Struggles In America In America at this time there were many struggles with racism that we encounter In the ECM James Weldon Johnson crafted a character in the ECM to show us the Struggles in America. In the ECM James made a character a protagonist without a name who was mixed to show us all the struggles America went through. The characters mother was an African American Single Parent. His father was a white man who we see one time.
When we see his father he gives him a necklace that he wears around his neck. Which would symbolize that he is like a dog a piece of property. This had a great impact on his life because he had to ask himself questions if he was black white or what was he. On pg.12 where he buried his head in his mother 's lap and told her to tell him that he was a nigger because that was …show more content…
I believe that this is used to show how he feels better being a white man and more comfortable because there 's less pressure and that he doesn’t want to embrace that he is a African American because he wouldn’t be as safe and many people could treat him much differently than if he was white. He has two different feeling about his decision one is that he made the right choice because life was easier for his family.
But he does feel some regret when he sees some speakers who stood up against racial inequality and wonders if he could have been one of the people who rose up for what they believed in no matter what the penalty might have been. The phrase a mess of pottage refers to the story of Esau who sold his birthright for a bowl of soup. He cannot truly pass as a white man and he knows that because he is biracial. I think the whole book shows us a man who is trying to live in two worlds at once and is choosing the easy way out which is being thought of as a white man or the hard way out which is being a black
When we see his father he gives him a necklace that he wears around his neck. Which would symbolize that he is like a dog a piece of property. This had a great impact on his life because he had to ask himself questions if he was black white or what was he. On pg.12 where he buried his head in his mother 's lap and told her to tell him that he was a nigger because that was …show more content…
I believe that this is used to show how he feels better being a white man and more comfortable because there 's less pressure and that he doesn’t want to embrace that he is a African American because he wouldn’t be as safe and many people could treat him much differently than if he was white. He has two different feeling about his decision one is that he made the right choice because life was easier for his family.
But he does feel some regret when he sees some speakers who stood up against racial inequality and wonders if he could have been one of the people who rose up for what they believed in no matter what the penalty might have been. The phrase a mess of pottage refers to the story of Esau who sold his birthright for a bowl of soup. He cannot truly pass as a white man and he knows that because he is biracial. I think the whole book shows us a man who is trying to live in two worlds at once and is choosing the easy way out which is being thought of as a white man or the hard way out which is being a black