Lesson on Voice
For Nonfiction
A Person on the Page
Zora Neale Hurston, “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” · Michel de Montaigne, “Of Idleness”
Lessons in Nonfiction
Voice is the sense of a particular person speaking on the page. Hurston and Montaigne write in the first person and sound like no one else: one bold and witty, the other candid about his own restless mind.
Questions on the Classic Readings
Zora Neale Hurston, “How It Feels to Be Colored Me”
- “I remember the very day that I became colored.” What does the sentence promise?
- Hurston writes that she is “too busy sharpening my oyster knife.” How does the image show her voice?
Michel de Montaigne, “Of Idleness”
- Montaigne says his idle mind creates “chimaeras and fantastic monsters” and that he has begun to write them down. What does this say about why he writes?
- How is the voice of this short essay different from a formal argument?
Activities
These draw on the classic readings on this page.
- The day I became. Write a paragraph that begins “I remember the very day that I became …” and finish it with an identity, a role or a belief you learned.
- Watching my mind. Write a short essay, in Montaigne’s manner, about a habit of your own mind, admitting something rather than defending it.
—Silver Current Press