Atassi
Michael Atassi
Allison Fagan, Marcus Hamilton, Mary Thompson
GENG 260, Section 0001
October 8, 2013
Excerpt from James Weldon Johnson’s The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man
“And this is the dwarfing, warping, distorting influence which operates upon each and
every colored man in the United States. He is forced to take his outlook on all things, not from
the viewpoint of a citizen, or a man, or even a human being, but from the viewpoint of a colored
man. It is wonderful to me that the race has progressed so broadly as it has, since most its
thought and all of its activity must run through the narrow neck of this one funnel.”
Atassi
Identity Crisis
Throughout The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, James Weldon Johnson uses
various literary elements and language to depict the struggles of his fictional mulatto. This is
particularly evident when the mulatto first discovers his true background and begins to reflect on
it. In this scene Johnson employs meticulous diction and the narrator’s unique perspective to
illustrate the clash of identities for a tragic mulatto as they struggle to fit in both the African-
American and white worlds.
When describing the newfound identity crisis the mulatto now faces, Johnson includes
specific word choice to bring out the deeper meaning behind the tragic mulatto struggle. An
exceptional example of the powerful diction in this passage can be seen in his use of words like
