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At times, he contemplates his responsibility to his race, and weighs it against his responsibility to himself. He does not know where he belongs in society, or how he should hone his musical skills. The narrator endeavors to understand, at a basic level, whether he is black or white. Johnson's text is an example of a "roman clef. Identity is at the ideological core of this novel. However, the book is based on the lives of people Johnson knew and from events in his own life. Though the title suggests otherwise, the book is not an autobiography but a novel. The Ex-Colored Man was forced to choose between embracing his black heritage and culture by expressing himself through the African-American musical genre ragtime, or by "passing" and living obscurely as a mediocre middle-class white man. "The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man" by James Weldon Johnson is the fictional telling of the story of a young biracial man, referred to only as the "Ex-Colored Man", living in post Reconstruction era America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Full facsimile of the original text, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. Physical Information: 0.33" H x 6" W x 9" (0.47 lbs) 140 pagesĢ013 Reprint of 1912 Edition. Contributor(s): Johnson, James Weldon (Author)īinding Type: Paperback - See All Available Formats & Editions
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