Themes in the autobiography of an ex colored man

A biracial man who passes for white. The narrator's central conflict in his life is whether or not he wants to embrace his African American roots or live as a white man - at the turn of the century, there was nothing in between. He is intelligent, cerebral, and spontaneous. He is an extremely talented musician as well as a voracious reader and a skilled linguist.

He becomes a cigar-maker in Atlanta, a gambler and musician in New York, and a wealthy white patron's private musician in Europe. At one point, he is inspired to move to the American South to find musical inspiration from "Negro" spirituals, but a violent lynching turns him against his own race.

The autobiography of an ex-colored man summary by chapter

He is torn between his racial identities again when he falls in love with a white woman; but she eventually agrees to marry him and they have two children. His ambivalence about his race does not ever vanish, however, and he sometimes wonders if he is a traitor. A sweet, loving, and hardworking African American, whose affair with a wealthy white man in the South resulted in the narrator's birth.

Per his father's wishes, the narrator's mother moves to Connecticut with the hopes of making her son a gentleman and provide him with excellent opportunities. She never falls out of love with her son's father and staunchly defends him when she can. She dies of an illness right after the narrator graduates from high school. A rich and handsome white man who does not marry the narrator's mother but whom she nevertheless swears is a good and noble man.

The narrator only encounters his father only twice in his life - once during his childhood when he visits the narrator and his mother, and a second time when the narrator spots his father in the audience at the Paris Opera, but does not say hello.

Symbols in the autobiography of an ex colored man

The narrator's absentee father is a source of confusion and conflicted emotions for the narrator. The narrator's childhood friend in Connecticut, Red is big and strong and not terribly intelligent. He is a loyal friend, however, and does not care when he finds out that the narrator is biracial.