As with the various discourse elements of all cultures throughout the world, African-American literature itself contains a myriad of elements imperative to the genre.
Clustered story points, code-talking, various elements of the Slave Narrative are all visible in Johnson's "The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man."
Although Johnson's autobiography is not a slave narrative, the post-bellum novel does contain many of the common features of such narratives. One such feature is the loss of family. Johnson recounts the story of the tall man with the hat and shiny shoes who regularly sat with his mother. After a trying event in school where he learns that he is of mixed race, he runs home to ask his mother who his father is. Instead of telling him the man with the shiny shoes is his father, she says she will tell him at another time. It was not until many years later that Johnson is properly introduced to his father. This meeting is so uncomfortable that he ends up leaving,......
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Approximate Word Count: 1900
Approximate Pages: 8 (260 words per double-spaced page) |