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jdintr 's review for:
Roots: The Saga of an American Family
by Alex Haley
Reading Roots in 2014, it's easy to overlook that huge impact that the book had on America 40 years ago. In the years since Roots, there have been other books and films that featured the graphic mix of white brutality and African pride that Alex Haley's book pioneered.
Kunta Kinte's saga takes up the first half of the book, breathing life into his African upbringing, and carrying his pride and self-worth across the Atlantic to serve as a mirror to the servile, rootless slaves he found here.
Kinte is followed by a progression of ancestors, the most prominent of whom is Chicken George Lea, through whom we view the gamecocking culture of the South and the family's eventual exodus to Henning, Tennessee, where Alex Haley would grow up three generations later.
As a European American, the idea of roots in the Old Country is really important to me. I have a lot of pride in my ancestors and see their seaward migrations to the United States as wholly beneficial events.
But African Americans were cut off from their fatherlands, banned from speaking native languages or engaging in native practices over a period of generations. Haley's book restored this tradition for his culture.
Roots is an important work, a seminal work. Without it, the recent films Amistad and 12 Years a Slave, or Toni Morrison's epic works wouldn't be with us.
Kunta Kinte's saga takes up the first half of the book, breathing life into his African upbringing, and carrying his pride and self-worth across the Atlantic to serve as a mirror to the servile, rootless slaves he found here.
Kinte is followed by a progression of ancestors, the most prominent of whom is Chicken George Lea, through whom we view the gamecocking culture of the South and the family's eventual exodus to Henning, Tennessee, where Alex Haley would grow up three generations later.
As a European American, the idea of roots in the Old Country is really important to me. I have a lot of pride in my ancestors and see their seaward migrations to the United States as wholly beneficial events.
But African Americans were cut off from their fatherlands, banned from speaking native languages or engaging in native practices over a period of generations. Haley's book restored this tradition for his culture.
Roots is an important work, a seminal work. Without it, the recent films Amistad and 12 Years a Slave, or Toni Morrison's epic works wouldn't be with us.