Questions of identity raised during the Harlem Renaissance as represented in Johnson's The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man

Abstract

This bachelor paper deals with the Harlem Renaissance and its impact on the emancipation of the African-American population in the United States. It analyzes the problem of identity of colored people using the example of a book by James Weldon Johnson, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man. The main protagonist of the novel explores his possibilities to live a successful life as a colored man, but after experiencing the injustice that Negro people had to deal with in the United States around the turn of the century, he ultimately gives up on his goal and reconciles himself with living as a white man.