The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man -

James Weldon Johnson

Project Gutenberg

1912

110 páginas

3h 40m

ISBN-1: 0

Johnson's theme of moral cowardice sets his tragic story of a mulatto in the United States above other sentimental narratives. The unnamed narrator, the offspring of a black mother and white father, tells of his coming-of-age at the beginning of the 20th century. Light-skinned enough to pass for white but emotionally tied to his mother's heritage, he ends up a failure in his own eyes after he chooses to follow the easier path while witnessing a white mob set fire to a black man.

Resenhas (1)

3 (Bom)

A tell, not show book, but captures the essence of the time.

All descriptive, but the flow of the writing makes the reading pleasurable. Captures what I believed was the essence of the southern and northern white people, and black people in the United States of the late 1800's and early 1900's. Parts of the story are a bit machinated (Deus ax machina) to help the protagonist avoid certain situations. However, it emanates the author's feelings and appears to impartially exposes both sides in the discrimination issues, some of which I'm sure have yet to be resolved. In all a very good read.