Hurston Vs Lorde

Throughout Audre Lorde’s, The Fourth of July, and Zora Neil Hurston’s, How it Feels to be Colored Me, we can detect many similarities and differences between both stories. Although, the style is completely different and they might emphasize different aspects in their pieces of literature, their purpose is completely the same. Both writers are striving to show the upsetting reality that the African Americans are facing in America, and critique society for the most troubling aspect in their nation caused by the most foolish reasons.

There is no doubt that Lorde’s style of writing is different from Hurston’s. Lorde’s critiques society and describes her feelings about a troubling matter in America’s history like racism in a story like manner. As page 239 states, “we can also see the control with which Lorde expressed her ideas and the honesty with which she implicated herself and her family in her writing.” Although portraying your anger about racism in a story about a family road trip might seem paradoxical, I believe it is the best way for Lorde to critique society because she is maintaining her honest personality in her writing. Therefore, the reader can fully understand the situation through Lorde’s honest, even childish, storytelling style.

Hurston’s style is completely different from Lorde’s. She critiques society by letting people into her crazy, extroverted, and confident personality. Lorde surrounds the reader with all of her thoughts, and that is how we understand her position and what she is critiquing about society. By being in her thoughts we can get a full picture of her personality, and that way we understand what she is critiquing about society at that time. Hurston has so much pride of who she is and where she comes from, that the readers ends up feeling empathy for her race, therefore understanding her critique towards racism in America. If both writers switched styles, their writing would not convey the same meaning and would definitely make no sense, because their personalities are not reflected on the paper they are writing on.

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