You will write a three paragraph essay in which you analyze Hurston’s essay and how it relates to you.
Your essay should address the following:
1. Is race Hurston’s most important feature? How else does she define herself? How does her sense of self change?
2. To what extent do you identify with your own racial or ethnic background? Consider the following when answering this question:
– What factors shape our identities?
– What dilemmas arise when others view us differently than we view ourselves?
– How do our identities influence our choices?
– How do our identities inform our values, ideas, and actions?
3. Please also include a conclusion paragraph that restates main ideas and wraps up your reflection.
Paragraph 1
- Introduce the name of the essay and the author.
- In a complete sentence, answer the question: Is race Hurston’s most important feature? Why or Why not?
- In a complete sentence, explain how you think Hurst defines herself?
- In a complete sentence, name one other way Hurst defines herself?
- In a complete sentence, answer the question: Does her sense of self change? If so, how? If not, why do you think that is?
Paragraph 2
- Discuss to what extent you identify with your own racial or ethnic background.
- In 1-2 complete sentences, discuss what factors you think shape our identities.
- In 1-2 complete sentences, discuss what happens when others view us differently than we view ourselves.
- In 1-2 complete sentences, discuss how you think our identity influences our choices.
- In 1-2 complete sentences, discuss the ways in which our identities affect our values, ideas and actions.
- In 4-6 sentences, please restate your main ideas and wrap up your reflection.
Introduction: Though Zora Neale Hurston’s preacher-father sometimes sought to “squinch” her spirit, her mother urged young Zora and her seven siblings to “jump at de sun,” and jump she did. Novelist, folklorist and anthropologist, Hurston became a prominent figure of the Harlem Renaissance. Best known for her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, published in 1937, Hurston made her own declaration of independence ten years earlier with her essay, “How It Feels to Be Colored Me.”
