Hurston
In this essay, Zora Naele Hurston discusses what it feels like to be black in a black community and black in a white community. She discusses how she does not care when people discriminate against her, nor does she care about the history of slaves. She believes that this is a new era and she should not have to dwell on the suffering of her ancestors, for they gave way to the life she lives now.
One thing that I thought was interesting was how she separated her character in the black community from her character in the white community. When she is in her natural state, she is Zora. When she is exposed to anything that reminds her of her childhood and all the dancing and singing she did, she becomes Zora. However, when she comes back to reality and sees that not everyone is effected by the jazz music like she is, she feels very colored. Also when she is amongst thousands of white people, she feels separated and colored. She says "I do not always feel colored. Even now I often achieve the unconscious Zora of Eatonville before the Hegira. I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background," such as the sea of white people by the lake. This was not always the case, however, because when she was a girl in Eatonville the only difference between whites and black was that whites passed through the town and blacks lived in the town. When she moved and was integrated with white people she started noting the difference. In one section she compares herself and everyone else to bags against the wall in that we all have basically the same stuff inside our "bags." After you empty the bag you may realize that even though the bag in your hand is brown it contains the exact same material as the yellow bag, or the white bag. This is an amazing comparison in which she points out that everyone is the same no matter what color they are, and I feel that we need to realize that we are really all the same.
However, I do have a question. She acts as though the change from being a person to being a colored person when she relocated was nothing but a little change in scenery. How did she adapt to such a different environment so quickly? Did she really adjust as fast as she leads us to believe?
One thing that I thought was interesting was how she separated her character in the black community from her character in the white community. When she is in her natural state, she is Zora. When she is exposed to anything that reminds her of her childhood and all the dancing and singing she did, she becomes Zora. However, when she comes back to reality and sees that not everyone is effected by the jazz music like she is, she feels very colored. Also when she is amongst thousands of white people, she feels separated and colored. She says "I do not always feel colored. Even now I often achieve the unconscious Zora of Eatonville before the Hegira. I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background," such as the sea of white people by the lake. This was not always the case, however, because when she was a girl in Eatonville the only difference between whites and black was that whites passed through the town and blacks lived in the town. When she moved and was integrated with white people she started noting the difference. In one section she compares herself and everyone else to bags against the wall in that we all have basically the same stuff inside our "bags." After you empty the bag you may realize that even though the bag in your hand is brown it contains the exact same material as the yellow bag, or the white bag. This is an amazing comparison in which she points out that everyone is the same no matter what color they are, and I feel that we need to realize that we are really all the same.
However, I do have a question. She acts as though the change from being a person to being a colored person when she relocated was nothing but a little change in scenery. How did she adapt to such a different environment so quickly? Did she really adjust as fast as she leads us to believe?
posted by Lesley at 1:28 PM
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