am the grand-daughter of slaves. It fails to register depression with me. Slavery is sixty years in the past. The operation was successful and the patient is doing well, thank you (Hurston 115). The dismissive attitude towards being “tragically colored”, as she put it, amazed me in an admirable manner. Even if her grandparents did not share the same social status as the whites, she was still human either way and should not have to look back on those events to let it define her as a person. Her bag analogy of all the different races also drove home the argument of everyone being human despite their skin color. She wrote, "But in the main, I feel like a brown bag of miscellany propped against a wall. Against a wall in company with other bags, white, red and yellow" (Hurlston 117). Hurlston continued on to explain that, even if a person were to empty out all the bags into a pile and randomly refill them, their contents would not change much at all. The bags would all still contain the same sorts of junk. With these kinds of comparisons that are easy to visualize, Hurston was able to successfully make her point to the audience.
In this essay, Hurston expressed her feelings towards race while growing up. Going into school as a child never made her look back on her identity in a negative light despite being surrounded by lighter-skinned citizens with that exact goal in mind. They wanted her to feel shame, but she never found a reason to fall into despair when the slavery her ancestors were subjected to had ended a long time ago for her. Despite knowing that many people wanted her to feel ‘colored’ in society, Hurston points out that she never felt ‘colored’ unless she was put in a large majority of the contrasting skin tone and vice versa if only for the idea of being the odd one out in regards to appearance.
Hurston’s juxtaposition of certain phrases and use of rhetorical devices such as sarcasm and somewhat elaborate metaphors or analogies was what really enforced her ideas. Her use of sarcasm in one line caught my attention. She wrote, “Someone is always at my elbow reminding me that I am the grand-daughter of slaves. It fails to register depression with me. Slavery is sixty years in the past. The operation was successful and the patient is doing well, thank you (Hurston 115). The dismissive attitude towards being “tragically colored”, as she put it, amazed me in an admirable manner. Even if her grandparents did not share the same social status as the whites, she was still human either way and should not have to look back on those events to let it define her as a person. Her bag analogy of all the different races also drove home the argument of everyone being human despite their skin color. She wrote, "But in the main, I feel like a brown bag of miscellany propped against a wall. Against a wall in company with other bags, white, red and yellow" (Hurlston 117). Hurlston continued on to explain that, even if a person were to empty out all the bags into a pile and randomly refill them, their contents would not change much at all. The bags would all still contain the same sorts of junk. With these kinds of comparisons that are easy to visualize, Hurston was able to successfully make her point to the audience.
Bibliography
History.com Staff. "Harlem Renaissance." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2009. Web. 26 Aug. 2016.
Even if our tones are different, the skin is all made the same.
source: georgemagar.deviantart.com
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