How It Feels to Be Colored Me

How It Feels to Be Colored Me, written by distinguished author for African-American literature Zora Neale Hurston, discusses the differences between races, or the lack thereof. Hurston’s race provides her ethos for writing about what it is like to be colored. She is separate from the majority of African-American writing. She explains that she does not belong to “the sobbing school of Negrohood” (115). Instead, Hurston wants to reveal that everyone is like a bag against a wall. If one were to pick up the bags and dump their items out on the floor into a large pile, and then refill the bags from the pile on the floor, they would not greatly alter the content of any bag. Ultimately stating that the only difference between races is the outside. I believe that the author beautifully accomplished her purpose. Hurston begins the essay by explaining how slavery “fails to register depression with” (115) her. She creatively explained essentially that she doesn’t live a sad life because her ancestors did. She writes that “At certain times I have no race, I am me” (117). This phrase shows that she doesn’t live her life in depression because of the past. She ends the essay with the bag metaphor that encompasses her purpose, ultimately saying that every human is the same on the inside. Hurston mentions both the black and white side of life, so the audience includes any person of any race. The appeal to a general audience allows every person to understand her purpose, as it is important for every race to understand. Hurston’s writing matches well with her purpose. She uses a conversational and light tone to make the typically heavy subject easier to read. She says, “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” (117). Using light hearted jokes and beautiful metaphors, Hurston writes in a serious, yet entertaining fashion that allows her purpose to shine.

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Caption: Rainbow Goldfish look different on the outside, but all taste the same.

Picture Source: https://paulsober.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/img_0330.jpg

Letter from Birmingham Jail

During the 20th century, racial segregation was a social injustice that affected every person in the United States. Martin Luther King Jr. was an activist for the civil-rights movement and was jailed multiple times in his efforts to demolish the unjust rights that plagued the south at that time period. While in the Birmingham Jail, King wrote Letter from Birmingham Jail, as a response to his fellow white clergymen who wrote criticism on his activities that ultimately put him in jail. King discusses not only the reasoning behind his protests - blatant racism - but also gives insight behind what it is like to be black in the 20th century. He writes about his hopes for the future and why he is against segregation. Although he writes to his fellow clergymen, the audience is more than that. The audience outside of the clergymen include “the white moderate” (273) that he hoped would see the letter. King wants the white people who have not been oppressed to understand “the deep groans and passionate yearnings of those that have been oppressed” (274). King writes using metaphors and imagery that effectively give examples to support his claims. On the bottom of 267 and top of 268 King describes why colored people have “legitimate and unavoidable impatience” (268). These reasons include “when you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick, brutalize, and even kill your black brothers and sisters with impunity” (267). That powerful image helps readers who have not experienced the pain of being black understand the reasoning behind their actions. Martin Luther King Jr. simply explains his purpose of the essay with his signature following the statement, “Yours for the cause of Peace and Brotherhood” (279). His well written essay effectively accomplishes his purpose. He uses many quotes and examples that make it hard to argue against his reasoning for committing the acts of protest that put him in jail.

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Caption: The picture encompasses the racist tendencies that the majority had against the minority when they treated African-Americans and Mexicans as dogs.

Picture source: http://atlantablackstar.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/images1.jpg

A Hundred Thousand Straightened Nails

Donald Hall, American writer, recounts the life of Washington Woodward in A Hundred Thousand Straightened Nails. Donald Hall writes that he, “knew Washington well, yet [his] image of [Washington] was a mixture of what [he] had observed and what [his] grandfather had told [him]” (253). The honesty in his statement shows that his ethos may not entirely be credible as he is not recounting the story entirely from his personal experience. However, it does not affect the point of the essay as the purpose has more to do with the story than with the reality of the story. The essay discusses waste and ironically tells a story of a man who spends his whole life trying not to waste anything, but essentially ruins his life itself by his self-isolation. After Washington passes away Hall explains that the shack that he built “has caved in and his straightened nails have rusted into the dirt of Ragged Mountain; though the rocks stay where he moved them, no one knows how they got there” (262). All of the things that Washington lived for withered away into waste. The author wants to use the story of Washington to show how one should not isolate themselves as it will waste their life. One must utilize the essay to realize how they should use their life to have some sort of benefit on others’ lives, and not to pass away with only rotting things to be remembered by. A Hundred Thousand Straightened Nails, written for those who have the potential to waste their life, uses irony very well. Hall writes that Washington “saved the nails because it was a sin to allow good materials to go to waste” (257). The nails eventually were wasted as they rusted without anyone after his death to care for them. Another rhetorical device that Hall uses well is narration, it is the majority of the essay. It encompasses his purpose very well as it is entertaining, but also has a moral at the end. I think the author accomplished his purpose because he did effectively use the life of Washington as an example of how one can accidentally waste their life.

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Caption: A life is wasted once one chooses to isolate themselves.

Picture source: http://wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blogs/johnshore/files/2013/08/alone-in-a-crowd.jpg