James Weldon Johnson’s Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man: Literary Analysis

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For decades blacks in America have been suppressed much like a flame being smothered in order to extinguish it, but unlike fire, the spirits and souls of blacks have never stopped burning. Blacks have been physically abused by society through lynchings, burnings, and other acts of violence and have been emotionally abused through slurs, organized protest such as ones held by the Ku Klux Klan, and other forms of racism. Although our forefathers stated when they declared our independence, "that all men are created equal," and, "that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights", blacks have found themselves denied the right to live, the right of liberty in its entirety, and have had their pursuit of happiness blocked.

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Blacks have found themselves having to fight for amendments in order to secure their civil liberties, although the constitution also claimed that all were created equal. Yet through the abuse and suppression, the black spirit has always found a way to triumph.

In James Weldon Johnson's novel Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, written anonymously, James Weldon writes of a bi-racial man who lives the horrible life of a black man. After changing races, he realizes that he was freer when he was black because his sprit and mind triumphed, but his realization came too late. James Weldon Johnson, a novelist, poet, and lyricist, wrote The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man in order to show how the black soul triumphs through the eyes of an individual who lives both sides.

James Weldon Johnson's life models the triumph expressed in The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man.

He was born James William Johnson, which he later changed to Weldon in 1913, in Jacksonville, Florida during the year 1871 (Nelson). He lived a rough childhood being fathered by a waiter, who shared the same name, and a mothered by a woman named Helen who taught at the segregated elementary school he attended until eight grade (Nelson). Since there were no high schools for blacks, Johnson's parents were obligated to send Johnson to Atlanta for high school and college if he wished to continue his education (Nelson). Once in school Johnson's life began to excel as he graduated at the top of the class in high school, wrote over 30 poems and college, and was invited to speak at the graduation for Atlanta University (Nelson). After graduation, Johnson began to accomplish a long line of first for African-Americans. After years of studying law as he taught at Stanton Elementary, the school his mother had taught at, Johnson became the first black to be admitted to the Florida Bar in 1897 (Nelson). He began to practice law with a friend he met during his studies who had once passed as white and this person later became the basis for the novel (Nelson). In 1985 Johnson began "The Daily American", the first Negro newspaper, and although the paper only lasted a year, he was able to voice his opinion over several racial issues (Nelson). In 1900, Johnson wrote the work he is best known for in African-American society which was set to music be his brother John Rosamond Johnson, "Lift Every Voice and Sing" (Nelson). This piece, which has come to be accepted as the black national anthem, was not the only time his brother and he teamed up as lyricist and composer; they composed over 200 songs for Broadway musicals including "Sleeping Beauty" and "Humpty Dumpty. (Nelson)" After his time as a lyricist, Johnson became a Diplomat for America to many countries including Venezuela in 1906, Nicaragua in 1909, and the Azores in 1912 (Nelson). 1912 is also the year he wrote The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, which didn't flourish until the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920's (Nelson). In 1916, he began a fifteen year commitment to the NAACP where he became the first black secretary, sparked the drive behind the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill in 1921, and also lead the fight against the lily-white primary, which made it illegal for Blacks to be denied participation in the southern primary elections (Nelson). In 1930 Johnson became the professor of Creative Literature at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, where he taught until he died on from a train crashing into his car on June 26, 1938 (Nelson). Although Johnson realized over the course of his life that "We have come over a way that with tears has been watered" (Diesman) and " We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered" (Diesman, he still managed to inspire millions of African-Americans to "Lift Every Voice and Sing." (Diesman)

In the novel, there is a bi-racial child who lives a better than normal life with a white father, whom he is not aware of. The only memories he has of this man are of playing with his watch and receiving a gold ten-dollar piece with a hole in it. He takes piano lessons and excels greatly in it and is considered a child prodigy by some. He is a great scholar and raised very formally. His first problems in life occur in public school. A teacher requests that all the white children stand, and being raised white the child stands, however, the teacher promptly orders the child to sit down. From here on out the child's life begins to fall. His classmates stop talking to him and he is left with two colored friends, Red and Shiny. He does manage to fall in love with a violinist he accompanies, but he also receives his first heartbreak when he finds he has no chance with her. Toward the end of his secondary school, his mother becomes deathly ill. While dying she reveals his past, the fact she is black and was impregnated by a wealthy, white landowner who dearly cared for him. He spends all the money he has saved for college on her medical bills and is even forced to sell their house during her sick term. He cannot attend college and moves to Atlanta with 400 dollars and rents a room in a boarding house with 3 other roommates. When he wakes, he hides his money in a trunk before he exits to tour the city. Upon his return, he finds his money stolen and one of the boarders checked out. He must now find job and moves to Jacksonville where the only job he can obtain is a cigar maker. The Hispanics here take him under their wing and teach him Spanish, which eventually leads him to a higher position, the reader. His factory is shut down, and with all hopes of college being destroyed, he moves to New York where he lives the club life where he uses his piano skills in ragtime. He excels greatly as a musician but is equally ruined by his addiction to craps. Realizing his talent yet trouble, a white man hires the "ex-colored man" and brings him to Europe. He falls in love a second time, but is heart-broken once more because she is shot in the neck. He moves back to the American south in order to pursue a career as a composer but during his travels he sees a black man burned by a white lynch mob. He can no longer stand the black race and not because of fear, but because the mishaps that occur to them by others with impunity. He grows a beard, lightens his skin, and starts a new life as a white man. He moves to New York and must completely start over his life. It is not as easy as the first time he made a life in New York because he does not have the same connections he had before, but he works hard, saves money, and moves up in social ranking easily. He meets a girl and this time he is successful in love, however, he tells her of his past, the fact that he was once black, and she leaves saying that she needs time to think. When she returns, she says she can live with it because she loves him and they marry and have two children. She dies after the second. While raising his two children he thinks of his life and people in it. He then realizes he wants to go back to being black because he could be his true self then, but can't for the sake of his children.

Many in a society say the eyes a black man sees the world through and those of whites are extremely different. In Johnson's work, he ingeniously creates a tale of a man, the narrator, who is given the rare opportunity to see through both. Previous to his realization of being black, the narrator felt confident about himself and had a sense of order within his heart. Then he was told he was black and "from that time [he] looked out with other eyes." In that instant, chaos fell over him like ants over a destroying mound frantically trying to build back their sanctuary from the world. His "thoughts were coloured", his "words dictated", his "actions limited by one dominating, all-pervading idea which constantly increased in force and weight until [he] finally realized it in a great, tangible fact. And this is the dwarfing, warping, distorting influence which operates upon each and every colored man in the United States. He is forced to take his outlook on all things, not from the viewpoint of a citizen, or a man, or even a human being, but from the viewpoint of a coloured man." Being black he is forced to lose his optimism and become more pessimistic about life. His loses friends as he realizes whites were friends with his class and color while the blacks stayed true to him and nurtured his decaying heart. He loses respect for his runaway father as he realizes he was abandoned because of his color while his mother cared for him for more of a reason than "a mother's instinct." He understands that despite his intelligence and qualifications, he couldn't obtain a better job than a factory worker or underground musician. Common in all his experiences where the spirits of those around him. Blacks, although seeing the world in the same eyes as the narrator, always seemed to be full of life, have a high morale, and feed as well as receive the glory of those around them. Although they all weathered they same storm, he failed to see the to see the rain for it's beauty and inspiration like the others around him, instead, he saw the lack of sunlight and the gray that stood between him and it's freedom.

Once the narrator has the chance to experience life through another set of eyes, he realizes that it is not quite what he wanted. Granted that as a white man, the narrator was able to earn a decent living more easily and move further up the social class more quickly, however, he isn't given the seem individual freedom as a white man. Music is the smallest yet most easily seen example. As a black man playing ragtime, the narrator is free from the notes on a page and is able to play any variation of melody or harmony he pleases. This is a method of expressing whatever may be on his mind or in as heart, on the other hand, as a white man he is forced to a strict set of rules and technique while he plays piano. No matter what he feels or thinks, he must play the piece so that it is stylistically correct. Another way that narrator is denied individual freedom is through language. As a black man, friends and family had no care of what he said or how he said it. As a white man, the narrator often found himself holding his tongue toward different issues and also found himself screening the words he used and the way he said them.

Towards the end of the story, the narrator has own epiphany as he realizes that he no longer satisfied with his life as a white man. He realizes that he misses the individual freedom and the unity of the race as a whole. Although he underwent so many troubles as a black man, he failed to see what really mattered. If he would have took the time and looked at the people surrounding him and the reasons for which they smiled, he would have stood in the same triumph as them. All the people of the race had suffered just like him, however, they all had a unity and understanding between each other that is extremely uncommon among others. Once he had the chance to live the life of a white man, he understood there was something missing, that "there was a link that is absent in the chain now." After years of looking for happiness, he finally realized that it was in the hearts and good souls of blacks, but it is too late for him to go back. He wants to protect his children from the discrimination of the race, but he also understands that being raised in the black world would build a stronger sense of character within his children. The narrator had finally saw that rain really is a beautiful thing.