An author’s style refers to the way a writer writes and the technique in which an individual author uses in his writing. It can also be described as a voice readers listen to when they read the work of a writer. Many authors choose different styles of writing when creating a novel. Some focus on feelings in order to draw the reader in emotionally. Some authors rush the pace of the book to emphasize some events over others. An author chooses a certain style to allow them get their point across effectively. In the novel, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, James Weldon Johnson uses character development, vague emotions and narration style to communicate his feelings and beliefs about the realities of race by creating a stronger relationship between the author, narrator, and reader.
The narrator discloses his unclear sense of identity through how he expresses characters, specifically by not using any names. He uses nicknames that distinguish characteristics. For example, in the beginning of the book, he describes who “Red-Head” is, “He was a big awkward boy with a face full of freckles and a head full of very red hair” (5). The emphasis is on the actual character, instead of a name. By …show more content…
He is unwilling to commit to any decision and goes back and forth many times before reaching an opinion. His identity crisis makes it so he doesn’t know where he stands and therefore can’t make clear decisions. The narrator parallels the author’s own experience of race. The narrator explains how he is torn between the two races, “...Sometimes it seems to me that I have never really been a negro...at other times I feel that I have been a coward, a deserter and I am possessed by a strange longing for my mother’s people” (99). This kind of style leaves the reader questioning the narrator’s thoughts, similar to how the narrator thinks through things