Analyzing the Issue of Identity in Fisher's and Hurston's Work

This essay discusses the issue of identity in the works of Rudolph Fisher and Zora Neale Hurston, focusing on Fisher's 'The Caucasian Storms Harlem' and Hurston's 'How It Feels to Be Colored Me'. It analyzes the issues addressed in both works and compares their perspectives on black identity and racism.

Running head: ANALYZING THE ISSUE OF IDENTITY IN FISHER’S AND HURSTON’S WORK
ANALYZING THE ISSUE OF IDENTITY IN FISHER’S AND HURSTON’S WORK
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

1
ANALYZING THE ISSUE OF IDENTITY IN FISHER’S AND HURSTON’S WORK
Introduction
The essay aims to provide a discussion on the issue of identity as found in the works of
Rudolph Fisher and Zora Neale Hurston. The essay will focus on Fisher’s The Caucasian Storms
Harlem and Hurston’s How It Feels to Be Colored Me. It will first provide brief summaries of
the two stories and then analyze the issues addressed in both. In both the works, the authors have
expressed their views and perceptions about the way the black community was viewed and their
own experiences as well. The essay will make use of another prominent African writer, Chinua
Achebe’s work to understand more clearly, the issue of identity. The main thesis of the essay is
to argue that the black identity described in the work of Hurston has more positive reflection on
the issue than Fisher’s work has although both had important descriptions about racism and black
identity.
Discussion
In his work The Caucasian Storms Harlem, Fisher talks about the Harlem Renaissance,
which is, the way the white population was becoming attracted to the culture of the African-
American community. The white Americans found the Harlem culture to be fascinating and
something that they had never witnessed previously. Fisher expresses his surprise and ambiguity
at the sudden change of the audience at the most popular clubs in the Harlem. He mentions the
popular clubs like the Connie’s, Nest, Small’s, the Cotton Club, the Capitol and Happy’s, where
the crowd suddenly changed from the blacks to the whites (Fisher). Even, “the best of Harlem’s
black cabarets have changed their names and turned white” stated Fisher. Hefound it as intrusion
of the whites into the few remaining places where the black people could enjoy freely. Fisher
finds that the storming of the Harlem by the Caucasian shifted the table where now the black

2
ANALYZING THE ISSUE OF IDENTITY IN FISHER’S AND HURSTON’S WORK
community including him felt as outsiders while the whites had taken over. He however states
that the fault lies within the black community as well because they had first invaded the white
American Broadway culture.
Zora Neale Hurston, in her renowned work How it Feel to Be Colored Me, provides
significant description of her first experience of realizing that her skin color was also part of her
identity. Hurston was raised in a community of all black, in Eatonville where she was addressed
as “everybody’s Zora”. However, when she moved to Jacksonville at the age of 13, she was
exposed to her racial identity. She writes, “I was not Zora of Orange County any more, I was
now a little colored girl” (Hurston). Hurston makes use of several metaphors to explain her
perception of identity, one of which is “the colored bags”. She states that people are just like
colored bags with different identities, aspirations, hopes and desires (Hurston).
While the two texts provide different experiences altogether, the theme is largely the
same – finding a new identity and struggling to cope with it. Fisher was aware of his black
identity but when he came back to the Harlem where he had spent most of his life, he was taken
aback with the new white identity. The whites now dominated the places where he used to find
his own people and he felt as an outsider in his own place. Hurston, on the other hand, was
unaware of her black identity until she moved to Jacksonville, the white dominated place
(Hurston). The realization that her black skin color was also a part of her identity was initially
confusing for her but later she came to terms with it. Fisher on the other hand, was upset with the
sudden shift and partly blamed the black community itself for invading the white culture for
which, he believed the whites invaded the Harlem – a symbol for black identity.

3
ANALYZING THE ISSUE OF IDENTITY IN FISHER’S AND HURSTON’S WORK
In order to understand the stereotype and racism expressed in Fisher’s work, it is
important to learn about the Harlem Renaissance. the Harlem Renaissance, known also as the
black renaissance, was a result of the movement started by Du Bois and Marcus Garvey – the
former was the cofounder of NAACP and the latter was associated Universal Improvement
Association. It was called the Harlem Renaissance because most of the cultural and social
activities took place in the Harlem (Chasar). In Fisher’s work however, the renaissance has been
portrayed in a different light. As Kelly J. Mays observes, Fisher has broadly demonstrated the
way the Harlem Renaissance was operated during the early 20th century (Mays). The renaissance
explained by the author has both positive and negative aspects. The positive aspects are that the
author shed light on the more Negro way of things being adopted by the white Americans who
had despised the same people previously. Further, the black people were becoming famous, Ethel
Waters for example, who made a mark with her lighter singing style. The negative aspects were
that the true black feeling was being lost with the invasion of the whites in the Harlem nights. He
described that the white population invaded the previously black night out places.
The work of Hurston, on the contrary, presents more of a positive vibe despite narrating
the racism the author had faced. She narrates her transition from being the “Zora of Orange
County” to the “little colored girl” without once expressing any self-pity (Johnson). She
emphatically states that she does not belong to the “tragically colored” because she has no
sorrow in being brown or black skinned. “I do not belong to the sobbing school of Negrohood
who hold that nature somehow has given them a lowdown dirty deal and whose feelings are all
but about it”, she states. Although the author had to face some harsh treatment because of her
skin color, it did not stop her from being who she is and what she wanted to do. She describes the
way she was exposed to her new identity and the way she realized it at every step (Wald).

4
ANALYZING THE ISSUE OF IDENTITY IN FISHER’S AND HURSTON’S WORK
Hurston’s work comes close to one of the most famous novels written by an African
American – Things Fall Apart. In Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe presents a powerful
narration of the overlapping culture of the blacks and the whites. The main character Okonkwo
comes across two overlapping cultures – one of his own tribe Igbo, where he was disgraced and
the intrusion of the European missionaries challenging the native tribe (Achebe). The novel
demonstrated the clash between two cultures and the identity crisis. Similarly, Hurston’s work
also demonstrated the identity crisis although she did not express much sadness or negativity
about it. In contrast to it, Fisher’s account of his new found or lost identity amongst the Harlem
population after he returned receiving the degree of MD.
In terms of viewing their own identity in relation to the others, both the authors have
clearly stated the way they were exposed to their different identities. While Fisher was exposed
to the new identity where he was an outsider in a place, which used to be a sanctuary for the
African-Americans artists and art lovers, Hurston learned about her new identity as a ‘black’ girl.
Conclusion
In the end, it needs to be reiterated that Hurston’s take on the issue of identity of the
black community had more positive outlook than Fisher’s work. the two authors have dealt with
the theme of the black identity differently. The essay provided discussion on both the works and
found that both the authors have felt identity crisis of some sort in different ways though.
Hurston came across her new identity as a black girl when she came to Jacksonville; Fisher
witnessed the Harlem Renaissance while pointing out its negative and positive effects on his
community.

5
ANALYZING THE ISSUE OF IDENTITY IN FISHER’S AND HURSTON’S WORK
References:
Achebe, Chinua. "Things Fall Apart: Norton Critical Edition." (2009).
Chasar, Mike. "The Sounds of Black Laughter and the Harlem Renaissance: Claude McKay,
Sterling Brown, Langston Hughes." American Literature 80.1 (2008): 57-81.
Fisher, Rudolph. "The Caucasian Storms Harlem". Amherst.Edu, 2019,
https://www.amherst.edu/system/files/media/1973/Fisher%2520-%2520The%2520Caucasian
%2520Storms%2520Harlem.pdf
Hurston, Zora Neale. "How it feels to be colored me." Worlds of difference: Inequality in the
aging experience (2000): 95-97.
Johnson, Barbara. "Thresholds of Difference: Structures of Address in Zora Neale
Hurston." Critical Inquiry 12.1 (1985): 278-289.
Mays, Kelly J. The Norton introduction to literature. WW Norton & Company, 2015. Mays,
Kelly J. The Norton introduction to literature. WW Norton & Company, 2015.
Wald, Priscilla. "Becoming “Colored”: The Self-Authorized Language of Difference in Zora
Neale Hurston." American Literary History 2.1 (1990): 79-100.