Of James Weldon Johnson's The Autobiography Of An Ex-Colored Man

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The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man Essay Narrative attitude has a large impact on the way a novel reads. It is what makes the reader feel for the narrator, connect to the story, and experience the words on the page in a moving and profound way. However, in James Weldon Johnson’s The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, the narrator appears to not be emotional in order to focus the reader’s attention on the real purpose of the novel. This purpose, quite simply, is that the novel is a social commentary instead of an emotional experience. The author doesn’t need to include lengthy and heartfelt descriptions of the narrator’s inner thoughts in order for the reader to understand the impact of race in the early 1900’s. The author chose to create a narrator who sounds as though he is making a factual account of his life as opposed to how the individual events affected him. In many novels, the narrator’s emotions are pivotal to the way the story is interpreted and offers insight on characters and actions, but in a book where characters aren’t even addressed by name and therefore importance isn’t placed heavily upon them, this doesn’t offer much clarity. This book …show more content…

Forthright emotions are not necessary in this piece for the reader to connect, understand, or empathize with the plot. Johnson created a character who clearly has emotions, but chooses to safeguard them for a realistic feeling and the ability to concentrate on the more important purpose of the novel: to expose the difficulties a man with dual identity may face in a time period determined on separating and segregating who he is. Detached and emotionless, in this well-crafted and well-thought-out scenario, expresses more emotion and creates a more realistic novel than a complex examination of his inner feelings may have

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