Freedom Road Term Paper Essay

Howard Fast, the author of the hand Freedom Road, was born on November 11, 1914 and died at the age of 89 on March 12, 2003. Fast lived a long and brave life. A few of the issues he did through come come in his aliveness were joining the American Communist party in 1943, serving a pri news term in 1950 for refusing to cooperate with the House Committee on Un-American Activities, and his concords were purged from American school libraries. On the other hand nearly of the positive things that happened in his life was that in 1953, he was rewarded the Stalin Peace horn in and in June of 1937 he married his first married woman, Bette Cohen. In adjunction with his adventurous lifestyle, Fast spent most of his time compose. He wrote seven flora of nonfiction, two autobiographies, fifty-two novels, five short stories one essay, and seven Masao Masuto Mysteries to a lower place the Penn name E.V. Cunningham. As well as writing, he created two films establish off novels. (http//e n.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Fast)In the accommodate Freedom Road, Howard Fast reports a pretended story based off the true events that occurred during the Constitutional regulation. The beginning of the platter does non fail the office most books start. This novel starts by talk of the town about the main character, Gideon, as if we are supposed to know who he is. At first, this is confusing tho after a couple of pages, you reckon on and start to chthonianstand a lot easier. The first thing we are told about in the book is how all of the freed men from the footling town of Charleston, had left a few weeks back to go vote. However, uncomplete the town nor the men who left knew what good to vote actually was. Not erudite what voting was, made everyone who stayed in town very nervous and worried, they were non sure whether or non those men would be coming home office or non. Therefore, when they men were spotted walking back into town everyone was extremely excite d and could not wait to key all about this voting thing.However, it seemed that none of the men were real talking, until one of them tells the town that they have well-nigh(prenominal) big news to share with everyone. Thus far, into the book, we have yet to hear from the main character, and we have actually been reading from his wives point of view. erst the reversive men started talking, the book transitions from the wives point of view to Gideons, and that is when things start to pick up. We assure that the mens big news is the fact that Gideon was elected to be a delegate. Because of his prowess in battle, the other ex-slaves looked to him as their leader in peacetime, but he was an uneducated man who felt himself unsuited for leadership. up to now knowing that his state wanted and needed him, he was determined to grow himself fit into the pattern their look forward tos had cut out for him.However, none of them authentically knew what a delegate was or what scarcely a delegate did. The only thing they really knew was the Gideon would be receiving a garner once all the votes were counted to tell him if he had won 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 twenty-four hours, the postal man comes around 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 want to go to city full of color houses full of white folks making fun (p. 16-17). So in order to supporter him overcome that fear chum shaft of light tells him the large number need a leader and because of how strong Gideon is physically and mentally, he was chosen to represent them. Because of companion dig, Gideon decides to go to Charleston.When he arrives in Charles and he realizes that, he has no coin and no place to sleep, so he ends up sleeping under a hay barrel for the first night. It is the next morning when Gideon is offered a couple of cents for some physical labor, he reluctantly accepts the job realizing that he has no other option but to. Because of that money he is sufficient to rent a room for the nights he leave behind be at the convention, buy some food, and clothes that volition look appropriate for the convention. Moreover, this is when we start getting into the convention. For the first couple of days Gideon was determined not to address at the convention, in fear of making a fool of himself in front of all the educated white folk. Yet one day he is outraged and ripe cannot help himself, he gets up and speaks. Nevertheless, he was still embarrassed that he could not find the right linguistic communication for what he was saying and for the fact that he sounded very uneducated compared to some of the rest.However when he was placen some books that taught him how to read and speak p roperly, 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 explains that the Constitutional Convention worked because, though neither inglorious nor poor whites were overly fond of distributively other, both realized they had a common enemy in a planter group. With the help of Gideons voice, and more others they fought against the planter group. The fought for a formation of public schools, the abolition of imprisonment for debt, a simple and fair disassociate law, a statute making it impossible for a wifes property to be sold in settlement of her husbands debts, and a measure for universal suffrage which, came as close as man had ever come to giving women a break and land. charge though he fought for all of these things, the most important ones for Gideon were fair and twin education, and land.Throughout his time at the convention lets his wife slip absent from him and stands by while a white northerner helps Gideons oldest son, Jeff, through medical exam school in Scotland there was no medical school in America free enough from prejudice to accept him. Gideon loses site at what he cognises the most in his life, and lets them all slip away because granting immunity seems more important than family. Some of the divisions of this book are love and understanding, heed 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 signed up to go shift 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 back and did not want him to pay again she understood that this was something that he needed to do. She stood by his side, maybe not physically but mentally, throughout the entirety of the convention.Although this theme is not a main theme in the book, I trust that it is a rather important one. The other theme I had mentioned was heed 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. comrade Peter insists that Gideon goes to the convention. Everyone at the convention is pushing for exactly what it is that they want written down, and his son is moving to a land unknown to him for an education that he cannot elate 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 single soulfulness has hope. 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 oka y and that she would get to see him again.The people 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, compose and give all freed slaves the right to an education. The theme of hope plays repeatedly throughout the story. all in 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 say 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 also 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 semiliterate, 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 much 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 despise that he loses sight of the place he came from and his family, he over comes many struggles and fights to achieve 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 wa y Cardozo sees things differently, 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 kind-hearted people to stand by someone who cannot even form the oral communication to fight by themselves. Before I actually started reading this story, I thought it was going to be another extremely boring muniment book, however once I started I could not put it down. The way this story was written was fabulous. The way Fast incorporated Gideons thoughts, his writing and speaking was interesting.I loved that the real fac ts of what happened during that time was not just thrown in our faces, it was mixed 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 keep reader 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 missing is more of Gideon speaking. Fast does an excellent narration of illiterate folks, but he does not do enough 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.