Freedom Road Term Paper Essay

Howard Fast, the designer of the discussion Freedom Road, was born on November 11, 1914 and died at the age of 89 on March 12, 2003. Fast lived a hanker and adventurous life. A few of the social functions he did with discover his lifetime were joining the American Communist party in 1943, part a pri password term in 1950 for refusing to cooperate with the House Committee on Un-American Activities, and his view ass were purged from American school libraries. On the new(prenominal)wise hand rough of the confident(p) things that happened in his life was that in 1953, he was rewarded the Stalin Peace Prize and in June of 1937 he married his outgrowth married wo humans, Bette Cohen. In colligation with his adventurous lifestyle, Fast spent ab tabu of his time writing. He wrote s til now whole shebang of nonfiction, two autobiographies, fifty-two novels, five soon stories genius essay, and s thus far Masao Masuto Mysteries under the Penn abduce E.V. Cunningham. As well as writing, he created two films based attain novels. (http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Fast)In the go for Freedom Road, Howard Fast tells a fictional fiction based off the true regularts that occurred during the Constitutional dominion. The beginning of the script does non start the expressive style more or less view ass start. This novel starts by talking approximately the master(prenominal) pillowcase, Gideon, as if we are hypothetic to know who he is. At first, this is confuse on the dot after a correspond on of pages, you catch on and start to see a lot easier. The first thing we are told culturely in the book is how either of the freed work force from the sm tout ensemble told town of Charleston, had left a few weeks cover charge to go vote. merely, neither the town nor the hands who left knew what voting actually was. non knowing what voting was, made everyone who stayed in town very nervous and worried, they were not sure whether or not those w orkforce would be coming home or not. Therefore, when they men were spotted walking spur into town everyone was extremely excited and could not wait to hear all near this voting thing.However, it seemed that none of the men were authentically talking, until one of them tells the town that they shake off some forged news to share with everyone. in that locationof far, into the book, we deliver yet to hear from the main(prenominal) character, and we have actually been amount a lineing from his wives drumhead of view. Once the returning men started talking, the book transitions from the wives point of view to Gideons, and that is when things start to plume up. We learn that the mens big news is the fact that Gideon was elected to be a denominate. Because of his prowess in battle, the other ex-slaves looked to him as their take a styleer in peacetime, tho he was an uneducated adult male who matte himself unsuited for leadership. soon enough knowing that his deal lac ked and motivationed him, he was dogged to make himself fit into the pattern their hopes had arch out for him.However, none of them truly knew what a delegate was or what exactly a delegate did. The scarce thing they authentically knew was the Gideon would be receiving a allowter erst trance all the votes were counted to tell him if he had win the election. Several months go past in the book and nothing happens, no one in the town hears anything about Gideon universe elected. Then one day, the postal man nonpluss close to and hands Gideon the letter that he had been waiting for. At this point in the book, we find out how afraid he is to go to Charleston because he is a nigger. He feels as though he is not very smart. He does not requisite to go to city ample of white houses full of white folk making fun (p. 16-17). So in order to protagonist him overcome that worship pal beam of light tells him the commonwealth need a leader and because of how strong Gideon is an imal(prenominal)ly and mentally, he was chosen to represent them. Because of associate Peter, Gideon decides to go to Charleston.When he arrives in Charles and he realizes that, he has no money and no place to sleep, so he ends up sleeping under a hay barrel for the first night. It is the next dawning when Gideon is offered a couple of cents for some physical labor, he reluctantly accepts the job realizing that he has no other option precisely to. Because of that money he is able to rip a room for the nights he willing be at the convention, buy some food, and clothes that will look entrance for the convention. Moreover, this is when we start ca-cating into the convention. For the first couple of days Gideon was determined not to announce at the convention, in fear of making a fool of himself in cause of all the educated white folk. Yet one day he is appal and good cannot help himself, he gets up and speaks. Nevertheless, he was still embarrassed that he could not find the right talking to for what he was saying and for the fact that he sounded very uneducated compared to some of the rest.However when he was given some books that taught him how to meditate and speak properly, he began to speak out more and voice his opinion. To his surprise he was heard, state started to listen to what he was saying, and even siding with him. Fast beg offs that the Constitutional Convention worked because, though neither dimmed nor worthless whites were overly fond of each other, some(prenominal) realized they had a common resistance in a planter group. With the help of Gideons voice, and many others they fought against the planter group. The fought for a system of public schools, the abolition of impounding for debt, a simple and fair break up law, a statute making it unfeasible for a married womans plaza to be sold in resolution of her husbands debts, and a whole step for universal suffrage which, came as close as man had ever come to giving women a break and globe. thus far though he fought for all of these things, the closely classic ones for Gideon were fair and equal education, and land. passim his time at the convention lets his wife sack a way from him and stands by while a white northerner helps Gideons oldest son, Jeff, through medical school in Scotland there was no medical school in America free enough from hurt to accept him. Gideon loses site at what he sack outs the around in his life, and lets them all slip away because license seems more important than family. Some of the themes of this book are turn in and understanding, vigilance and perseverance, and hope. The reason why I say that a theme is love and understanding is because in the beginning of the book we hear about how his wife has stayed by his side through thick and thin. She waited for him though the war that he willingly sign(a) up to go fight for. She let him go vote because she realized that even though no one knew exactly what it was, it was something of importance to her husband. In addition, though she has just gotten her husband masking and did not want him to leave again she understood that this was something that he needed to do. She stood by his side, maybe not physically but mentally, throughout the integrality of the convention.Although this theme is not a main theme in the book, I value that it is a rather important one. The other theme I had mentioned was vigilance and perseverance. I believe these two themes are the main themes of the book, because everyone in this book is persevering in one way or another. chum Peter insists that Gideon goes to the convention. Everyone at the convention is displace for exactly what it is that they want written land, and his son is moving to a land unfathomable to him for an education that he cannot receive where he is. The last theme I had mentioned was hope. I believe that hope is the most predominant theme throughout the book, because every oneness person has h ope. In the beginning, the town and the men who left were hoping that this voting thing was not going to get them killed. Gideons wife hoped that he would not leave her again, and when he did, she hoped that he would be okay and that she would get to see him again.The lot of the convention all held on to the hope that what they say and what they want will be written down into a law. Then we have Gideon himself, he has hope that he will be able to read, write and give all freed slaves the right to an education. The theme of hope plays repeatedly throughout the story. All of the stories characters played a large role in the book, everyone influenced the book in one way or another, but a few of the characters that stood out to me are Brother Peter, Gideon, and Cardozo. The first character that really stands out to me is Brother Peter. I think the fact that he did not stand up and ask people to vote for him, as a delegate was a selfless act. All of the people in town look up to him and ask him for advice, they would have easily voted for him as they did Gideon, but brother Peter knew that Gideon would have more to learn from being a delegate than he would. Brother Peter as well knew that Gideon would have more of a fight in him than he would. I think the reason why Brother Peter was so pushy about Gideon going to the convention was that he knew that Gideon would get things done.The other character that stands out to me is Gideon. Gideon starts in the beginning of the book being illiterate, but pushes though the struggle of learning how to read and write by himself. He also struggles with the fact that he is poor and does not measure up to some of the other people in the convention. Gideon fights for education and freedom so a lot that he lets go of everything that he truly loves. He lets his wife slip away and his son leaves. He forgets that he has people waiting for him back home. Even though I hate that he loses sight of the place he came from and his family, he over comes many struggles and fights to reach his goals. The other character that stands out to me is Cardozo. Cardozo is the first person at the convention that comes up and talks to Gideon.I like the way Cardozo sees things unlikely, he is a black man that has been free all his life, got an education, socialized around white people his entire life. Therefore, when he first talks to Gideon he wants him to explain why black people should have en education. Once Gideon explains himself Cardozo understands, and helps Gideon as much as he can. He introduces him to all the right people, he supports him in the convention, and most of all he gave Gideon books that taught him how to read and write. He gave Gideon what he had come to fight for. I think it takes very kindhearted people to stand by someone who cannot even form the words to fight by themselves. Before I actually started practice this story, I thought it was going to be another extremely boring score book, however once I started I could not put it down. The way this story was written was fabulous. The way Fast unified Gideons thoughts, his writing and speaking was interesting.I loved that the real facts of what happened during that time was not just thrown in our faces, it was entangled into the fictional story that kept you interested. I think the way that we are lead through the past so effortlessly was a fascinating way to go forward lector interested. I like the way Fast incorporated all the different kinds of people at the convention. In the story, the laws of freedom, education, and land would not have got through without the black folks and poor white folks being there. I think the way Fast portrayed Gideon, as a strong illiterate freedman was a great way to grab the readers attention and walk us through the past in a wonderful way. I think the only thing that Fast is really wanting is more of Gideon speaking. Fast does an excellent taradiddle of illiterate folks, but he does not do e nough of it. Overall, this book was great, I will most likely be keeping it, and not reselling it so I can re-read it repeatedly.