The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1912

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Preface and Chapters 1-5

Chapters 6-8

Chapters 9-11

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

The publishers’ note claims that The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man will offer brand new insights into the hidden realities of Black life in the United States. What aspects of the novel seem designed to fulfill that purpose?

The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man belongs to multiple genres. Identify two or more genres to which it belongs. What impact does this identification have on your reading and expectations of the book? Support your discussion with specific passages from the book.

There are multiple geographic settings for this book. How does the narrator’s identity evolve as he travels to these different settings? What point does Johnson ultimately make about Black identity and geography?

The narrator shifts through multiple conceptions of his racial identity over the course of the novel. What are the major turns in his racial identity? What overall message does the novel communicate about racial identity?

Although one of the major purposes of The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man is to offer readers insight into Black identity, it also includes multiple white characters—the narrator’s father, the millionaire, the mob that lynches a man in Georgia, the rich widow, the narrator’s wife, and the narrator himself as he chooses to pass. Describe the representation of whiteness in the novel. What point does Johnson seem to be making about white racial identity?

Select one important symbol or motif in the novel. How does Johnson use the symbol or motif to enhance his presentation of character or theme in the novel?

Johnson includes many different musical traditions in the book. What impact does each musical tradition have on the narrator’s sense of his own identity?

Although much of the book is focused on the question of racial identity, class and gender also play important roles in the identities and opportunities of characters, especially those of the Ex-Colored Man. How does the narrator learn about the norms associated with these identities? How do the narrator’s class and gender identities shape his choices in the novel? What opportunities or lack of opportunity does he confront as a result of these overlapping identities? How do these overlapping identities impact other characters?

The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man has two publication dates—1912 and 1927. Research Black American history during these two periods. The Library of Congress African American history timeline or other credible electronic or print sources from your library will be helpful places to start. Based on the status of Black Americans during each period, how might the historical context have shaped how readers received these texts?

10.

Johnson argues in his Preface to The Book of American Negro Poetry (1922) “[t]he status of the Negro in the United States is more a question of national mental attitude toward the race than of actual conditions. And nothing will do more to change that mental attitude and raise his status than a demonstration of intellectual parity by the Negro through the production of literature and art.” Do you agree with this sentiment? Does the relationship between great art and improved political status hold in the novel? In your own experience of contemporary Black American culture, have Black art and literature enhanced the status of Black Americans in American society?