The representation of the history of American slavery in the themes of literary works of the African American literary tradition essay
It is not a secret that literature reflects the history of national culture, placing emphasis on the various aspects of the development of human society. The study of the African American literary tradition has emerged and developed from the slave narrative genre. The most significant unifying themes, tropes, and motifs shared by literary works help to tell a story about the history of American slavery and the longstanding struggle against its legacies of racism and injustice. The two literary texts that will be discussed in this paper are Frederick Douglass’s Narrative (1845) and James Weldon Johnson’s Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (1912). Both literary works contribute to the overall understanding of the key reasons of the struggle against the legacies of racism and injustice in American society of the 19-th century through the themes that reflect the history of American slavery.
In Frederick Douglass’s Narrative (1845), there are many significant themes that reflect the author’s attitude toward the historical events aimed at the struggle against the legacies of racism and injustice. According to literary critics, “Frederick Douglass devoted his life and writings to the cause of black emancipation, enfranchisement, and equal rights”(Chander 101). Through his Narrative, the author made efforts aimed at fighting against racism, violence, oppression, exploitation and slavery. The full name of the literary work is Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845). Actually, this work is considered to be “an American fugitive slave classic” literary work that tells a story of a slave from the author’s own point of view. The major themes discussed by Frederick Douglass in his Narrative are the theme of horrors of slavery and the theme of the impact of slavery on both the slave and the slaveholder. According to Douglass, “killing a slave or any colored person, in Talbot County, Maryland, is not treated as a crime either by the courts or the community”(102). The author provides many examples that demonstrate violence and oppression of slaveholders toward their slaves. He tells the story of Thomas Lanman, who killed two slaves, the story of Colonel Lloyds’s brutality, and many other cases that show oppression and violence, inequality and injustice presented in different forms. The story of Sophia Auld shows the impact of slavery of the slave owner.
Besides, the author shows how slavery may have negative impact on the family, destroying individual personalities. Frederick Douglass himself never knew his father and his mother. He writes, “I do not recollect of ever seeing my mother by the light of the day” (48). The songs of the slaves made the author think about social and racial inequalities and seek the proper ways to fight against slavery. He writes, “They breathed the prayer and complaint of souls boiling over with the bitterest anguish” (57). In general, the themes revealed by Frederic Douglass in his Narrative make it an important political document, which tells a lot about the inequalities and injustices done to slaves, as well as represents a warning to the American nation that “there will be a general uprising of slaves if slavery is not soon abolished” (Chander 104).
In James Weldon Johnson’s Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (1912), there are also many important themes that make the reader realize the necessity to start the war against slavery. In this literary work, the author explores in fictional form some aspects of African American identity or sense of self. The major themes include the theme of protest, the theme of color-line or race discrimination and the theme of African American identity. According to Mar Gallego and María del Mar Gallego Durán, James Weldon Johnson “anticipates many of the central themes and motifs that concern Harlem intellectuals, mainly the reinterpretation of the key concepts of race and identity through a revision and updating of autobiographical legacies” (45). The literary work is focused on the established African American literary tradition, incorporating both the slave narrative tendency and the new exploitation of the so-called “tragic mulatto” images reflected in the author’s main character who “becomes the passing character par excellence” (Gallego & Del Mar Gallego Durán 46).
The author portrays racism that makes the lives of African American people unbearable. Johnson tells about his first experience of racial discrimination, when he was taking the train to Atlanta University. One of the major themes revealed by Johnson in his literary work is the theme of lynching that reflects violence and oppression in American society. Actually, the narrator had personal experiences that could give him many reasons to become white, but in the famous closing paragraphs he doubts of the struggle for justice in America. He says, “I cannot repress the thought that I have chosen the lesser part [personal comfort, private happiness], that I have sold my birthright for a mess of pottage” (Johnson 93). The theme of lynching shows not only the negative effects and aggressive character of southern white supremacy, but also it demonstrates the importance of transformation of the nation’s life and identity. The author recalls the theme of racial violence that helps to assess the nature of the social world. According to literary critics,
Under these conditions lynching’s popularity and persistence, its mass appeal stems from its power to specify not where life and death begin and end, but how the “realm” of the real could be extended without limit or concern for the people, communities and life worlds it consumed in its wake (Goldsby 170).
In general, James Weldon Johnson’s Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man is concerned with the issue of racial passing and the importance of racial identity. This literary work can be regarded as a Modernist fiction as the main character’s identity, the identity of an ex-colored man, is “forced upon him through a scene of mob violence, or lynching” (West 43). James Weldon Johnson has contributed to the overall understanding of the negative effects of racial inequality and injustice.
Conclusion
Thus, it is necessary to conclude that the themes revealed by Frederick Douglass in his Narrative and by James Weldon Johnson’s Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man tell a story about the history of American slavery and the longstanding struggle against its legacies of racism and injustice in American society. Both literary works are autobiographies and can be viewed as significant historic and political documents that serve as effective tools to warn the nation of the massive uprising of slaves aimed at abolishing slavery. Both autobiographies reflect the movement of the main characters from slavery to freedom. The reader has an opportunity to evaluate the richness of African American culture and the important role of African American identity.
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