The Autobiography of an ExColored Man by James Weldon Johnson - Book Report/Review Example

"The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man" by James Weldon Johnson James Weldon Johnson's first-person fictional account The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man traces the story of a young biracial man who is known as the "Ex-Colored Man" and living in post Reconstruction period in America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The protagonist of the fictional story, the Ex-Colored Man, is given the ultimate choice in the story to either embrace his black heritage and culture by expressing himself through the African-American musical genre ragtime or to live indistinctly as an average middle-class white man. All through the account, the author makes use of the main character of the Ex-Colored man in order to convey his essential ideas about intelligence, class, and race etc. "James Weldon Johnson's first-person narrator in his fictional account, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, forwards a cynical, if not Darwinian, point-of-view about skin color. He claims it is 'most natural' for black people to procreate with those who are lighter skinned. And he coolly excuses this supposedly common practice as pure economic necessity. The Black Nationalist must protest this fatalism. The Marxist simply chalks another one up for his side The sympathetic humanist might bristle at first, but would eventually concur." (Burn) The author deals mainly with the theme of "passing" in this novel and the black man in the story is passing as a white man in the early 1900's so as to get away from the horrors of racism towards the black race. The major concern of the novel is the ex-colored man's discovery of his identity and the uncertainty concerning his identity is central idea that the novelist explores. Therefore, James Weldon Johnson effectively makes use of the characterization in the novel in order to put across his conceptions regarding racial classifications and the secondary stereotypes of intelligence, class and race etc. To be precise, James Weldon Johnson uses the character of the Ex-Colored man to show that American racial classifications are meaningless and he secondarily uses the Ex-Colored man's travels and experiences to show that secondary stereotypes of intelligence, class, and race etc are false. The title of the novel offers one of the most prominent explanations of the novelist's ideas concerning racial classifications and the secondary stereotypes of intelligence, class and race etc and The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man attracts readers for its title. Whereas the term 'colored' is very much familiar to the readers, the employment of the term 'ex-colored' has a vital significance in suggesting the author's main concerns. The term 'ex-colored' raises several issues at the heart of the discourse of blackness such as what are the major criteria for being 'colored' and how these criteria can be manipulated to make 'ex-colored'. The title of the novel suggests agency, conjuring images of divorce sought and received, and military service departed. However, the novel, at its core, investigates the validity of linking identity to notions of race, and endeavors to explore to what ends racial identity can be employed. "James Weldon Johnson's The Autobiography of an Ex- Colored Man is an intriguing work if for no other reason than its title With Ex-Colored Man, Johnson sets up and foregrounds several crucial debates about the way 'race' was constructed in the early years of the twentieth century and, indeed, is still constructed today. Johnson observed the ways in which geography and gender contribute to our notions of racial identity, but his most cogent insights come in explaining the relationship of class to race." (Favor, 25) Initially published in 1912, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man earned greater acclaim when it was reissued during the Harlem Renaissance in 1927. Significantly, the author's discourse of race in the novel had much in similarity to the common perception of the readers of the Harlem Renaissance who were already engaged in an understanding of the aspects of the blackness. An awareness about James Weldon Johnson's position as a 'race-leader' as well as his role as a leader of African American intellectuals also contributes to the understanding the novel in relation to the Renaissance. The enduring nature of the novel's concerns can be comprehended in the background of the novel's significance as a text concerned with the complexity of racial identity. Most essentially, "the ways in which Johnson construes 'race' as a performance and goes on to investigate the consequences of this destabilized conception of 'race' for the novel's narrator Johnson was acutely aware of how his cultural position and literary pronouncements would shape African American culture before, during, and after the Harlem Renaissance." (Favor, 27) A profound analysis of the major themes as well as the characters of the The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man reveals the novelist's central ideas relating to racial classifications and the secondary stereotypes of intelligence, class, and race etc. The most fundamental theme of the novel as well as the main passion of the heading character is the question of race in the United States at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century. To be specific, the novel is concerned with the connection between the white majority and the African American minority. The narrator of the novel, who is born shortly after the Civil War, lives in a society which is recently engaged in the process of deciding and discovering the roles of African Americans in the new situation. "As a man who lives part of his life in the white world and part of it in the "colored," and one who lives in the North, in the South, and in Europe, the narrator is uniquely qualified to observe the issues from a variety of perspectives. Several times, the narrator abandons his narrative to digress for a few pages on matters of race Therefore, the narrator, a colored man who has been brought up mainly among whites, sets out to study his people and share his understanding with his readers." (Gale) Through the main theme of the novel, i.e. racial relations and identity, the novelist suggests a new type of understanding of racial classifications and the secondary stereotypes of intelligence, class, and race etc. According to the narrator of the novel, a white man cannot easily understand what a colored man really thinks, whereas "the colored people of this country know and understand the white people better than the white people know and understand them." (Johnson, 27) In the course of his narrative, the narrator separates the African Americans into three classes "in respect to their relations with the whites," judging them with a sarcastic and detached eye. Thus, there are African Americans who may be called the desperate class and the men who work in the lumber and turpentine camps, the ex-convicts, the bar-room loafers etc belong to this category. As regards to the relation between blacks and whites, the second class incorporates the servants, the washerwomen, the waiters, the cooks, the coachmen, and all the blacks who are connected to the whites by domestic service. According to the narrator, the white people consider the colored people who have education and money and who wear clothes and live in comfortable houses as imitators who want to become new types of the whites. However, the blacks are able to better understand the whites and there is a third class of colored people who are able to make new history of the African Americans. "This latter class of colored people is well-disposed towards the whites, and always willing to meet them more than halfway. They, however, feel keenly any injustice or gross discrimination, and generally show their resentment. The effort is sometimes made to convey the impression that the better class of colored people fight against riding in 'Jim Crow' cars because they want to ride with white people or object to being with humbler members of their own race They are the ones among the blacks who carry the entire weight of the race question; it worries the others very little, and I believe the only thing which at times sustains them is that they are in the right." (Johnson, 108-9) Therefore, the narrator of the novel is definite about the race relations and the importance of the theme of identity. To the novelist, American racial classifications are meaningless and secondary stereotypes of intelligence, class, and race etc are false. A close analysis of the main character of the Ex-Colored man in the novel confirms that the novelist James Weldon Johnson uses this character to demonstrate that American racial classifications are meaningless and this character has important ideas concerning the attempts of the African Americans to create a new stereotype of their identity. The protagonist of The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man is a man trying to discover his identity in the background of meaningless classifications of the American racial identity. The narrator's restless travels around the country, examining and evaluating other people's lives, have an important role in the understanding of the identity of the Ex-Colored man. All through his journey, the protagonist has been looking for a reliable and holistic vision of himself, though he realizes this fact only at the end of the story. According to the narrator, the African Americans are pursuing an effort to make a new identity to themselves. To the protagonist, "...the effect is a tendency toward lighter complexions, especially among the more active elements in the race. Some might claim that this is a tacit admission of colored people among themselves of their own inferiority judged by the color line. I do not think so. What I have termed an inconsistency is, after all, most natural; it is, in fact, a tendency in accordance with what might be called an economic necessity. So far as racial differences go, the United States puts a greater premium on color, or better, lack of color, than upon anything else in the world." (Johnson, 208-9) Thus, the first-person narrator in the fictional account by James Weldon Johnson puts forward a cynical point-of-view about skin color and he maintains that the black people are naturally inclined to procreate with those who are lighter skinned. He also composedly defends this allegedly widespread practice as pure economic necessity. The protagonist who is an artist and a scholar has such an urge for grown and his ambitions are enormous in view of the situation in America at the time of the novel. As the character has got a skinned complexion, he is able to realize many of his ambitions. "Johnson's hero is ultimately practical. It makes sense to laugh in the face of horrors. It makes sense to mingle blood with the oppressor Johnson gives the reader a complex character with motives that are seemingly at odds. He dreams of, 'bringing glory and honor to the Negro race' but in reality succumbs to the more self-serving choice to 'pass' as white. His millionaire friend, who quite possible exerts the greatest influence of all on this 'ex-colored man,' makes the choices quite lucid To his credit, our hero makes a clean break with the rich white man, who himself has no direction in life." (Burn) Therefore, the protagonist of the novel is able to illustrate the meaninglessness in the American racial classifications and his travels and experiences demonstrate that secondary stereotypes of intelligence, class, and race etc are false. In conclusion, first-person fictional account by James Weldon Johnson The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man deals with the novelist's ideas about the American racial classifications and the secondary stereotypes of intelligence, class, and race etc. The story of young biracial man, the "Ex-Colored Man", helps the author to promulgate his understanding of blackness. Through the theme of "passing" in the novel, the author suggests how the African Americans are trying to create a new identity to them. The ex-colored man's discovery of his identity as well as the uncertainty concerning his identity conveys the importance of the new understanding of the black identity. In short, James Weldon Johnson uses the character of the Ex-Colored man to demonstrate that American racial classifications are meaningless and he secondarily uses the Ex-Colored man's travels and experiences to show that secondary stereotypes of intelligence, class, and race etc are false. Works Cited Burn, David. Economic Necessity and Racial Identity in The Autobiography of An Ex-Colored Man." David Burn: Poet, Critic and Storyteller. 2001. 07 May, 2009. . Favor, J. Martin. Authentic Blackness: The Folk in the New Negro Renaissance. Duke University Press. 1999. P 25. Gale, Thomson. "The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man: James Weldon Johnson (1912)." Thomson Corporation. Novelguide.com. 07 May, 2009. . Johnson, James Weldon. The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man. Read How You Want.com. P 27. Read More