Review Of The Autobiography Of An Ex-Colored Man By James Weldon Johnson

The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man was written by James Weldon Johnson. This is a story of a mixed man and his struggle with his race and everyday life for a black man. The book also conveys his struggle between life in the North and life in the South. One of the main supporting characters in the story is a man named Shiny. Named for his color of skin and teeth, Shiny overcame many of the odds in his life which is very heroic of him. The narrator saw Shiny as his peer but it later changed in that of which Shiny became someone who was superior to him. The narrator saw Shiny as a greater human, one of the best in his race. Shiny was hardworking and overcame his stereotypes; this showed he was not affected by the name calling and the harsh

No matter what he did, Shiny was always trying to work harder. In the beginning. Shiny was very dark. All kids saw in him was his “Shiny teeth and Shiny eyes.” No one noticed he was the best speller in the class and that he was amazing at his schooling. Shiny pushed through and eventually became the class valedictorian which showed more promise than any of his other classmates. He worked hard and it paid off for him in the end. Shiny was dependable, he was a stable person. He developed over the course of the book as a basis for the narrator. Shiny was everything the narrator wanted to be, he was intelligent and he was bringing pride to the African American race. The narrator has wanted to do that since he could comprehend that he was a black man, however, Shiny completed his goal whilst the narrator was not as successful and the narrator felt insecure about it. He worked for a millionaire and he had the opportunity in his past to make good decisions but he did not and now Shiny is a very intelligent college professor and the narrator had worked at a cigar factory and played music for a millionaire and traveled with him. “I felt small and mean.” This is one of the reasons why Shiny made the narrator feel unaccomplished and insecure. The development of the character Shiny was important to the novel because Shiny showed a side of the narrator that no one else saw, the narrator wanted to be like Shiny but he was not at all. Shiny was darker than

“Somehow the “Shiny” incident gave me encouragement and confidence to cast the die of my fate; but I reasoned that since I wanted to marry her only, and since it concerned her alone, I would divulge my secret to no one else, not even her parents.” The narrator did not want to tell the woman's parents he was a black man but after seeing her interactions with Shiny it sparked the courage in him to tell her. She was not at all prejudice with Shiny, he sparked such great conversation and wonder, perhaps because he was so intelligent. The narrator especially liked Shiny and this may be one of the reasons why, he was an excellent man, intelligent, hardworking, and generous. The final change in Shiny was very important. It may have been more of a realization rather than a change in the character, however, it was important to the story because it showed the side of the main character and his feeling towards his African bloodline. Shiny was someone who the narrator looked up to, you could tell by the way he talked about Shiny. He wasn’t mean and always had good things to say, he would not do that if he did not idolize him in some ways, therefore, he more than likely adored him because Shiny was the best at everything he did. This was