What Is The Narrator's True Identity

While in New York the narrator sees that the way that the black people act towards white people is immensely different from what he is used to down south. Up North the black people don’t try to submit to the things that the white men want them to do. They actually take a stand and fight back in against the white people in a civilized manner. After spending some time in the city the narrator finds a group called “The Brotherhood” and they are an organization that accepts black people in as equals and they work together as one group to forward their causes. This shows the narrator a different perspective on how live can be for him and his people, instead of having to just submit to the white people they can stand and try to achieve equality.

The Autobiography of An Ex-Colored Man depicts the narrator as a liminal character. Beginning with an oblivious knowledge of race as a child, and which racial group he belonged, to his well knowing of “white” and “black” and the ability to pass as both. On the account of liminality, the narrator is presenting himself as an outsider. Because he is both a “white” and “black” male, he does not fit in with either racial group. In the autobiography of an Ex-colored man, James Weldon Johnson uses double consciousness to show the narrators stance as a person that gives up his birthright for the “privilege of whiteness”.

1. Douglass opens his novel by talking about the ambiguity he faced in his life as a slave. He didn’t know when he was born, how old he was, or who his father was. Douglass begins the novel this way to exhibit how as a slave, his personhood is marginalized. His marginalized personhood encompasses what it is like to be a slave; and shows how slaves are treated more like property than humans. Because slaves don’t know much about themselves, they are deprived of things that humanize them, such as birthdays.

In the beginning chapters of the book, we get a glimpse of the typical home and community of an African American during segregation. Many Africans Americans were too adjusted to the way of living, that they felt

From his narrative, he derives this concept of a “veil” that African Americans face in American society and how they may develop a double consciousness as well. Through the concept of a double consciousness, those subject to this may develop separate identities through their ethnicity and through their identity as an American. This may create a conflict of identity within the individual and as a result, these individuals may undergo the negative effects of “the veil” that may limit these individuals socially and economically within a society. He blatantly states that the “criticism of writers by readers, of government by those governed, of leaders by those lead...this is the

In one way it is symbolic of the African Americans’ struggle for equality throughout our nation’s history. The various hardships that the narrator must endure, in his quest to deliver his speech, are representative of the many hardships that the blacks went through in their fight for equality.

African American individuals still faced inhumane discrimination and were often not looked at as people, let alone cared for or acknowledged. To anyone else, their opinions did not matter and their lives were not valued. The 1930?s was also a time in which America was being rebuilt after the detrimental effects of the Great Depression. Furthermore, there was a greater presence of African Americans in northern states, which brought about racial tension from powerful white figures who did not want African Americans in what they believed to be ?their cities?. The struggle to find jobs was present all over, and African Americans found it even more difficult to support themselves. The narrator faced all these obstacles throughout the course of this novel.

A place where everybody looks the same, act the same, and live the same, is a beautiful thing. Although, many times places that are full of people of the same hue, are there in that place by force. Those who were black and lived on Eighteenth and Vine were there because there was nowhere else in Kansas City that openly welcomed “black people”. As it says in the book, Some of My Best Friends Are Black, Eighteenth and Vine was the “black

In The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man written by James Weldon Johnson, the theme that builds up throughout the novel is identity is shaped by many different aspects, and, at times, it can be hard to find. The main character, James Weldon Johnson, goes through multiple different aspects of society with hardships and difficulties while he is finding who he is. In order to find his identity, James finds out that he is a black man; he encounters many hardships; wonders if his passion is with music; and, in the end, comes to identify himself as a white man.

In this journey our main character also see’s the many faces of the black man, and how all of these faces where created in response to the actions of the white man never in response to one’s own actions. Towards the end of the novel the main character finds himself in a difficult predicament as he is being hounded by men who want him dead. Despite this, he manages to find a pair of glasses and a huge hat which he believes would disguise him just enough so that he can escape his potential murderers. As he walks around Harlem in his new guise, many begin to confuse him for someone called Rinehart who seems to be bookie, a pimp, and a preacher all at once. The ability to be so many things is at first attractive to the main character as he slowly begins to sink into the role of Rinehart, however he soon realizes that Rinehart’s multiple identities are merely a reflection of his inauthenthicity. Rinehart has no true self-consciousness and has allowed for others to create his image for him; Rinehart is only identified in the novel by others, never by himself. Rinehart’s character is representative of the notion of Double Consciousness as it shows the black men without the ability or better yet the privilege of self identity.

The black coloring of the narrator's skin is what covers his individuality; entrapping him behind a mask. The narrator uses the mask as a protective form of self-defense and resistance to the white dominated world. The narrator's skin color has stifled his individual complexity and his ability to contribute to society. Ultimately, he is not viewed as an individual but someone who is the same as all others sharing black skin coloring. In the prologue, the narrator reinforces his frustration saying, “I have been surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorting glass.

posed as: Will a character come to terms with himself and achieve wholeness as a person? How will a character find pride and acceptance in himself? Is there meaning, within this telling, for black people in either the North or the South?

He looks like a white man but has supposed African American heritage. This causes him to struggle with his “reflection” and how it does not “show who [he] is inside.” He often speaks of his white blood and black blood waging war inside of him and affecting his life decisions. The fact that he “never acted like either a nigger or a white man” angers his strictly segregated society. He cannot fit into either the Caucasian or African American community, because no one, least of all himself, knows where he belongs.

He repeatedly pushes against the walls of his environment. Although he doesn't prevail, this doesn't lessen his quest of the search of identity past the labels the world would give him. Although he is clearly loyal to the African American community, he cannot be thought of as simply black. Instead, he carries messages back and forth throughout the novel between white and black worlds. The narrator, a southern Negro, is very much like us. He can be seen as a "trickster" who lessens the assumptions and stereotypes of both these racial groups. Ellison' pride shown in his Negro heritage and his claim to having roots in a transracial culture both coexist (Stephens 115; Baker 114:101; Weinberg 42).

This particular memory of the narrator is crucial for understanding his motives. It may seem like he is running away from his race and living the life of a white man because it is easier, but considering the fact that he observes this scene through his “coloured eyes”, we can assume that this is probably in the bottom of his decision not to pursue his dream and to end up choosing the “easy” path of