The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman - 1277 Words

Ernest J. Gaines book, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, used many historical events to connect to the characters story. The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman was published by Bantam Books in 1972 and has 259 pages. The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman is a classic fictional book. The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman is the story if a women’s life told when she was over one hundred years old. The novel goes over 3 main periods of time: war years, reconstruction, and slavery. In The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman it is the time of reconstruction and the novel really connects with the history of the time. The novel starts the story at when Jane was a young slave. The Emancipation Proclamation was a decree announced my†¦show more content†¦When slavery was abolished conditions for black people got worse. Many slaves where beat and treated cruelly during slavery but because they where property and useful they were spared their lives. When slavery was abolis hed many black people were killed because they where no longer anyone’s property. In the story Jane talked about how many former slaves as well as herself do not cry much anymore because they have seen so much death and tragedy that it has become a normal thing. Nate, a small boy Jane had to take care of in the story, knew not to make any noise while in the bushes hiding from the patrollers because even at a young age he knew death was not far away and did not cry when his family was killed. Many white people killed black people throughout the story and did not get punished for it. Jane and Ned, stops traveling to Ohio and finds work on a plantation. The difference for Jane now, as for many black people, they could get paid for their labor. By the late 1870s, most former slaves in the rural South had been drawn into a subservient position in a new labor system called sharecropping (Abbott et al. 441). When Jane gets older she becomes involved in a relationship with a man that takes their family off the plantation to become a sharecropper. The premise of this system was relatively simple: The landlord furnished the sharecroppers with a house, a plot of land to work, seed, some farm animals, and farmShow MoreRelatedThe Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman1596 Words   |  6 Pagesexcuse for failure. If you look at them as a hurdle, each one strengthens you for the next† -Ben Carson. In The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, a series of obstacles involving slavery and the search for freedom continually affects Jane Pittman and those around her. Every character within the novel has their own unique way of facing these obstacles, but none of them are as effective as Miss Janes eye on the prize mentality. Tee Bob Samson is a sensitive man, who when faced with obstacles, allowsRead MoreThe Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman Essay647 Words   |  3 PagesThe Autobiography Of Miss Jane Pittman In the novel The Autobiography Of Miss Jane Pittman, there were many different stories about JanePittmans life. In the movie there were not as many stories as the novel, but they were still quite interesting. The novel and the movie had many similarities and differences. Some of the similarities were very noticeable. Just from the beginning, in both the movie and the novel, Ned carried the two rocks that made the fire for Jane and Ned. Ned thenRead More The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman Essay1229 Words   |  5 Pages The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman begins with a note from the editor, who is a local schoolteacher near the plantation where Jane Pittman lives. He has long been trying to hear her story, and, beginning in the summer of 1962, she finally tells it to him. When her memory lapses, her acquaintances help fill in the spaces. The recorded tale, with editing, then becomes The Autobiography of Miss Jane. Jane Pittman is born into slavery on a plantation somewhere in Louisiana. Jane is called quot;Ticeyquot;Read MoreThe Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman by Ernest J.Gaines664 Words   |  3 PagesThe realistic fiction novel, â€Å"The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman,† by Ernest J. Gaines, tells the life of a black woman whose life spanned from the Civil War to the Civil Rights Movement. Miss Jane Pittman herself narrates the novel as a schoolteacher records her accounts. Jane’s life entails a childhood spent as a slave. Once she gains her freedom from the white man, she leaves the plantation behind in search of Ohio. As the story of Jane’s life progresses and shows her personal growth,Read MoreThis Essay Is About The Autobiography Of Miss Jane Pittman1495 Words   |  6 PagesThis essay is about the Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman and History. This essay argues that the historical institution of slavery has not allowed for change to come. The emancipat ion has set all enslaved people free from slavery but has not made enslaved people free from the effects of slavery. The damage that the institution of slavery inflicted on the people of the South has conflicted with perusal of freedom and change. The major theme of the passage is the conflict of the historical past andRead MoreErnest Gaines: Accomplished African-American Author Every person has challenges and different600 Words   |  3 Pageswriting, Gaines received many awards for his best novels and works. One of the first awards he won was the Joseph Henry Jackson Award in 1959 for his story Comeback, which Gaines wrote while still attending college. After writing The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, he was nominated into the Black Academy of Arts and Letters in 1972 and received the Guggenheim Fellowship in 1970. The Guggenheim Fellowship allowed him work at Denison University as a writer in residence. In 1983, Gaines won the SanRead MoreA Lesson Before Dying Summary Notes1827 Words   |  8 Pagesteacher trying to teach a man named Jefferson that he is a man, not a hog, before he is executed. †¢ It was important for Jefferson’s caretaker, Miss Emma, and the entire black community that he dies as a man- proud and brave. Author- Ernest J. Gaines †¢ Born in 1933 in Oscar, Louisiana †¢ Author and educator †¢ Wrote several books- Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman discusses period from the Civil War to the civil rights movement †¢ 1994- National Book Critics Circle Award for A Lesson Before Dying YearRead MoreEssay on A Lesson Before Dying Major Works Data Sheet4251 Words   |  18 Pagesalongside their elders in the fields. He served in the U.S. Army, but then pursued writing. Some other books that he’s written include A long Day in November, Of Love and Dust, Cathering Carmier, Bloodline, In My Father’s House, and The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. He lives now at a house that he and his wife built on land that was once part of River Lake Plantation, where he spent his childhood, and where his ancestors labored for generations. Helpful background information or information aboutRead MoreSlave Oppression3341 Words   |  14 Pagesand Ernest Gaines are two African-American authors who come from completely different backgrounds, but provide an interesting viewpoint on the struggle of an African-American. Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man and Ernest J. Gaines’s The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman are two fictional books, which both narrators are African-Americans who are struggling to survive in oppressing societies. The setting of Ellison’s Invisible Man takes place in between the 1940s and the mid-1950s and it focuses onRead More Comparing Dignity in A Lesson Before Dying, Jane Pittman, and Of Love and Dust2674 Words   |  11 PagesDignity in Southern Society in A Lesson Before Dying, Autobiography of Jane Pittman, and Of Love and Dust      Ã‚  Ã‚   The ante-bellum Southern social system put blacks in a low economic and social class and limited their pursuit of happiness.   The aristocracy firmly held blacks in emotional and spiritual slavery. Cajuns, Creoles and poor whites maintained a low status in society, which frustrated them because they felt they should be superior to blacks and equal to whites. Racism was a base of