In this excerpt of Seraph on the Suwanee, the speaker, Zora Neale Hurston, describes the Floridian town of Sawley and its inhabitants. Hurston utilizes an admirative tone while discussing the beauty of the environment and the uniqueness of it inhabitants. Hurston does this to show the positive aspects of Sawley while discussing the aspects that make it different from other locations. Through the use of devices such as enumeration, regional dialect, imagery, climax, and sentence structuring, Hurston successfully illustrates the true beauty of the town that has been influenced by the people. Ultimately, Hurston does this to show how truly different the city is than that of any other place.
In final words figurative language helps give ideas on how Hurston is allowing the stereotypes to not define her which leads to a brighter
For example, they use vivid description of words like: picturesqueness, which vividly describes in image seen in a perspective that can not be described without imagery. During this period of time, South Carolina slave movement was evident and prominent. Zora Neale Hurston was also involved in the Harlem Renaissance in correlation to the South Carolina Renaissance. Hurston not only knows but plays with the contemporary anthropological truth that you can't ever be an objective- that by in a
If asked to describe the lives of slaves and how happy the slaves were to be apart of this thing we call “slavery” what would you say? Some say that African Americans liked being slaves and it gave them a sense of being, others would beg to differ. Kenneth Stampp, Robert Fogel, Stanley Engerman, Eugene Genovese, Susan Becker and William Wheeler have their own opinions about slavery and the attitudes of American slaves. Is black the same as white? Stampp seemed to think so.
Additionally, agony was dealt with and misery happened behind the scenes of the slave’s lives, similar to Tom Robinson and the “Scottsboro Boys” in which both were African-American and how
Instead, he implores them to be more political. His goal in writing is to make people aware of the social injustices occurring. The Negro writer who seeks to function within his race as a purposeful aren has a serious responsibility. In order to do justice to his subject matter, in order to depict Negro life in all of its manifold and intricate relationships, a deep, informed, and complex consciousness is necessary; a consciousness which draws for its strength upon the fluid lore of a great people, and more this lore with concepts that move and direct the forces of history today (Wright,
Throughout the text, Hurston infers that she's optimistic about being colored. “How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company”(67)? Hurston writes that she feels discriminated against but also feels how could anyone not want to be in her presence therefor She feels optimistic about the future. Hurston recalls that “Slavery is sixty years in the past” (65).
Zora Hurston uses vivid imagery, natural diction, and several literary tools in her essay “How It Feels to Be Colored Me”. Hurston’s use of imagery, diction, and literary tools in “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” contributes to, and also compliments, the essay’s theme which is her view on life as a “colored” person. Throughout “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” Hurston carefully incorporates aspects of her African American culture in an effort to recapture her ancestral past. Hurston’s use of imagery, diction, and use of literary tools shape her essay into a piece of Harlem Renaissance work. Imagery in “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” is quite abundant.
Another example is seen in chapter 6,”But you ain’t goin’ off in all dat mess uh commonness”(Hurston,60) This quote shows that Jody is not allowing Janie to go to a communal event, which is the funeral of the mule, because he doesn’t want her to be in all of the commonness. This is hindering Janie’s independence because she is not making choices for herself, and she doesn’t do anything even though she wants to go. Being in the relationship with Jody constricts her freedom, which proves Hurston's theme.
In his essay, Coates refuses the idea of “hope” and delivers his message like a statistic report. He often uses personal anecdotes to make his messages more personal, thus enabling his readers to place themselves in the person’s shoes. Then Coates would go on and recount the gruesome or horrid mistreatment that person has gone through regardless how hurtful or painful these stories are. Furthermore, he substantiates his claims with painful statistic reports and numbers – numbers that pierces the black readers like swords. Tahiti Anyabwile in his essay “A Call for Hope in the Age of Mass Incarceration” states that “Coates fails his readership and fails to represent something vital about African Americans – his writing lacks hope”.
Shortly thereafter, escaping slavery was a possibility. Fortunately for the world, it started to become clear that those un-free were human as well. But it took too long. What’s most saddening is that during this time millions of slaves were mistreated and killed, and seen as neither free nor human solely because of the pigment of their
After Hurston heard the court ruling that schools will be desegregated , Hurston wrote that she has “no sympathy nor respect for the “tragedy of color” school of thought among us”. She felt there was no need for schools to desegregate. By saying this, it shows us Hurston was against desegregation. Therefore her goal was never for total equality for blacks and whites. She let’s this belief of hers show through in Their Eyes Were Watching God by illustrating abuse among the black community to each other.
Sophia Pruett Waples January 20th, 2017 The Liberation ‘Vacation’ During the time of slavery, African-Americans lived their day to day lives being treated as animals as they worked long hours. Their white masters felt a sense of power over them, and made the slaves feel as if they were lesser and inferior whites. Harriet Jacobs being a slave herself writes of her experiences being owned by a master and her personal anecdotes of slave masters trying to make slavery sound like the best option compared to living in poverty as a free slave.
In both story I have found a connection between how race has a direct effect on their identity. Starting off with “How it Feels to be Colored Me” by Zora Neale hurston like when she was comparing herself to "a brown bag" filled with all kinds of random things, and by comparing other people of various races to other bags similarly filled with different stuff, Hurston is basically saying that it really doesn 't matter what color we are on the outside--we 're all filled with basically the same things (the same thoughts, feelings, experiences, etc.) and that this essential similarity that transcends race is probably how we were made to be by God ("the Great Bag stuffer "). Basically, then, Hurston is saying that even though her own experiences
Hurston does not let the unfortunate past of slavery slow her down. She describes, “Someone is always at my elbow reminding me that I am the granddaughter of slaves. It fails to register depression with me. Slavery is sixty years in the past… I am off to a flying start and I must not halt in the stretch to look behind and weep” (Hurston 558). Hurston was an independent and confident woman with a strong sense of identity.
