ABSTRACT
In Zora Neale Hurston’s metaphorical novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1978), Janie-a Mulatta also known as Alphabet for the different names white folks have been giving her-discovers her identity while looking at a photograph. Gazing at the picture of all white children but one, taken on the farm where she has been living with her grandma, Janie cannot fi nd her own image and asks: “[W]here is me? Ah don’t see me.” The white folks laugh and someone points to the dark face on the photograph and says: “Dat’s you, Alphabet, don’t you know yo’ ownselfe?” And Janie exclaims: “Aw, aw! Ah’m colored!” (1978, p. 21).
