English Project 3rd Trimester

Forging my identity

Emva High School

English Project III Trimester

Teachers: Hannia Orozco, Ana Luisa Apéstegui, Sylvia Castro

Catalina Mora R.

2023

start

INTRODUCTION

Forging an identity is very important while growing up. It helps us decide what we want to do and who we are as people. Today, I am going to explain how an identity can be formed. As an example, I'll talk about Zora Hurston, a woman whose experiences as a black person helped form her identity. In the end, I'll talk about who I think I am, and how I think the world helps us form who we are.

who was Zora Hurston?

How it feels to be colored me

The Zora bag

Who am I?

Who was Zora Hurston?

Zora Neale Hurston was a writer and anthropologist who lived in the United States. After growing up in an all-black town in Florida, Zora ended up moving to Jacksonville to go to a boarding school. When she was there, she experienced a lot of struggles since she was dealing with racism for being "of color". Since Zora grew up in a town where everyone was black, she had never considered her skin color a problem. But when she attended the boarding school, everyone saw her as different.

Because of the racism, she began to feel ashamed of being black. But in the end, she decided that she wasn't going to feel bad about herself. She decided that she was going to be proud about being black, because it was part of her identity. Because of this, she decided to write an essay about it, titled "How it feels to be colored me".

How it feels to be colored me

Zora wrote this essay to describe her experiences as a black woman in 20th Century America. She starts the essay by talking about her childhood. She grew up in Eatonville, Florida, and she tells stories about how happy she was there, how she knew all the neighbors, and how she was liked by everyone. But sadly, when her mother passed away, Zora left her home to go to a boarding school in Jacksonville.

In the boarding school, Zora became "colored". She suffered racism and was only seen for her skin color. But for her, skin color never seemed an issue. She only saw herself as different after she entered the boarding school. She explained that sometimes, she felt that she had no race, and she was just herself.

At the end of her essay, Zora forms a metaphor about a brown bag, to show how we are all the same inside. Some people refer to this metaphor as "The Zora bag".

The Zora Bag

At the end of her essay, Zora uses a metaphor of a paper bag. She says that everyone has a paper bag filled with random things that represent feelings, hopes and dreams, and if we all poured the containment of their bags to the floor, it would all look very similar. She used this metaphor to express that inside, we're all the same.

Some examples she gives of things found in these bags are: A first-water diamond, an empty spool, bits of broken glass, and a rusty knife blade.

Who am I?

In my case, physically I am short, I am very pale, and I have curly brown hair. On the inside, I am shy, I love to draw, I like getting good grades, I am good at math, and I really enjoy music. I would like to be a zoologist when i grow up, because I really love nature, or maybe an artist. I want to enjoy my job but also help others. I like people who are kind and creative. The people most important to me are my family and friends, and one of my biggest fears is losing them.

Even though I haven't experienced the same things as Zora, my personal experiences and the people around me have helped me form who I am. This identity will probably change while I'm still growing, but for now, I think this is who I am, and Zora's essay helped me understand I should be proud of that.

After reading Zora's essay, we can see that her growing up in an all-black town and then suffering racism outside definetly formed part of her identity. Yet she still was proud of being black, and she formed herself as a person because of that. In order to form our identity like Zora did, we must answer one question: "Who am I?"

Thanks for watching!