How It Feels to be Colored Me essay pdf

How it Feels to Be Colored Me summary simply explains Zora Neale Hurston’s viewpoint on her skin color. She states that she is colored and without any apology or excuses. She also mentioned that she would not claim any Naive-American ancestry, as other African-Americans might.

When she wrote this book in the 1900s, African-Americans faced widespread racial discrimination from all individuals and institutions. Zora Neale speaks on how African-Americans exoticize their racial identities to escape this discrimination. Nevertheless, Zora chose to face her fears instead of running away from them. This essay was published in May 1928 as an autobiographical piece.

How It Feels to Be Colored starts with Zora Neale stating she is colored and not ashamed to admit that. She also talks about the first time she felt color. It was the period she moved to Jacksonville at the age of thirteen and suffered a chronic loss of identity. She suddenly became an impulsive, colored girl constantly being watched and scolded.

Before that, she grew up in Eatonville, Florida, a predominantly black neighborhood. She only saw white people occasionally pass on their way to Orlando and would curiously come out of her porch to watch them pass by. She didn’t distinguish between white and colored people as a young girl until she got into college.

How it Feels to Be Colored Me Characters

Zora Neale Hurston: The main protagonist of the story. She describes herself in various stages of her life. From a young girl who stepped out her porch to watch white tourists drive around her neighborhood to a teenager encountering hate and discrimination for the first time.

At the time of writing, Zora had grown into a thoughtful and confident young woman who was convinced that her skin color would not stop her from achieving her dreams.

The White Neighbor: This abstract form stands for every white person she encounters through the period of this story and dares we say for White America as a whole. Zora Neale uses the white neighbor as a symbol of American racial history and how it relates to her.

The White Friend: This is another symbol Zora Neale used to describe the wide berth between her and her white friends. How concepts such as food or music mean different things to different races.

How it Feels to Be Colored Me Quotes

Racial indiscrimination is a pretty powerful topic, even in our modern society today. What Zora Neale has done in this book is commendable and shows how much power you have in your skin and that nothing can stop you unless you give it a chance. Here are some quotes to mull over.

Zora Neale Hurston: “I am colored, but I offer nothing in the way of extenuating circumstances except that I am the only Negro in the United States whose grandfather on the mother’s side was not an Indian chief.”

Zora Neale Hurston: “They liked to hear me “speak pieces” and sing and wanted to see me dance the parse-me-la, and gave me generously of their small silver for doing these things, which seemed strange to me for I wanted to do them so much that I needed bribing to stop, only they didn’t know it. The colored people gave no dimes. They deplored my joyful tendencies, but I was their Zora nevertheless.”

Zora Neale Hurston: “Music. The great blobs of purple and red emotion have not touched him. He has only heard what I felt. He is far away, and I see him but dimly across the ocean and the continent that has fallen between us. He is so pale with his whiteness, and I am so colored.”

Essay Structure on How It Feels to Be Colored Me

A concept as critical as this will surely be adopted by colleges and high schools as a learning tool for students. When you’re given the assignment to analyze and write essays on How It Feels to be Colored Me, here is a standard outline to follow:

Introduction

This is the introductory section of your article, where you have one paragraph to state your ideas and viewpoint. How It Feels to be Colored comprises several themes like race and differences, creative performances and acceptance, or the history and opportunity available to colored people.

Make sure you introduce a hook in the first sentence whatever title you choose. It could be in the form of questions or thoughtful quotes like any of the options listed above. Doing this grabs the reader’s attention at first glance and keeps them curious and attentive for the entire essay.

Body

In the body of your How it Feels to be Colored Me Essay, the reader needs to see facts and evidence to support your thesis statement. The standard essay length is five paragraphs, including the introduction, three body paragraphs, and the conclusion.

Here, you will have to do a lot of research and the How It Feels To Be Colored Me analysis to present only factual points. Remember to separate each point into its paragraph for smooth readability.

Conclusion

Almost every student treats their conclusion lightly during essay assignments. Their introduction and body is packed with all the right words and information, but the conclusion isn’t given the same attention to detail. This is not the right approach to getting a great score.

A strong conclusion must restate the thesis, highlight all the necessary details of the assignment, and form a personal connection.

6 Tips to Consider While Writing An essay about How It Feels to Be Colored Me

Writing a detailed How It Feels To Be Colored Me analysis requires much work. Asides from adequate research, there are essential tips you need to know to plan the best essay effectively. Here are a few notable ones:

Read the Book

Before you start your How It Feels To Be Colored Me analysis, ensure you read the book first. There is only so much you can do without first-hand knowledge of the book. Fortunately, it is not a long read, and you will be done in minutes.

Examine the Topic

Whenever you are given a How It Feels to Be Colored Me topic for an essay, the first step is to ensure you understand the topic. Usually, essay topics are given to address pertinent questions on a particular topic, which in this case is the How It Feels To Be Colored Me book.

Before you start writing, make sure you analyze and understand the question. This will give you insight into how to tackle the topic and do your research.

Use a Proper Format

After examining the topic and doing adequate research, you probably have a lot of ideas running through your head, eager to be written down. However, to avoid the rush, properly format your article into three parts: introduction, body, and conclusion.

For the introduction, ensure you put a hook. It could be a question or quote, but make it interesting. Your next inclusion should be the thesis statement. This is usually in the last sentences of the introduction.

Write a Draft

When working on your essay the first time, you can write without restrictions and pour down the ideas as they come to your head. This happens, especially for a topic, you find very interesting. However, after the first draft, write a second or final draft.

We always advise students never to submit their first draft because it’s not always a good idea. Go through the draft, cancel out the ambiguous or redundant statements, then rewrite the essay a second time.

Organize your Work

If your work is not organized, no one will read it. Remember you are writing a How It Feels to be Colored Me analysis for school; you want to write in a way that will prompt the reader to read to the end.

If your essay is composed of big blocks of text, it will be unreadable for anyone, let alone someone who will grade your work. After formatting your essay into the introduction, body, and conclusion, check to ensure your paragraphs are no longer than three sentences. When your essay is evenly spaced, reading will be easy.

Include a Moral

There are so many morals to be recorded when it comes to How It Feels to Be Colored Me. At the end of your essay, you can include one or two emotional lessons that would make people develop an instant connection to your writing. A book like How It Feels to Be Colored Me could teach a lesson on how to embrace your skin, and shine, regardless of other people’s opinions about you.

Conclusion: Proofread your Work

No one is above mistakes. It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve rewritten the same essay draft; make sure you properly edit and check for grammatical errors before you forward it for submission. Nothing kills an essay faster than spelling errors and plagiarism, so be sure to cross-check until it’s perfect.

If you don’t have enough time to devote to writing your How It Feels to Be Colored Me essay, you can send us a message and get the completed PDF file before the deadline. We are an academic platform that offers writing assistance to students across the world. 

FAQs

How does it feel to be Colored Me summary?

This short essay is about Zora Neale Hurston and her life as a colored girl in a white country. She talks about her childhood and how she grew from a naive child to a teen scared of being judged and scolded for her complexion.

How does it feel to be colored by Me quotes?

We have mentioned a few memorable quotes in the paragraph above, but there are still many more to note when you read the book. One of our favorite ones is “I am colored, but I offer nothing in the way of extenuating circumstances except that I am the only Negro in the United States whose grandfather on the mother’s side was not an Indian chief.”

What is the metaphor in How It Feels to Be Colored Me Bag?

Zora Neale introduces bags as a symbol of her experience and thoughts about race. She mentioned brown, white, red, and yellow bags as a representation of skin color. 

What is the main idea of the essay How It Feels to Be Colored Me?

How does it feel to be colored Me Zora Neale Hurston?

What literary devices are used in How It Feels to Be Colored Me?

How It Feels to Be Colored Me but I am not tragically colored?