The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman Literary Elements

Historical novel

The action takes place in the state of Louisiana and it begins towards the end of the civil war. Because the novel is an autobiography, it describes events taking place over the course of about ninety years.

The narrator is Miss Jane who recalls the events from a subjective point of view. The writer tries to create a sense of authenticity by recreating Jane’s southern dialect and including grammar mistakes in his writing.

Tragic, violent

The protagonist of the novel is Ned and the antagonist is Albert. Even though Ned dies towards the middle of the novel and Albert appears only in a few chapters, the two can be considered as being the antagonist and the protagonist because they both represent a category of people rather than a single person. Ned represents the black community trying to become emancipated in a world ruled by white racist men and Albert represents the white community that resents the blacks simply because they remained without a job when the slavery ended.

The major conflict in the novel is an ongoing conflict between the white and black community in Louisiana. The conflict starts after the civil war and continues for the rest of the novel.

The story reaches its climax when Ned is killed by Albert.

Ned's trouble with the Ku Klux Klan foreshadows his later murder and also the trouble that the other black men will face for similarly independent acts.

After Ned’s death, Jane goes searching for Albert who is trying to avoid her. When Jane finds him, she tells him that when he dies, the Chariot of Hell will come after him and he will scream before dying. This not only came to be true, but it is also an understatement because Albert screamed in agony for three days straight before dying.

In the novel appears many times the idea of savior in the Biblical sense. Just like the Jewish people waited for the Messiah to save them, the black people also hoped that a savior will come and make sure that they will never be oppressed again. The first figure that is sees as a savior is Ned who just like Jesus did in the Bible, holds a sermon by the river which ends up influencing many who listen to him. After Ned dies, many come and want to touch his body as a way to honor him. The community recognizes Ned’s importance only after he is killed, similar to the way the Jews realized who Jesus was only after his death.

The black community became obsessed with the idea of ‘’The one’’, a chosen child who will save them from racism. When the characters talk about Aaron, the one whom they believe to be the one, the characters use strong religious imagery when describing him and when talking about his role in freeing the black people. The image of Aaron as the savior only gets stronger as the novel progress, the other characters looking for signs in every action made by Aaron that would prove that he is indeed the chosen one.

The black community always waited for a savior, ‘’The one’’ to lead them. When Aaron is born, they all believed that he will be the one who will save and lead them. Paradoxically, Aaron’s behavior proved the complete opposite; Aaron developed a habit of pursuing his sexual desires and didn’t showed any interest whatsoever in religion and in other areas that the black community considered to be important.

In the final section of the novel, Miss Jane decides to leave the comfort of the big house where her employers lived and move into a smaller house where she can live alone. Once again, Jane decides to choose freedom over comfort, something that is seen in the beginning of the novel when Jane decides to not stay in the children’s house. The two events are seen as being parallels moves, marking the beginning and the end of her life.

Towards the beginning of the novel, soon after Jane is told that she can leave and be free, she meets a white man on a horse, a representative from the bureau that was supposed to make sure that the laws regarding the slaves are respected. Jane will forever remember the man who helped her and Ned cross the river and he will be associated in her mind with the idea of freedom. The white man will also be used in a metonymical sense when the narrator refers to the soldiers that helped the slaves from their masters.

"he struck them rocks together what he was makin' was the spark of freedom Laura had wanted for him n' ever body else.''