“Color Struck”

Allison S Curseen144 Comments

The play “Color Struck” by Zora Neale Hurston was originally published in 1926. Taking place in the South, the story revolves around a cake-walk dance competition, with the winner receiving a large cake as their prize. The main characters are John, a light-brown skinned man, Emmaline or Emma, a dark-skinned black woman, and Effie, a “mulatto”, or mixed woman. Over the course of the story, Emma becomes extremely jealous of John’s various interactions with Effie. They are seen arguing on the train to the competition because Emma thinks John is too nice to Effie. While at the competition, Emma refuses to dance with John after he accepts a piece of cake from Effie. The last scene takes place 20 years later, where John visits Emma. Emma, who has a daughter who is fair skinned, accuses John of only caring for her because of her light skin. The play ends with the daughter dying and John leaving.

This story was written in a play format, so it is mainly composed of dialogue along with stage directions and descriptions. There is no real narration and no one character’s feelings or perspective is highlighted through narration. However, Emma’s opinion is easily identified because she says how she feels, especially towards John and Effie. Because this play takes place in the earlier part of the 20th century in the South, the characters have a strong accent and specific dialect which they speak with. For example, “wuz”, “naw”, and “jes”, are some examples of words that are spelled incorrectly to show how the characters are actually pronouncing them.  

Overall, I enjoyed this play. I thought it was interesting to see racism from a darker-skinned person towards a lighter-skinned person. Emma is scared that John is going to leave her for a more desirable, lighter woman like Effie. I think the most compelling part is that this instance of racism seems to come from a place of insecurity that shows itself through jealousy. She even refuses to see a darker-skinned doctor, who could’ve saved her daughter’s life. Although Emma creates many of her problems herself, such as John leaving her and her daughter dying, I feel bad for her because she clearly does not think highly of herself because of her darker-skinned color.

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