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Similes
Style
Explanation and Analysis:
The style of "How it Feels to be Colored Me" is largely conversational, complementing Hurston's blending of memoir and autobiography throughout the essay. Hurston's consistent use of the first-person perspective evokes a sense of familiarity, as if Hurston were telling her story directly to the reader. In order to further convey a sense of conversation, Hurston often poses metaphorical questions to the reader and possibly to herself—leaving both parties with something to think about after the essay concludes:
How can anyone deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It's beyond me.
This excerpt appears near the conclusion of the essay, when Hurston recalls her sense of confusion, rather than anger, regarding racial discrimination. Her quip is humorous and maintains the witty and conversational style of the essay, but it also cleverly examines the absurdity of racism: discriminators would rather view Hurston solely in terms of the color of her skin rather than embrace the "pleasure" of her company. Hurston does not view herself as a victim, compared to those in her orbit who she feels become unnecessarily overwhelmed by the negative legacies of slavery. Her lighter style departs from other Black writers of her time who avoided using humor in their writings on the seriousness of racism, such as Claude McKay and Nella Larsen.
Hurston also poses metaphorical questions towards the world itself to develop her conversational style. When discussing the human race and its likeness to a collection of colored bags—each with different outsides but near-identical contents, a metaphor for the folly of racism—Hurston writes:
A bit of colored glass [in each bag] more or less would not matter. Perhaps that is how the Great Stuffer of Bags filled them in the first place—who knows?
This phrase concludes Hurston's essay and leaves the reader on a cliff-hanger of sorts. Hurston's language once again conveys a casual style. However, it is not a style to be confused with one of indifference. Hurston poses her metaphorical questions for a powerful reason: they are unanswerable, because justifications for racial discrimination are themselves irrational. By engaging with the reader in a curious and accessible manner, Hurston encourages powerful thinking about racial discrimination, allowing the reader to step into her shoes through her conversational style.
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