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

As a fictive tale, the novel leaves one speechless and appalled by the ignorance once held prior to reading, wholly unaware of the horrors individuals faced in the North, and the cruelty that even free African Americans were exposed to, one could not be blamed for harshly judging individuals, like Frado, who look racially ambivious, for choosing to pass as a European American. After receiving an enlightening re-education, one who reads the work of James Weldon Johnson, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, may not choose to judge the novel’s protagonist as a criminal, as he does, but view it as a mechanism for survival. Johnson’s novel shares similar themes with Our Nig regarding identity, race and freedom to an African American individual of racially ambiviliant appearance. Wilson’s work allows the reader to sympathize with Johnson’s unnamed narrator, and his betrayal of the African American race by passing for a Caucasian American, even though he is unable to forgive himself.
The narrator’s confession of being an “un-found-out criminal” that has lived the majority of his adult life under
Using experience as knowledge, the narrator decides that even accomplishing his dream: becoming a great African American composer, is still not enough to ease the life of an African American man. The identity, if accepted, is difficult and unnecessary for a man of his stature. Despite the great progress made by the race combined with the great history that African Americans claim, the narrator remains discouraged by the difficulty to gain social recognition, the lack of respect received by fellow countrymen, and the ability to live a life of comfort as a colored