Dec 27, 2009

Uncle Tom's Children | Characters

The characters in Uncle Tom's Children struggle against an environment of racial animosity that pushes them toward savagery. Through their efforts to resist this process, Wright's black protagonists attain varying degrees of self-awareness at the cost of physical and mental suffering. Ironically, some achieve a momentary vision of freedom and a better understanding of themselves only at the point of death. Their determination, despite overwhelming opposition and terrible suffering, makes them tragically doomed heroes. The arrangement of the stories presents the reader with a rough...