The Sport of the Gods and The Autobiography of an Ex-coloured Man - Essay Example

Number] The Sport of the Gods and The Autobiography of an Ex-coloured Man The book The Autobiography of an Ex-coloured Man was written by James Weldon Johnson in the year 1912 and the book The Sport of the Gods was written by Paul Lawrence Dunbar in the year 1902. The concepts of double-consciousness, double vision, and socialized ambivalence were used greatly in the early African American novels to describe the characteristics of these African American people. This paper will assess how the characters of these two novels have represented these themes through their behaviour and roles. In the book The Autobiography of an Ex-coloured Man the concepts of double vision, double consciousness and socialized ambivalence are evident as to how they affect the behaviour of the central character, the narrator, with regard to the choices he makes and the different emotions he feels right from his early childhood to his middle age. The narrator was born to a white father and a black mother. His father refused to acknowledge both his mother and the narrator and married another white woman. Being disregarded by his own father for being half black made it clear to the author that coloured individuals don’t often find acceptance in the society which lead him to ‘pass out as a white’ (Johnson 107). The narrator faced yet another embarrassing situation in school when the principal of his class asked all white students to stand and when he stood up un-knowingly – he asked him to sit down, an act of discrimination by the principal who was supposed to be a role model for the students surely convinced the narrator to be socially ambivalent to avoid being embarrassed and disregarded by people in general. Social ambivalence and double consciousness is observed in the narrator’s behaviour further when he accompanies his employer to Berlin where he sees a German composer turn a piece of ragtime into classical music. It then hits the narrator that he should go back to the United States to open work as an African American composer. The narrator’s passion for music and better prospects as an African American individual of passing off as a composer introduces socialized ambivalence into his life yet again and he tells his employer about his decision who warns him about the hardships he would have to face as an African American. However, the narrator decides to go to the US where he witnesses a mob of white people burn an African American guy to death which makes him forget his passion for music and his decides to be a white (Johnson 145). He falls in love with a white woman and the shame he feels in being half black stops him from revealing his true identity to her, and when he does, she leaves him. Double consciousness can be seen throughout the narrator’s life as he is confused with his identity. He has the interest and passion to be recognized by his true identity: an African American but he chooses to be white because of the hardships he would have to face. The socialized ambivalence is represented through his behaviour as it gives us the overview of the attitudes and institutionalized racism that the narrator faced in different stages of his life (Pfeiffer 58). In the second novel The Sport of the Gods, there are four characters that can describe the concepts of double consciousness and socialized ambivalence through their behaviours; the black Hamilton family including the Berry Hamilton, his wife Fannie Hamilton, and their children Joe and Kitty. In this story, the Hamilton family lives in the Oakley residence where Berry works as a butler for Maurice Oakley. The family is treated well by the rich white man and they are given nice clothes to wear (Dunbar 3). The novel was written in the early 20th century and it represents no act of slavery by the white men, just labour work which is well-paid for. The concept of double consciousness represents the two-ness in a black’s life as he keeps looking at himself from the eyes of others which lead him to act in certain ways (Bell 15). This story furthers when Berry is accused of stealing money from the Oakley residence and is sentenced to 10 years of hard labour. His wife and children are thrown out of the Oakley residence and they travel to New York to start their lives again and find employment in order to survive (Dunbar 34). This is where double consciousness can be seen as they are always looked over, they are not given jobs, and they suffer the harsh racism in the society which prevents them from acting themselves. The novel shows that Joe becomes an alcoholic and when he is degraded by his lover, he murders her and gets into prison. Kitty becomes a dancer and singer as she is unable to find a decent job. And Fannie marries an abusive man to save herself in the city (Dunbar 77). These incidents show the concept of socialized ambivalence as the black family did not have these values and their culture did not teach them this but due to their social surroundings and their harsh conditions, they were forced to act out of their value systems. The novel shows they had a double vision about their lives as they did not want to enter in this world but they were forced into it due to the attitudes of the whites and unavailability of decent jobs for them. However, many early novels show how African Americans faced double consciousness, socialized ambivalence, and double vision which were different from slavery (Bell 15). These concepts represent the attitudes of the Americans, and the difference in the values of the whites and the blacks. It also shows how African Americans were confused and double minded about their identities and cultures just because they were forced by the society to throw down their own values if they wanted to survive (Pfeiffer 58). The lives of the characters in both the novels show several examples of how they faced double consciousness when they were forced to do something that they didn’t want to do, and take decisions that they otherwise wouldn’t have. Work Cited Johnson James. The Autobiography of an Ex-coloured Man. USA: Sherman, French, & Co., 1912 Dunbar Paul. The Sport of Gods. USA: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1902 Pfeiffer Kathleen. Race Passing and American Individualism. USA: University of Massachusetts Press, 2009 Bell Bernard. The Afro-American Novel and Its Tradition. USA: University of Massachusetts Press, 1987 Read More