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littledumpling's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
vani_cloudy's review
5.0
I was amazed by her words and how she portraits her childhood, her spirit, her views and perspectives on the world, on discrimination and racism. Zora Neal Hurston is truly an unique, free and charismatic individual being, who is loved by everyone.
Her essay “How It Feels to be Colored Me” really shows us that we can totally be recognized as different, but not because of and should not because of the skin of our color, or our origin, or the past that our ancestors have been through. No, we are different because we are ourselves, we love and live and feel all unique and differently.
Her essay “How It Feels to be Colored Me” really shows us that we can totally be recognized as different, but not because of and should not because of the skin of our color, or our origin, or the past that our ancestors have been through. No, we are different because we are ourselves, we love and live and feel all unique and differently.
jayceebond's review
5.0
"Sometimes, I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It's beyond me."
That entire piece was great.
That entire piece was great.
christinemark's review
4.0
Much like the character in Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston didn’t realize the difference in the colour of her skin until her early teens. Or rather she wasn’t forced to make a difference. She liked to watch people and talk to them, which wasn’t encouraged by anyone in her family. Nevertheless, she liked to interact with them and the passer-by’s liked to interact with her, which was one of the reasons why she later on decided to study anthropology.
She was forced to realize/see that she was different when she started school in Jacksonville. From a talented bright little girl became just a brown little girl and no one paid her any more attention, but she didn’t let that discourage her. She took things as they were and saw no reason to be miserable because of it, or pay it any mind. It was just the way things were. But she didn’t like when someone was constantly reminding her that she was the “granddaughter or slaves”. “The terrible struggle that made me an American out of a potential slave said "On the line!" The Reconstruction said "Get set!" and the generation before said "Go!" I am off to a flying start and I must not halt in the stretch to look behind and weep.” She wanted to get most of the things she could get. She saw that as an opportunity and almost as a privilege, as “The world to be won and nothing to be lost.”
She doesn’t really talk about the struggle the other black people were talking about experiencing, and it was probably because of that that she didn’t feel the need to participate in the protests and such. She talks about how she felt herself coloured the most when she was “thrown against white background”, and she describes this through jazz music. She feels all the emotions in that music: anger, sadness, happiness, all at ones. But the white people don’t, and that’s when she feels the difference between her experience and theirs. “I have no separate feeling about being an American citizen and coloured. I am merely a fragment of the Great Soul that surges within the boundaries. My country, right or wrong.” “Sometimes, I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It's beyond me.”
It may be that studying anthropology, studying and seeing all those different cultures made her proud of her own. And made her sure of herself and love herself, because it feels to me that most black people back then didn’t. And it was because she was able to love herself, she felt like all those people who oppressed black people, or any culture for that matter, were just fools to her. And it was their loss for not getting to know her, or any other coloured person, because they have so much to offer.
She was forced to realize/see that she was different when she started school in Jacksonville. From a talented bright little girl became just a brown little girl and no one paid her any more attention, but she didn’t let that discourage her. She took things as they were and saw no reason to be miserable because of it, or pay it any mind. It was just the way things were. But she didn’t like when someone was constantly reminding her that she was the “granddaughter or slaves”. “The terrible struggle that made me an American out of a potential slave said "On the line!" The Reconstruction said "Get set!" and the generation before said "Go!" I am off to a flying start and I must not halt in the stretch to look behind and weep.” She wanted to get most of the things she could get. She saw that as an opportunity and almost as a privilege, as “The world to be won and nothing to be lost.”
She doesn’t really talk about the struggle the other black people were talking about experiencing, and it was probably because of that that she didn’t feel the need to participate in the protests and such. She talks about how she felt herself coloured the most when she was “thrown against white background”, and she describes this through jazz music. She feels all the emotions in that music: anger, sadness, happiness, all at ones. But the white people don’t, and that’s when she feels the difference between her experience and theirs. “I have no separate feeling about being an American citizen and coloured. I am merely a fragment of the Great Soul that surges within the boundaries. My country, right or wrong.” “Sometimes, I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It's beyond me.”
It may be that studying anthropology, studying and seeing all those different cultures made her proud of her own. And made her sure of herself and love herself, because it feels to me that most black people back then didn’t. And it was because she was able to love herself, she felt like all those people who oppressed black people, or any culture for that matter, were just fools to her. And it was their loss for not getting to know her, or any other coloured person, because they have so much to offer.
melissanyoni's review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
3.0