Zora Hurston How It Feels To Be Colored Me Analysis

In Zora Hurston’s essay, “How It Feels to Be Colored Me,” she discusses numerous ways of how she perceives her race. During the Harlem Renaissance, 1920s, many different writers and artists expressed their race differently. Of the many different theorists, two emerged and became very prominent to the new movement of black representation, the two being Langston Hughes and W.E.B. Du Bois. Zora Hurston in this essay tells the reader that she is herself throughout her whole life and does not try to change to fit in. This way of thinking best resonates with Hughes argument of black representation because he believed in expressing yourself. However, W.E.B Du Bois would find this particular argument very troubling for many reasons, such as his theory
of the “talented tenth” because Zora has no particular motivation to pursue higher education and politics. Throughout the essay, Zora proves the point that she seems to believe the same thing as Hughes instead of Du Bois because she does not try to live up to the standards of the whites. Langston Hughes, one of the most famous black poets of the Harlem Renaissance, would absolutely applaud Zora Hurston’s essay for the reason that she is authentic. In Hurston’s own words, “I have no race, I am me,” (Hurston 829) gives a very good description of how she feels about herself. All throughout the essay she tells the reader of how she is living how she wants too. However, one of the biggest differences she feels between races comes from when she is in the jazz club. After feeling the music inside her, which brings out an animalistic feature, she looks at a white man next to her and states to the reader that he “only heard what I felt”(Hurston 828) and goes on to show the discrepancies as “he is so pale…I am so colored”(Hurston 829). Race plays an important part in the 1920s and Hughes theorizes that a black man/women should be themselves and embrace there race. In this episode in the essay, Hurston portrays he differences but also how she embraces the differences, she realizes them and does not try to hide them. Between Hurston and Hughes many things in this essay can be compared but the most prominent example is the Jazz club scene. However the founder of the NAACP, W.E.B Du Bois, would find this essay to be very troubling.
Preaching about the advancement of colored people through education and politics, Du Bois would cringes at this very essay because it contradicts everything he believes in. Hurston states that she does not “weep at the world,” but rather she is “too busy sharpening my oyster knife” (Hurston 827). This description implies that she rather than weep and think about the way the world is she would rather just do work and not over think it. This contradicts Du Bois because he believes that education and reflection are the way blacks will advance, whereas Hurston just lives with it and continues to work. This sort of attitude can be compared to Booker T. Washington, which Du Bois had disagreements with as well. Also, another example where Dubois would disagree with Hurston is when she is discusses how “exciting” it is “to hold the center of the national stage.”(Hurston 827) Hurston tell the reader that likes it because the “spectators” don’t know “weather to laugh or to weep.”(Hurston 827) The reason this is different from Du Bois is because he believes if you are center stage or a piece of art you are supposed to advance colored people through propaganda. The way Hurston describes holding the stage shows he thoughtlessness when it comes to how she is perceived. This is shown how she takes excitement for the crowd’s unpredicted response. Du Bois would be ashamed because he believes everything a black artists does is propaganda to make black become more equal to whites and Hurston’s carelessness would disregard his
theory. In conclusion, Hurston in this short essay puts a lot of different ways she feels how it is to be colored. Throughout the essay it is more and more apparent that Hughes would become a fan of hers and Du Bois would oppose this piece. The differences between the old and new generation cause a tremendous bit of turmoil in the 1920s. “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” is a perfect example of the new way of thinking that most African-Americans apart of the new generation feel. While Hughes arguments were supported with this essay, Du Bois’s were not, in turn causing this essay to be symbolic of the new generation of thinking in the Harlem Renaissance.