Title: How it Feels to be Colored Me by Zora Neale Hurston Plot Summary | LitCharts
Headings: How it Feels to be Colored Me Summary
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How it Feels to be Colored Me Summary

Content: She would recite, sing, and dance for the travelers as she accompanied them, and was surprised when the travelers would sometimes give her a coin. The colored people in her town never paid her for her performances, but she nevertheless felt a sense of belonging there. Her awakening as a “little colored girl” begins upon moving to Jacksonville at the age of thirteen. She describes a loss of identity: she’s no longer Zora of Orange County, but an impulsive colored girl to be scolded and watched. However, in her present life, Hurston doesn’t view her colored status as a tragedy. She contrasts herself with other African-Americans, who she says feel victimized by their oppression. Instead, she claims that life is dominated by the powerful, whether that power is applied on the basis of skin color or any other criteria. Hurston complains about the tendency to overemphasize the legacy of slavery, which she dismisses by placing it “sixty years in the past.” She describes the struggles of previous generations as a sacrifice for her current freedom, which she plans to use in pursuit of glory and adventure.