Zora Neale Hurston and Marita Bonner are often associated with Harlem Renaissance of 1920s. Their views on the race problem differ greatly from the views of male African American writers, and sometimes even contradict them, as the ideas of female writers of those times also incorporate the ideas of gender and being a colored woman. The movement for the rights of colored people and the rights of women has inspired the appearance of the whole range of works concerning the perspectives on the issue. The two essays, “How It Feels Like to Be a Colored Me” written by Zora Neale Hurston and “On Being Young – A Woman – Colored” written by Marita Bonner, are exemplary in the way two women approach the problem of race and gender. Hurston in her essay examines her relationship with race and identity, and while she takes a great pride in her roots, she does not completely define herself by race, as she considers herself to be an individual. Bonner, on the other hand, also addresses her identity, as female person of color. However, the author concentrates on the disadvantages young colored women face in the society and the ways they have to address the issues of racism and sexism in their lives. Hurston and Bonner in their essays address the issue of race and gender in divergent ways, and while retaining general attitudes of Harlem Renaissance, they express their views using different tone, and different perspective; as a result, they reach different conclusions regarding race and being a woman of color.
Hurston in “How It Feels Like to Be a Colored Me” uses conversational, optimistic and confident tone to address the issue of race and gender. First of all, the author’s word choice defines is often colloquial, as she uses conversational language to make her essay more personal and true-to life. Especially, it concerns emotional experiences, as her childhood memories of talking and dancing near white people, who were passing the town she lived in or the incident with jazz music, when she was overflown by emotions. The colloquialisms are use in a way that highlights the positive attitudes of the author towards her race and femininity. She does not consider herself to be “tragically colored” (Hurston), but she enjoys her life no matter what the others think. As she does not think that the race defines her, but rather focuses on her individuality, so the words she used are playful and careless at some moments. For example, she positively evaluates her current situation and ridicules those, who want to remind her that her ancestors are slaves or that she is different. She explores her attitudes toward race in the childhood and adulthood, and in both cases, her behavior and expressions are positive towards people, events and future. The last point is that her tone is very confident. She asserts her race, her femininity and her individuality in writing, and she is not afraid of loud opinions about slavery or using sarcasm to approach discrimination against her, “How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company!” (Hurston). Her positive, colloquial and confident tone tells a lot about her attitudes toward the issue and defines her writing style, while it separates her from the other Harlem artists.
Bonner’s tone in “On Being Young – A Woman – Colored” greatly differs from the one used by Hurston, as it is indignant, full of repressed rage against discrimination and injustice, and at the same time, it warns about the changes that have to happen soon. While Hurston views discrimination with a slight pinch of humor, Bonner takes the issue seriously. Her word choice is full of formal and elevated phrases and revealing imagery. She does not consider the issues of injustice and discrimination as something to be ridiculed or ignored. She is indignant with the conditions people of color, and especially women, have to face. Her rage can be tracked in a way she organizes the essay. Bonner uses second-person narration and plot development to focus readers’ attention on the injustices. The author’s language shows that the issue she is talking about is very serious, and while women keep silence now, it will not be this way for a long time. The tone sometimes becomes even cynical, as Bonner is outraged by the way the problem is treated in the society. However, her style of narration makes the tone sound anticipatory, as she uses the imagery to hint that even though women are silent, they are just waiting for their time to seize the opportunity and change the situation. Such assertiveness and rage, combined with cynicism make the tone of the essay very different from Hurston’s optimistic one. However, the authors share the same confidence, when they address the question of pride and identity. Bonner is sure that the time is to come for the women to raise their voices and improve their lives, while Hurston’s tone reverberates with confidence that defines her identity.
The two authors have different perspectives on race. Hurston claims that she does not feel as colored person, or at least she does not feel as colored person all the time, and still she takes great pride in her race. The author suggests that she was not born colored, but has become colored, when she grew up and was put “against sharp white background” (Hurston). Being a child she did not perceive the race differences, but when she went to school in a different town, people started judging her not for what she was, but defining her solely on the basis of her race. Because of such attitudes, which followed her throughout her life, Zora could not fully identify herself as colored. Sometimes, she felt as if she does not have race, and turned into “cosmic Zora” (Hurston). The author often focuses on her individuality, rather than some impersonal racial judgments. Nevertheless, she takes pride in her race and feels some sharp differences between colored and white people. In this realm, the story about jazz club is exemplary, as jazz music evokes strong connections with her roots, and she imagines herself in the jungles screaming and dancing, while her white friend merely reacted to the music, and was calmly smoking (Hurston). Generally, the author believes in equality and does not let the others to put her down on the basis of her race.
Bonner takes a different perspective on race in her essay, as she focuses on the disadvantages colored women face. She expresses anger towards the attitudes colored women have to bear. Bonner starts her essay similarly to Hurston, as she also contrasts childhood and adulthood. However, Bonner emphasizes that children are blessed, because they are too young and innocent to understand racism and feel discrimination. On the other hand, adults have to face all the disadvantages that come with prejudice. The author angrily depicts a woman of 1920s, who has to voice and is sitting silently waiting for her time to come. She views the situation very critically, as she believes in equality free of racial and gender prejudice. To some extent, Bonner shares Hurston’s view that race is not a thing that can define a person, as she cynically points out that grouping people according to race does not create strong bonds. She mentions that one may feel “prodigal” living outside of the group, so people try to fit in, and it creates obstacles for their development and prolific ground for the sameness (Bonner). In this realm, she does not express the pride she takes in her race, but concentrates on atrocities the oppression and prejudice have brought to the lives of people. The authors would agree that the individuality of a person is of importance, not the color of a skin. It is not the characteristic that brings people together, but a characteristic that causes segregation and stagnation.
Hurston views race and gender as the parts of her identity, but she does not consider them to be sufficient enough to define her. Zora is confident and feels the connection with her femininity and race, but this connection has dual character. The author explicitly says that she does not belong “to the sobbing school of Negrohood” (Hurston), meaning that she is tired of blaming injustices and discrimination in all of the problems faced. For this reason, she tends to partially alienate herself from the concept of race and become “eternal femininity with its string of beads” (Hurston). It means that she acknowledges the bond between her race and gender, but she sets apart from the common voices of Harlem Renaissance. Anyway, her final conclusion is very clear, as by the extended metaphor of differently colored bags full of small objects she explains that after all, people are all the same, no matter what the color of their skin is. What is inside remains the same, so Hurston asserts her belief in equality free of racial and gender stereotyping and prejudice.
Bonner strongly asserts the point of connection between race and gender. The main idea of her essay is based on the fact that being colored woman puts a person in silent, invisible and stereotyped position. She explains that colored woman has to slowly become “bitter” and lose her femininity to hold on, as double prejudice is bombarding a person from all the sides. It greatly differs from the Hurston’s view that does not acknowledge such race influence on gender in her essay. The final Bonner’s conclusion is drawn by the brave claim that “Perhaps, Buddha is a woman” (Bonner). This comparison demonstrates the attitude of the author to gender and race, as something that should not define people, because gender and race are used as instruments of oppression, so it should be changed. According to the author, the women are still and silent, but they are waiting for the right time to go “wherever God motions” (Bonner). The author imagines the future, where nobody will have to face the attitudes colored women face, so on the larger scale both Hurston and Bonner believe in the concept of equality.
Hurston in “How It Feels Like to Be a Colored Me” and Bonner in “On Being Young – A Woman – Colored” analyze the issues of race and gender in the perspective of their relations to person’s identity. With the help of optimistic and confident tone, Hurston asserts her position to race, as a part of her identity, but not the universal defining characteristic. On the other hand Bonner uses angry, disapproving tone to express their opinion on the oppressed position of colored women in the society and warrant that the situation is going to change soon. Nevertheless, two perspectives are very different, the authors agree in one crucial point that nobody deserves to be perceived and treated based on race and gender, as people are unique individuals and should be treated as equal despite previous injustices and prejudices fed by society for centuries.
Works Cited
Bonner, Marita. "On Being Young—A Woman—And Colored." Crisis 31 (1925): 64-65. Web.
Hurston, Zora Neale. "How it feels to be colored me." (1928): 152-55. Web.
