“How It Feels To Be Colored Me” by Zora Neale Hurston pp.1040-1043, Chapter One from Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston pp.1070-1074, the excerpt from Nella Larson’s Passing pp.1080-1141, and these two poems by Helene Johnson “Sonnet to a Negro in Harlem” p.1371 and “Invocation” p.1372.
•What do you like about this essay? What makes you uncomfortable?
•When Hurston talks about the day that she became colored, what is your reaction?
•Why would the other black people deplore the joyful tendencies in Hurston?
•What does she mean when she says, “I do not weep at the world, I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife.”?
•In many ways, Hurston is far beyond her time. The idea of being without race or time–this is something that would have upset others, made them uncomfortable. What do we do with that?
•Obviously, everyone’s favorite paragraph is the second to last. Why is that?
