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How It Feels To Be Colored Me Essay

585 Words3 Pages

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 …show more content…

Hurston sees her sense of self moving past being solely racial. While being African-American has helped to define her identity because she knows how it feels to experience discrimination, Hurston feels like this is not the only thing that defines her. She speaks of an identity that does not capitulate only to racial elements. When she articulates ideas like "the pleasure of my company" or that her pride in self makes her feel as if she "has no race" and is simply "me," it is clear that she doesn 't let her race define her. In “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”, Gloria Anzaldua exposes her feelings about social and cultural difficulties that Mexican immigrants face when being raised in the United States. She establishes comparisons among English, Spanish and their variations and how cultural imperialism influence on people’s “preference” to speak one language rather than the other. She brings to debate important social problems such as sexism, cultural imperialism, racism, low self-esteem, reprimand, and identity construction. The author brilliantly starts the article with a metaphor in which she defines the acculturation process as something extremely violent and cruel. In addition, the article aims at showing both sides of the acculturation process: the Anglo side and the

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