The Autobiography of An Ex-Coloured Man by James Weldon Johnson (1912)
Chapter IV
setting:
speaker born in Georgia a few years after Civil War - small town not named out of consideration for people still living there
characters:
speaker
speaker's mother - takes in sewing, had been the sewing girl of the speaker's father's mother
tall man with dark moustache, shiny shoes, and gold watch and chain
piano teacher
piano teacher's daughter - teachers the speaker to read
Red Head - a big fourteen year old who has been held back in school
Shiny (Shiny Face/Shiny Eyes/Shiny Teeth) - very dark skinned black boy who attracts the speaker's attention, best scholar in the class
teacher - tells the speaker to sit when the white students are standing, and so reveals his racial background
principal - comes in to class one day and asks the white students to stand
plot:
Speaker begins with an indication of what the narrative is to him - "I know that in writing the following pages I m divulging the great secret of my life, the secret when for some years I have guarded more carefully than any of my earthly possessions; and it is a curious study to me to analyze the motives which prompt me to do it." The speaker describes his childhood home in a small town in Georgia, and remembers in addition to his mother a tall man with a moustache and shiny shoes who would come regularly to the house. One evening when the man is in the house he hugs the narrator and drills a hole in a ten dollar coin to tie around his neck. The next day the speaker and his mother travel by train through Savannah and to New York and then Connecticut. His mother takes in sewing and a letter arrives for her along with money every month. By the time he's seven, he has learned to play the piano by watching his mother and is set to study with a teacher who has trouble getting him to stick to the notes rather than play by ear. His approach to reading is similar - he uses his imagination to fill in unfamiliar words. The speaker has no close friends when he is enrolled in public school at nine years old. He quickly makes friends with a big boy called Red Head by helping him spell "fourth' in front of the class. The speaker is also drawn to a darkskinned boy he calls "Shiny" who who he recognizes is looked down upon despite being the smartest in the class - speaker learns that the black kids are called "niggers" by the other children. One day, after complaining to his mother about a conflict between his own group and one of the "niggers" the speaker is scolded and told "don't you ever bother the coloured children at school." The speaker is admired for his intelligence and musical skill and enjoys a great deal of popularity that the narrative suggests may prompt his teacher's action in a painful moment in his life. The speaker does not realize that he is black until the principal comes in one day and asks all the white children to stand up. When he stands, the teacher asks him to sit down for now and to rise with the others. After school the white and black kids both tease the speaker, but Shiny tells the black kids to leave him alone and Red Head walks hom with him and offers him the gift of a big red agate. At home, the speaker becomes conscious ofhis own beauty for the first time. It is described in terms that emphasize race - "I noticed the ivory whiteness of my skin, the beauty of my mouth, the size and liquid darkness of my eyes, and how the long, black lashes that fringed and shaded them produced an effect that was fascinating even to me. I noticed the softness and glossiness of my dark hair that fell in waves over my temples, making my forehead appear whiter than it really was" (17). The speaker asks his mother if he is a "nigger" and she says no, and not to let anyone call him that. He scrutinizes her face and asks whether he is white, and she says that she is not white but that his father is one of the greatest men in the country.
Chapter II
setting:
Connecticut
characters:
organist - music instructor
she of the brown eyes - a 17 or 18 year old female violinist
plot:
Speaker's memory of being told to sit with the black students remains vivid, and he describes the moment as introducing him to a feature of the life of every black man in the United States - that "he is forced to take his outlook on all things, not from the view-point of a citizen, or a man, or even a human being, but from the view-point of a coloured man" (21). As a result of the experience at school and perhaps independently of perceptible changes in others' behavior toward him, the speaker becomes more reserved. His loneliness sends the speaker to books and music, and he makes great progress as a musician under the organist of a church. The speaker acquires a reputation as a child prodigy, and is asked to play the accompaniment of a young lady violinist. The speaker comes home anticipating a practice session with the girl when he sees a familiar figure from his youth in Georgia and his mother introduces his father. His mother asks him to play the piano and he does so halfheartedly at first and then, in response to his father's sincere appreciation, plays a Chopin waltz with all the feeling he has. The speaker asks if his father will stay with them, and when the man says he needs to return to New York that afternoon he reminds his mother of his engagement to practice with the violinist, hears some advice and the promise of a present from New York from his father, and then leaves. Although aquainted with prejudice through his experience at school the speaker does not imagine why his father cannot stay.
Chapter III
characters:
setting:
Connecticut.
plot:
The duet with she of the brown eyes is a success, and the speaker's father sends him an upright piano. The speaker also becomes a member of the school choir and, studying the pipe organ and music theory, produces several preludes for the organ. The narrator has a hard time getting a clear picture of slavery until he reads Uncle Tom's Cabin. Reading it opens up conversation with his mother, and he learns that she had been his father's mother's sewing girl. His father is about to marry a young lady of another Southern family and that they are in Connecticut in part because the speaker's father plans to provide him with an education. At graduation, the success of Shiny's orration, and the admiration he inspires, makes the speaker want to be a great man. "For days I could talk of nothing else with my mother except my ambitions to be a great man, a great coloured man, to reflect credit on the race and gain fame for myself. It was not until years after that I formulated a definite and feasible plan for realizing my dream" (46). Speaker lives for his music and books to the exclusion of things like baseball, fishing or learning to swim. His mother's health begins to fail and she coughs, but keeps her spirits up and keeps working. The speaker makes some money giving piano lessons and his conversations with his mother focus on his college plans. Shiny plans to go to Amherst College and Red, who has had enough of school, will secure a position at a bank through some relatives. The mother becomes more and more ill and barely has strength to attend the graduation. The speaker writes a long letter to his father, but there is no reply. When the mother dies, the speaker goes to stay with the music teacher and, after disposing of the household goods, finds that he is left with about two hundred dollars. The music teacher suggests a benefit concert to raise money for the speaker's college fund, and the proceeds from that raise his total to about $400. He decides for Atlanta (his mother's preference) over Harvard because the $400 would get him through two years there and only one at Harvard.
thoughts
- second paragraph indicates speaker's familiarity with the narrative in its entirety
- childhood perception of environment (4): speaker digs up bottles to see if they grow like flowers, garden appears endless
- texts mentioned: speaker interested in illustrated Bible, esp. King David and Robert the Bruce. Also finds in his mother's library Pilgrim's Progress, Peter Parley's History of the United States, Grimm's Household Stories, Tales of a Grandfather, The Mirror, Familiar Science, Natural Theology (results in a permanent aversion to theology), weekly paper for boys. When he wants to do something for his father, the speaker plays a Chopin waltz. Speaker gets first useful insight into race relations not from history books but from Uncle Tom's Cabin. Shiny's oration is Wendell Phillips's "L'Ouverture." In high school, speaker's literary heroes become Frederick Douglass, Alexandre Dumas (he rereads Monte Cristo and The Three Guardsmen on learning that Dumas is black). At his college benefit concert after his mother's death, the speaker plays Beethoven's "Sonata Pathétique."