What They See vs. Who I Am: A Zora Neale Hurston Inspired Collage


Sydnei Cross  

Dr. Harris  

ENGL 2016-44378  

December 1, 2025  

Visual Description

What They See vs. Who I Am: A Zora Neale Hurston Inspired Collage

I have made a collage that shows images through the binary opposition of the "Public Self vs. Private Self” inspired by the writing of Zora Neale Hurston. Throughout this semester, I have been interested in the ways Hurston writes of identity and confidence and the difficult ways that Black women are regarded by the world. Specifically, Hurston reveals in her essay How It Feels to Be Colored Me that the person which society thinks she is and who she actually feels like inside are not always the same. That idea became the center of my project.

The collage is split into two sides. The left side represents the Public Self, which is a version sculpted from pressure, stereotypes, and other people's expectations. I used tones of muted colors and images showing how Black women are often told to be strong, quiet, or respectable, even when that doesn't actually fit. This side reflects a piece of identity that gets watched, judged, and labeled before someone ever gets a chance to know a real person.

The right side is a representative of the Private Self, using Hurston's joy, humor, and bold sense of self as the inspiration for the work. With bright colors and highly expressive images, I wanted to represent the free-spirited, confident, life-filled part of identity that doesn't shrink to fit into the expectations of the world. Hurston writes with such pride and playful enthusiasm, and I wanted this side to reflect that inner spark.

My goal was to express through both sides that identity is not solely determined by societal expectations but also reflects one’s own personal choices. Hurston illustrates that the private self of one’s identity should be given equal consideration alongside their public one, and my collage represents this balance. I wanted viewers to understand that both types of identity coexist, therefore, one does not erase the other. Additionally, they provide a clearer and more accurate view of how individuals define themselves independently from societal pressures.

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