Abstract
This paper discusses James Weldon Johnson's novel "The Autobiography of an Ex-colored Man". The paper explains that the novel presents a story of a narrator, referred to as the "Ex-Colored Man" living as a white man. The paper further explains that this narrator was tossed between living as a black or white man since he is biracial from a black mother and a white father. However he attempts to live as a white person in order to escape the horrors of racism toward the black race. The paper considers what causes the narrator to live as a white man and whether, by doing so, he has totally abandoned his black culture.

From the Paper
"The Ex-Colored man never achieves his childhood vision of greatness as a great black musician, but the Ex-Colored man does succeed in life as a white artist and becomes very wealthy. His idea to pass as a white man in society works. Even though he is embarrassed by the decision he makes, it still is not enough to change his mind to be a black man. He achieves great wealth and stardom, but I don't think he finds happiness because he still struggles with his identity. The Ex-Colored man still has questions he needs to answer. What is his classification? Is he white or is he black? Does the Ex-Colored man totally abandon his black culture?"

Tags:mixed, family, white, black, racism

From the Paper
"James Weldon Johnson's The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man is a book of irony upon irony. Not a true autobiography but a novel based loosely on the author's life, the book portrays the life of a man of mixed black and white heritage who undergoes a series of unexpected reversals of consciousness largely based on his racial experiences. The protagonist appears to be white and is raised as a white of some socioeconomic privilege. His primary awakenings take him from his white upbringing into the world of blacks, where he comes to recognize and appreciate his black heritage, and finally back to the white world after his abandonment of that black heritage. Ironically, however, this series of awakenings leaves the protagonist as confused about his identity at the end of the book as he was in the beginning. The bulk of the book's ironies are rooted in the protagonist's almost.."

Abstract
This paper deals with how music is used symbolically in James Weldon Johnson's "Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man," and the ways in which the narrator, consciously or unconsciously, involves music in his decision-making processes.

From the Paper
"Probably one of the most integral elements to the story of James Weldon Johnson's Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man is music. At almost every point in the novel where there is emotional peak, music is involved in the decision-making process in some way. This is especially true in relation to the narrator's own emotions, which are seldom the focus of the story except when highlighted by talk of music. In fact, music could be argued to be the key to the narrator's personal fulfillment, a fulfillment which he is unable to realize by the end of the novel due to his own much glossed-over shortcomings."

Tags:coloured, fulfillment, happiness, james, johnson, music, weldon

Abstract
The paper examines Zora Neale Hurston's tale "How it Feels to Be a Colored Me" and discusses how Hurston sees her differences as a African American but does not let them define her. The paper contrasts this to James Weldon Johnson's tale "Autobiography of an Ex Colored Man", in which the unnamed narrator rejects his African-American heritage to live a life passing as a white man. The paper highlights how Hurston embraces her African-American heritage while Johnson's narrator shows great shame in the fact that he is black.

From the Paper
"Hurston's tale begins and ends with the idea that she is different. Yet views these differences in a positive light. It is in her understanding of white Americans that she is first exposed to herself as colored. Although she understands herself as black early on in her hometown, she is fully exposed to what it is to be African American when she leaves her small town and her individual identity that her town knows her as. In her town, she is Zora, black or not. Outside her town, she is an African American seemingly with no name. She understands that she is African American and sees the differences between her condition and that of white Americans she sees riding through her town. This does not phase her, however, and she embraces her heritage, "I AM COLORED but I offer nothing in the way of extenuating circumstances except the fact that I am the only Negro in the United States whose grandfather on the mother's side was not an Indian chief," (Hurston 1). It shows great strength in her character, which develops even further after she is fully exposed to her condition of being black in the South. Rather than allow her condition to define her and place limitations on her life, she harbors no ill will; "BUT I AM NOT tragically colored. There is no great sorrow damned up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes," (Hurston 1). Hurston sees herself as African American, yet sees nothing wrong with it."

Tags:heritage, race, blackness

Abstract
This paper discusses two opinions of ways to escape from racial degradation and the pain associated with it as an African-American male. It analyzes the views of Ralph Ellison and James Weldon Johnson in their works "The Invisible Man" and "Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man," respectively. The paper compares their approaches to escape and how they are portrayed in their books.

From the Paper
"Both Ralph Ellison and James Weldon Johnson chose a life of invisibility over the pain and suffering related to living in American society as a black man. Ellison's narrator chooses to ignore his individuality for the time being and instead to reside within the larger stereotype as a way to avoid the unwanted attention of a white audience. Despite his association with several African American groups aiming at social reform, the invisible man realizes that it is much easier to stay invisible then to try and force the white community to recognize you. James Weldon Johnson's narrator chooses a different form of invisibility but with the same motivations. Due to his mixed heritage, he has the choice to be seen as a white man. After seeing how horrible American racism can truly be, he decides to abandon his African heritage and all the degradation which accompanies it to live a middle class white life. He becomes invisible in that he "passes" as Caucasian in white society. This opens up new doors for him and ensures he will not have to deal with the prejudice many of his fellow black Americans must deal with on an everyday basis. Both characters show cowardice in their choice to become invisible to American racism, but can anyone really blame them for their choice?"

Tags:narrator, individuality, heritage, society

Abstract
"The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man", by James Weldon Johnson, examines the relationship between race and class in America during the early 1900s. The narrator, a light-skinned man belonging to both the black and white races, finds conflict in his search for identity and meaning within the American consciousness. This paper shows that the narrator's tragic position as a mulatto in America is found in a literary class seen in the autobiographies of authors like Frederick Douglass and William Wells Brown.

From the Paper
"In his description of the tendency for dark-skinned blacks to marry those fairer than themselves he argues that blacks select in favor of fairer complexions because of the imperatives of the society they inhabit, not because they themselves can observe the superiority of whiteness in American society. Certainly the two reasons need not exclude each other; by underscoring only the social cause of this phenomenon, he ignores the self-loathing implicit in, and politics of, such choices."

Tags:Atlanta, Shiny

Abstract
This paper discusses the basis of race and class through Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" and Johnson's "Autobiography of an Ex-coloured Man". These literary works highlight the barriers that define the American Dream as a myth reserved for the greater white population to at least attain a middle class or, in the rare event of Jay Gatsby, a temporary reprieve as a brief member of the older ruling elites. It explains that Gatsby's death resoundingly defines the lack of care that the rich have for those outside of their social circles and reiterates the lack of reality in the American Dream.

From the Paper
"In this literary study, the basis of race and class status between African Americans and the nouveau rich will be examined in relation to two literary works: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and The Autobiography of an Ex-coloured Man by James Weldon Johnson. By understanding Jay Gatsby's rise to fame and fortune by being a smuggler during the Great Depression, one can realize that he would be driven to achieve any kind of wealth in pursuing the American dream of wealth and prosperity in rising to a higher class status. In relation to this, but not necessarily on the same level, James Weldon Johnson's own experiences as an African American intellectual is also presented, which reveals how he also partook in the American Dream in raising ..."

Tags:weldon, gatsby, johnson

Abstract
The paper discusses the central characters in Johnson's "The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man" and Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" who both create or forge false identities for themselves. The paper focuses on the characters' attempt to 'pass' as someone else and construct a false identity that leads to the acquisition of a new racial or social status. The paper highlights how these attempts are accompanied by inevitable problems and difficulties that result in frustration and eventually disillusionment.

From the Paper
"The publication of the two narratives, Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and James Weldon Johnson's An Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, coincides with a period in the American cultural life in which the search for the 'American Dream' was a very prominent theme. Also, the nineteen twenties constituted the decade in which the Harlem Renaissance or the 'New Negro Renaissance' sprang as a cultural movement in America. As it is well known, the Harlem Renaissance was an attempt at 'uplifting the black race' through a redefinition of African American identity and a celebration of the values specific to black culture. These two themes form the core of the novels under investigation- the fulfillment of the 'American Dream' in The Great Gatsby and the uplifting of the black race in The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man."

Tags:disillusionment, frustration, race, social, status

Abstract
This paper compares the works of Claude McKay (specifically "Harlem Dancer," "Black Belt Slummers," and "Harlem") and Langston Hughes ("Death In Harlem" and "Harlem Jazz Club"). It views them next to the more concretely illustrated depiction of the "Club" in James Weldon Johnson's "The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man". By doing so, we understand the power structure of the Harlem Nightclub and the struggle of the African American residents within them, against members of the opposite sex and opposite race, which many used to gain power as a tool of survival.

I. Introduction
II. Portrayal of the Nightclub in James Weldon Johnson's "Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man"
III. Langston Hughes's "Death in Harlem" (Primarily Power Struggles between Gender)
IV. Claude McKay's "Harlem Dancer"
V. Claude McKay's "Black Belt Slummers" (Primarily Power Play Between Races)
VI. Langston Hughes's "Harlem Night Club"
VII. Claude McKay's "Harlem"
VIII. Conclusion

From the Paper
"The next class of people the narrator describes are three sets of slummers-the sight-seerers, the black face actors, and the female patrons--or whites who come to the club to awe over the spectacle of African American culture and society. In terms of the power structure of the "Club" the female patrons are the most interesting as they pay for the clothes, diamonds, and drinks of their black companions a sight that unsettles the narrator. The narrator's inability to accept the prosperity of the black man in this situation is based on the fact that the money and social status emasculate the man and make him into an animal, a "social phenomena," rather than a person (Johnson, 79). "

Tags:dancer, nightclub, power, racism, slummers, structures

Abstract
An analysis of three pieces: Margaret Walker's "Jubilee", Langston Hughes' "Not Without Laughter" and James Weldon Johnson's "The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man". Through their work we see that Walker and Hughes' perspective of race is pure. However, Johnson's view is focused on the individual and not necessarily on a person's racial background. This paper compares the two perspectives: If one is proud to be of a mixed race, is this breaking away from either his "white" or "black" race, or is it simply becoming a proud individual?

From the Paper
"After examining the texts in relation to race and one's identity, one can see that in both Margaret Walker's Jubilee and Langston Hughes' Not Without Laughter, the idea of race is conveyed as fixed, whereas James Weldon Johnson's The Autobiography of an Ex-Couloured Man deals with race as a changing. The almost-too-optimistic portrayals of the mulatto clearly separate this mixed breed from the "hybrid" African American, putting the mulatto on a pedestal, superior to all other non-whites. Therefore, I believe that the idea of race, in agreement with Johnson, should be recognized as a constantly changing identity for a person of multiple backgrounds."

Tags:mulatto, Vyry, negro, Buster