Tristan's Essay

Tristan Yerkes
Mr. Salsich
English 2
20 October, 2008
Remember to Appreciate:
An Essay Discussing Appreciation in Zora Neale Hurston’s, “What it Feels Like to be Colored Me.”

Sometimes we make the hasty assumption that we should be constantly appreciating those who have shaped our lives, when instead we should be living our lives to the extent intended by our predecessors. For example, and I do not mean to offend anyone with these next ideas, I find that this approach is most useful with religion. I think that if there was a god, he or she would most likely rather we spend our Sunday mornings out and about, enjoying the lives he or she gave us. I think that a possible god would not have created life, if that life was not meant to be enjoyed. Of course, this approach does conveniently get me out of Sunday school, but I find it most logical.
Ms. Hurston has similar ideas in her essay, saying that slavery, and slavery reconstruction was a thing of the past, which had underlying ideas of how she should appreciate her ancestor’s sacrifice. Ms. Hurston appreciated her ancestors, respected her ancestors, but did not worship her ancestors as some may do. Ms. Hurston clearly said in her essay, “I am off to a flying start, and I must not halt in the stretch and look behind to weep.”(Hurston, 115) In this profound allegory, Ms. Hurston basically says that she doesn’t want to slow herself down by looking back at the past and worshipping her ancestors. Ms. Hurston says that she was raised by people whose feelings were all hurt over slavery. Since Ms. Hurston was raised in such a community, it is really quite amazing that she could emerge from such a childhood with such an astounding opinion about how to appreciate the price she paid, through her ancestors, for civilization. Ms. Hurston describes her childhood with a voice of a parent talking about a pouting baby, suggesting that her community needed to grow up, and stop feeling sorry for themselves. Ms. Hurston was barely ever daunted by discrimination, and merely thought it was just another factor in her life, and she could decide how she felt about it, not necessarily agreeing with her childhood community. Ms. Hurston, in her essay, talks about how the idea of her actions getting either double the good reaction, or double the bad reaction was just exciting for her. This attitude of not considering how people thought pigheadedly of her being different suggested that she had the rare non biased opinion that helped her formulate her excellent opinions on slavery. Some of Ms. Hurston’s fellow’s opinions of how badly African Americans were treated did nothing but wedge open the already large separating gap between black and white people.

Despite the gap between our two races, Ms. Hurston and I both appreciate without worshiping, perhaps for different things, but with the same ideas in mind. I sometimes feel that I am the only one appreciating something, or that I am the only one who appreciates something fully. When I play music for others, for example, expecting them to dance with joy at the intensity of the song, I generally find that they have responses more like, "Hey, that's great, listen to this song." Not only do I get this response a lot with music, but I also find that many will respond with lukewarm appreciation when I'm enjoying a sunset, a poem, or even a work of art. Sometimes, I feel like I should be appreciating other things more than I already am. If I look at something, or hear something that I immediately judge on how it should be appreciated, I stop and think further about how I should be appreciating it. Sometimes, I feel differently about that one thing, but most of the time I feel the same way, which leaves me wondering why my first observations are so accute. I try my very best not to worship things, but sometimes I find myself really over appreciating things that need not be. When I was young, and again, these are only my own opinions, I worshipped god every Sunday, but when I actually thought about what I was doing, I decided a better way of appreciation was necessary. I sometimes got to the point of worshipping people for their arts, when really what I should have been doing was enjoying those arts. I think this appreciation in my life helps me as well as other people get a better grip of how important everything is in the scale of things.

Appreciation plays a big role in my life, and I'm sure it played a big part in Ms. Hurston's life. This helped guide both of us, helping us decide weather to live our lives in someone's shadow, or live them in broad daylight. Either way, it is important to appreciate, and to remember, but I think worshipping is a waste of time. On a finishing note, I must say, this essay really helped me discover new things about myself.


Works Cited:
Hurston, Zora Neale. "How It Feels to Be Colored Me." The Best American Essays of the Century. Atwan, Robert . Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000.