James Johnsons The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man - Book Report/Review Example

"Dwafing, Warping, Distorting Influence Society Vs Individual in James Johnson's "The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man" Written by an African American in the early twentieth century, "The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man" by James Weldon Johnson is a novel written in the autobiographical style. In the preface to the book published in 1912, the publishers say that the book "shows in a dispassionate, though sympathetic, manner conditions as they actually exist between the whites and blacks to-day." The book, however did not become popular when it was first published, and it was only much later that Johnson was regarded as a writer of some merit. The "dwarfing, warping, distorting influence" of the society in which he lived is portrayed by the author and the struggles of the protagonist to overcome those restricting influences is poignantly described. The author writes about the travails an individual has to go through when he is up against the society. Being the child of a light skinned African American mother and a white father, the protagonist had been thinking of himself as "white" .The early experience for him of alienation is when the school principal asks "All the white scholars "to stand up. When the protagonist also stands up, he is told by her to sit down, which gives the boy a rude shock. He had obviously believed himself to be white all along, and now, suddenly, he is identified as colored. Some of the white boys jeer him saying "You are a nigger too!"(Johnson p 8) The author describes the anguish felt by the boy when he finds out that he does not belong to the powerful white race. The boy looks at his mother with new eyes, examining her for signs of African characteristics. Johnson goes on to say, "I have never forgiven the woman who did it so cruelly. It may be that she never knew that she gave me a sword thrust that day in school, which was years in healing"(Johnson p10 ) The narrator gets over this trauma caused by the society he lived in by reading and music. Johnson examines the relationship between the desperate blacks and the white majority of his time .In chapter five of the book, the author makes an observation about the behavior of most of the whites. ." The fact that the whites of the South despise and ill-treat the desperate class of blacks is not only explainable according to the ancient laws of human nature, but it is not nearly so serious or important as the fact that as the progressive colored people advance they constantly widen the gulf between themselves and their white neighbors" Johnson attributes this to the feeling of the whites that the well-to-do blacks are "putting on airs" to spite the whites. Even among the Blacks themselves, the individual found it difficult to stand up against the society .According to Johnson's protagonist, the Blacks can be considered to consist of three groups. The first group, the desperate one, "cherish a sullen hatred for all white men, and they value life as cheap." (Johnson p24) Johnson's protagonist himself belongs to the privileged group of educated blacks .He learns that "the position of the advanced element of the colored race is often very trying. They are the ones among the blacks who carry the entire weight of the race question." The narrator finds that it is impossible for anyone outside the social circle to get in. Giving an example, he says," I know of one case personally in which money to the extent of thirty or forty thousand dollars and a fine house, not backed up by a good reputation, after several years of repeated effort, failed to gain entry for the possessor." (Johnson) The Ex-Colored man accompanies his rich white patron to Europe, .where he plays ragtime music .Although his patron is a good man without any racial prejudices, the protagonist still wants to go back to his own people, which provokes his patron to try to persuade him not to go back. "This idea you have of making a Negro out of yourself is nothing more than a sentiment; and you do not realize the fearful import of what you intend to do"(Johnson) says the patron, reminding the Ex- Colored man about his own society and the conflicts he would have to face as an individual;. The lynching of the black man he witnesses brings about a complete change in the Ex-Colored man. Johnson describes the lynching graphically. He describes how the band of men go out to find the victim in an orderly fashion, how the terrified victim is brought in bound, and how the crowd suddenly decides to burn him instead of hanging him." He squirmed, he writhed, strained at his chains, then gave out cries and groans that I shall always hear. ... Some of the crowd yelled and cheered, others seemed appalled at what they had done, and there were those who turned away sickened at the sight."(Johnson 139) The sight of the lynching was the turning point in the Ex-Colored man's life. He decides not to be a part of the black society which allows itself to be savaged thus." A great wave of humiliation and shame swept over me. Shame that I belonged to a race that could be so dealt with; and shame for my country" (Johnson 140) He cuts himself off from his cultural heritage and returns to New York and to anonymity. Johnson deals with the question of the conflicts faced by an individual at all levels when he goes against the society, in his book , "The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored man" The protagonist experiences conflict as a young boy when he is first made aware of his race in school. He deals with the various kinds of conflicts an individual faces when he is against the society, especially when he is colored. The book ,"The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man " gives a balanced account of the conflicts faced by the affluent African Americans in the early part of the twentieth century. Works cited Johnson, J.W. The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man Kessinger Publishing. 2004 Read More