Previous
Similes
Key Examples in Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man
Chapter 8
Explanation and Analysis—Open Doors:
In Chapter 8, the narrator uses a metaphor to emphasize the situational irony involved in his success as a musician:
By mastering ragtime I gained several things; first of all, I gained the title of professor. […] Through it I also gained a friend who was the means by which I escaped from this lower world. And, finally, I secured a wedge which has opened to me more doors and made me a welcome guest than my playing of Beethoven and Chopin could ever have done.
Related Themes:
Chapter 10
Explanation and Analysis—The Texan's Logic:
In Chapter 10, the narrator passes for white and listens to a conversation between a Texan and a former Union soldier. The Union soldier uses logos when he points out the situational irony of the anti-intermarriage laws in the South:
Unlock with LitCharts A+[“]As to the mulatto South, if you Southerners have one boast that is stronger than another, it is your women; you put them on a pinnacle of purity and virtue and bow down in a chivalric worship before them; yet you talk and act as though, should you treat the Negro fairly and take the anti-intermarriage laws off your statute books, these same women would rush into the arms of black lovers and husbands. It’s a wonder to me that they don’t rise up and resent the insult.”
Related Themes:
Chapter 11
Explanation and Analysis—Captial Joke:
In Chapter 11, when the narrator has decided to pass for white, he comments on the humorous dramatic irony of his position. There is also situational irony in the narrator's inability to point out the dramatic irony without ruining it:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The anomaly of my social position often appealed strongly to my sense of humor. I frequently smiled inwardly at some remark not altogether complimentary to people of color; and more than once I felt like declaiming, “I am a colored man. Do I not disprove the theory that one drop of Negro blood renders a man unfit?” Many a night when I returned to my room after an enjoyable evening, I laughed heartily over what struck me as the capital joke I was playing.
Related Themes:
