Rhetoric refers to the language and compositional techniques that a writer has employed in a piece of writing to gauge a particular effect on the reader and to advance message and purpose. In "How It Feels to Be Colored Me," Zora Neale Hurston wants to both posit her identity and to argue that racism is detrimental and must come to an end. To advance this message, Hurston uses, among other techniques, figurative language (specifically metaphor) to relay ideas to the reader. For example, later in the essay, Hurston uses a metaphor to describe herself:
"Among the thousand white persons, I am a dark rock surged upon, and overswept, but through it all, I remain myself. When covered by the waters, I am; and the ebb but reveals me again."
As a "dark rock," Hurston wants the reader to understand that she bears the brunt of racial oppression but that she will not allow this oppression to consume and crush her spirit. Here, we see her sense of resolve against a difficult situation.
At the end of the essay, Hurston uses the extended metaphor of the "Great Stuffer of Bags" as a metaphor for God (or the Creator), and people of different races who, like the brown, red, yellow, and white bags, are basically "stuffed" with the same contents to say that people are human no matter what their race is. So Hurston uses metaphor as a rhetorical strategy to deliver her message to the reader.
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