Tag Archives: Zora Neale Hurston

Colored

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The writers, Zora Neale Hurston and Frantz Fanon, describe the consciousness of the black subject in a world of white power. They both shared information about racial barriers with sympathetic readers who wish to tolerate differences. For Hurston recounted her experience as a black woman in her essay “How it feels to be colored me.” She came from a completely isolated community of color, which makes her unable to understand that not everyone in the world is treated the same. At the age of her thirteenth she gradually became aware of her color as “It is exclusively a colored town” (1928). But she tried to accept her identity, not her black complexion. According to Hurston she thought that being black will not have any influence on her as “BUT I AM NOT tragically colored […] do not mind at all.” She believed that this world is suitable for people who have strong abilities, embrace their lives and value their skin colors. She even believed that race is not a basic characteristic that people are born with but appears in a specific social environment. Hurston included that she didn’t have time to sad about her blackness as “No, I do not weep at the world- I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife.” She meant that she was so busy in pursuing her happiness and positive life.

For Fanon also related to his experience of being black in his essay “The fact of blackness.” He mentioned at the beginning of the essay as “I turned beseechingly to others. Their attention was liberation, running over my body suddenly abraded into nonbeing” which showed the statement of his nonexistence because of the environmental discrimination. He argued that black have experienced as their beings were seen by others instead of themselves. Fanon desires is to discover his own identity, strength and existence, so as to become his true identity. According to Fanon, “I sit down at the fire and I become aware of my uniform. I had not seen it. It is indeed ugly. I stop there, for who can tell me what beauty is.” He is desperately trying to find some framework to understand himself. All he has to do is to become a person who belongs to the world and can help the whole person as he grows. As the critical examination of Farnon is the psychological influence of racism, especially the influence of colonial subjects. However, Hurston analyzed for deep-rooted colorism and quality skin in the African American community. Everything she proved to be white power and repression of blacks.

Although these two authors are talking about the racism for people with colored, but I can feel empathy to the characters’ feeling. When I first came to the US, I know that I have to start living in a diverse society with different color of people, but I didn’t think any more about it and even forget about the racial different. But now, as the COVID-19 occurs, I am started aware of how society views on my race as Asian especially Chinese. In the article, Hurston perfectly states about the complex sense and feeling of individual when people become aware of their race. Instead of people are fighting against each other based on their skin color or race, should unite together and fight against all difficulties including the pandemic.

Individuality and Marginality

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“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,” ~ Hurston 

Before I begin, I like to say this was an enjoyable read. The passage is brimming with personality that is filled with sarcastic undertones from Hurston. This feeds into the greater theme of the story of individuality that the author feels are crucial against being marginalized. Hurston is a beam of joy in a comparatively cruel time. This is not to say that she is blind to the obstacles in her path but rather enduring against them instead in a positive way. One excerpt from the passage, “Got just as much pleasure out of the tourists as the tourists got out of the village. The front porch might seem a daring place for the rest of the town, but it was a gallery seat for me” (Hurston). This is where Hurston showcases her fierce personality against the general fear that the community holds. Instead of being timid, she would rather go out and interact with strangers. Even though the strangers implored a grotesque caricature of a black child for their own humor. Hurston however does not seem to mind the strangers as they gave her money for her dances. Her own personality out shown those of her community and the strangers in an admirable way.  

As Hurston grows up, she becomes more aware of the issues that clouds over her community. Yet, she is never pulled into this dark cloud of depression as she points out. As Hurston says it best, “quite exciting to hold the center of the national stage, with the spectators not knowing whether to laugh or to weep” (Hurston). Hurston is optimistic about her future and sees her own potential in the country. That will not be overshadowed by her ancestor’s past. While others may feel depressed being ancestors of a slave, Hurston sees this as a way to prove herself and her worth. 

Yet, there are moments when Hurston feels alienated because of her color. Especially when there is a sharp contrast between her and the people around her. One scene that describes this the best is when Hurston goes to a jazz orchestra with her white friend. She wrote, “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 have fallen between us. He is so pale with his whiteness then and I am so colored” (Hurston). While this is the deepest contrast in her story between her and white people. It seems to be one overshadowed by her next paragraph. She describes a moment of no race and just a pure being. One that relates to everyone and part of only one race, the human race. She is still optimistic about the future. She sees life in a cheerful manner and at the end of the day, that’s what life should be about. 

“I am large, I contain multitudes”

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I can’t help but think of Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself, 51” when reading Hurston’s “How It Feels to be Colored Me”. There is a level of self-awareness that is not only profound, but assertive. Another piece that comes to mind is “Do Not Stand at My Gave and Weep”, by Mary Elizabeth Frye. What these three pieces have in common is their absolute certainty of self. There is no hesitation, no bargaining. Every author is adamant about their identity and refuses to budge. What that means for Hurston is not giving up her sense of self to a label. While she recognizes that it is an inherent part of her, she will not simplify her identity to being “just black”. Hurston is “a brown bag of miscellany propped against a wall”, full of “a jumble of small, things priceless and worthless” (Hurston). In fact, we all are, according to her. 

Despite her rejection of the label, Hurston is not actively denying her blackness. She embraces it. But embracing it for her means something entirely different than it does for another author like Du Bois. 

“No, I do not weep at the world–I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife.” 

Hurston recognizes the strides that society has made before, and in, her time. She does not lament over the cruel past, but rather uses it as a starting ground for her progress. Whether that progress is personal, or that of her generation, she doesn’t specify. But she’s using it to her advantage nonetheless. There has never been “a greater chance for glory” in her mind, because there’s nothing to lose. When you start at the bottom, you can only progress upwards. She will use her blackness as both a springboard and tool to achieve greatness. 

The assertiveness of her complexity, as previously stated, heavily resonates with “Song of Myself 51”. In it, Whitman acknowledges that parts of himself might contradict one another, but that’s okay. It’s just who he is, and he will not change that. If the “miscellany”, as Hurston calls it, that makes him up doesn’t make sense, it’s just as well. Hurston speaks in a similar vein. Again, she is not separating herself from her blackness, but is determined to let us know that it is not the only thing that makes her up. From the little girl in Eatonville to “the cosmic Zora”, she too, contains multitudes. 

As a queer person, all this resonates with me. Often you forget you are othered, that you are different. You very much view yourself as “a brown bag of miscellany propped against a wall”. You are the sum of your parts rather than one piece at a time. But at the same time, when you are aware of how society views you, you’re determined to use it to your advantage. Hurston perfectly captures the feeling of having a complex sense of self as an oppressed individual. Often quoted in the queer community is Frye’s poem, usually in the context of former states of identity.  

“Do not stand at my grave and cry;
I am not there. I did not die.” 

Similar to Hurston’s experience, we are not denying who we were or are. We recognize the disconnect from those parts of ourselves but embrace it all the same, because it’s a part of our “multitudes”. We did not die when we came into ourselves. We have always been who we are. We may get lost in the intricacies of identity, but that should not erase our complexity. And, in Hurston’s words, “When covered by the waters, I am; and the ebb but reveals me again.”.

Walt Whitman Song of Myself 51

How She Feels

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In the excerpt from the book Nature, Ralph Waldo Emerson advocates for the abandonment of social constructions and institutions as a step towards reconnecting with reality as individuals. He proposes that individuals should detach themselves from the unnatural world of sciences and books, which have led to the development of industrialization and capitalism, in order to reveal their ability to truly see nature in the way of the poet. This poet is able to become the “transparent eye-ball” which possess the power to see fragments with clarity by renouncing its contrived identity (4).

Zora Neale Hurston in “How it Feels to be Colored Me” applies Emerson’s philosophy to her own life and demonstrates her success in denying the preconceptions that are held by society in order to reveal her true self which she calls “the unconscious Zora of Eatonville” (3) although she admits that she can only be this Zora “at certain times” (4). She denotes a constraint in Emerson’s argument as she emphasizes that her ability to become and feel enlightened is only temporary and therefore limited.

W.E.B. Du Bois emphasizes in the excerpt from The Souls of Black Folk the limitations he experiences with Emerson’s idealized philosophy. He introduces the concept of “double consciousness” and his inability to isolate how one views oneself from how others view oneself because of his desire to live within society (5). Du Bois hopes to be appreciated by society and desires comfort with his identity regardless of his race or skin color.

While Du Bois proposes that this feeling of comfort will transpire from social equality, Emerson believes that equality can only be achieved by reconnecting with nature and denying society entirely. Hurston on the other hand recognizes her ability to alternate between the two opposite states when desired and implies that comfort can be achieved through a matter of choice. Her ability to choose whether to ignore her preconceived identity is enough to bring her comfort and empower herself on an everyday basis. Although Hurston may also hope for social equality in the future as does Du Bois, she has found a way to live in a way that is comfortable to her until Du Bois’ ideal may be fulfilled through the utilization of Emerson’s transcendentalist philosophy. Hurston’s more optimistic approach to her situation neither neglects either of the two arguments and instead is able to provide her with the ability to decide how she feels and recognize her ability to change it.

Reflections

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In his essay Nature, Ralph Waldo Emerson describes how humans have lost contact with nature and the importance of reconnecting with it in order to better understand themselves. Throughout the piece, he draws on transcendentalist ideology to prove his point, emphasizing the divine aspects of nature that “few adult persons” can see. Furthermore, he stresses the failure of science to identify a “theory of nature” and says that past attempts to do so have only resulted in further division and hatred amongst the human population. The crux of his argument is the idea that by immersing himself in nature, he is able to transcend  “mean egotism”, shedding societal values, preconceived notions, desires, identity, gender, race, nationality, and class in order to become one with nature. He takes the form of a “transparent eye-ball” and is able to see and understand all without being seen. He is above racial, religious, and other man-made distinctions.

Whereas Emerson is empowered by sight when he becomes a “transparent eye-ball”, many African American writers from this period and afterward seem to be burdened by sight — both in the ways that they are seen by other (especially white) people and in the ways they have started to view themselves as a result. They are seen as “object[s]” (Fanon, 257), as savages (Fanon, 261), as intellectually inferior (DuBois), or as pitiable (Hurston). Many of them describe the weight of having to exist on two or three different planes, of existing both as their true selves and as a black person in a racist society. Despite differences in the ways they describe and think about this issue, discrimination does contribute to the sense that they are being held back from reaching their fullest potential. In Fanon’s words “I am a master and I am advised to adopt the humility of the cripple (265), or, as Hurston sarcastically puts it, “It is thrilling to think–to know that for any act of mine, I shall get twice as much praise or twice as much blame. It is quite exciting to hold the center of the national stage, with the spectators not knowing whether to laugh or to weep.” (Hurston) Moreover, they are hurt by the internalization of these messages by themselves and by other black people. Fanon describes being rejected by other black people as they make efforts to assimilate or even become white, not wanting their efforts to be tainted by him. Even Hurston, who claims to “have no separate feeling about being an American citizen and colored” admits to feeling the effects of discrimination and of being seen as a race before being seen as an individual.

For these authors, empowerment then is found not in seeing, but in learning to unsee themselves in the narrative that has been forced upon them as black Americans. For DuBois and Fanon, that means discussing the limitations that have been systematically placed on black people and actively working to counteract them. For Hurston, it means shedding race entirely and refusing what she perceives to be sympathy over the slavery that her ancestors endured. However, for all of them, it means persevering, being successful, and proving racist Americans wrong through their success.

Emerson’s ability to become a “translucent eyeball”, despite his insistence that doing so extinguishes such distinctions as “master [and] servant”, is an ability largely and unwittingly based in his own privilege. It’s not that these types of experiences are inherently exclusive, but that it is easier for Emerson to shed his identity and ignore the tensions surrounding race relations in the United States as a person who is not only exempt from racial discrimination but benefits from it. Whereas Emerson and Hurston (in different ways) seem ready to move past the issue of race in the United States, for many people, such as Fanon and Dubois, examining race is key to achieving the type of understanding that Emerson seems to be seeking.