"How It Feels to Be Colored Me"

“How It Feels to Be Colored Me” Zora Neale Hurston, 1928

 
Growing up in the early twentieth century as a ‘colored’ girl, Zora Neale Hurston describes in her essay “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” how her race has affected her life. Hurston grew up in the notoriously racist south, but at first had no exposure to any discrimination due to living in an all black area. After moving to a much larger, more mixed community in Jacksonville Florida, Hurston truly feels ‘colored’ for the first time. She remembers,“ It seemed that I had suffered a sea of change. I was not Zora of Orange County anymore, I was now a little colored girl” (Hurston 115). This awakening, however, did not discourage Hurston from being any less than she knew she could be. She clearly proclaims, “I am not tragically colored... I do not mind at all. I do not belong to the sobbing school of Negrohood who hold that nature has somehow given them a low-down dirty deal and whose feelings are all hurt about it” (Hurston 115). The strong language she employs and straight to the point punctuation style she uses emphasises the power of her statement: she is not ashamed of her color and will not let it, or the way others feel about it, change the way she lives her life. Hurston’s strong convictions speak to anyone who feels society judges them, either by their appearance or their beliefs. To those who still dwell on slavery and refuse to look beyond the struggles of their ancestors Hurston says, “Slavery is sixty years in the past. The operation was successful and the patient is doing well, thank you” (Hurston 115). She uses curt sentences and vivid metaphors to urge the reader to move on, as she has, and look at what life has given you rather than what it has not. Through the use of strong wording, deliberate syntax, and stirring metaphors, Hurston’s passionate essay effortlessly communicates her message to not let anything define who you are.

"Zora Neale Hurston" by Leed's Post Cards

"Once More to the Lake"

"Once More to the Lake" E.B. White, 1941

A bittersweet mix of old memories and new experiences, E.B. White recalls the time he took his son back to the lake where he spent his summers as a child. In “Once More to the Lake”, White is able to compose a story that crosses the barriers of time by betraying a rural setting through the eyes of a child, much like his famous book Charlotte's Web. When White returns to his childhood haunt as an adult, it is his wish to share all the joy he had at the lake with his son. He sees so much of himself in his son that while they are fishing, he remembers “I felt dizzy and didn’t know which rod I was at the end of” (White 181). Despite being absent from the lake for many years, White immediately feels right at home and remembers everything about the place as if he only left yesterday. This gives a mystical, nostalgic feel to the short tale, sending the message that some things will always have a place in your heart and in your memory: time makes no difference in the feelings one harbors for something special. For any adult who longs for their childhood happiness, they can still get back that feeling by revisiting their memories. The reader can feel the author’s love for the lake as well as the beauty of the nature there through White’s use of imagery. He describes the lake as a “constant and trustworthy body of water. In the shallows, the dark, water-soaked sticks and twigs, smooth and old, were undulating in clusters on the bottom against the clean ribbed sand... There had been no years” (White 181). By going into such deep description, the scene becomes deeply significant in communicating the message that the narrator wants to go back in time. Such language allows the reader to feel the pull and comforting familiarity of past memories, and will surely remind them of their own dreams of long ago.

"Silhouette of Father and Five-Year-Old Son Fishing" by Kevin Beebe

"The Handicapped"

"The Handicapped" Randolph Bourne, 1911

 
  Randolph Bourne, born in 1886, was disfigured at birth and became further disabled after tuberculosis of the spine left his back twisted and stunted at a young age. His struggles to live with what life threw at him are documented in his essay “The Handicapped”. It is the story of how he fought his own insecurities as well as the prejudices of others to find happiness, becoming a man who has “come to count his deformity even as a blessing” (Bourne 68) because of the world view it gave him. Once Bourne found his true purpose in promoting his “belief in social progress as the first right and permanent interest for every truehearted man or woman” (Bourne 64), he wrote this essay to share his revelation with others. Bourne promotes the “ideal of character militant rather than long-suffering” so that those who find themselves disadvantaged in life due to circumstances out of their control can have hope. His loud and clear message proclaims that people can better their lives by consciously  choosing the way they think about themselves as well as their situation. To illustrate his rather complex philosophical points, Bourne employs rhetoric in the form of figurative language. He explains, “I want to give to the young men whom I see - who, with fine intellect and high principles, lack just that light of the future on their faces that would give them purpose and meaning in life -- to them I want to give some touch of this philosophy -- that will energize their lives, and save them from the disheartening effects of that poisonous council of timidity and distrust of human ideals which pours out in steady stream from reactionary press and pulpit” (Bourne 64), using metaphor and imagery to paint a picture of understanding for the reader. In honestly expressing how his own demons haunted him and how he overcame, Bourne’s essay causes the reader to turn inward to their own lives to see how they can achieve the sense of purpose that so powerfully drives him.

"Barriers Falling" by Bigstock