Freedom Road Term Paper Essay

Howard Fast, the author of the hold Freedom Road, was born on November 11, 1914 and died at the age of 89 on March 12, 2003. Fast lived a long and adventure whatsoever life. A few of the matters he did through out(a)(a) his biography were joining the American Communist party in 1943, serving a pri discussion term in 1950 for refusing to cooperate with the House Committee on Un-American Activities, and his entertains were purged from American school libraries. On the other hand roughly of the positive occasions that happened in his life was that in 1953, he was rewarded the Stalin Peace booty and in June of 1937 he married his first wife, Bette Cohen. In adjunction with his adventurous lifestyle, Fast spent most of his time authorship. He wrote seven whole kit and caboodle of nonfiction, two autobiographies, fifty-two novels, five short stories one essay, and seven Masao Masuto Mysteries on a lower floor the Penn name E.V. Cunningham. As well as writing, he created two fil ms base off novels. (http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Fast)In the adjudge Freedom Road, Howard Fast consecrates a fictitious story based off the true events that occurred during the Constitutional blueprint. The beginning of the obligate does non baffle the direction most books start. This novel starts by lecture about the main character, Gideon, as if we are supposed to know who he is. At first, this is confusing and after a couple of pages, you becharm on and start to to a lower placestand a lot easier. The first thing we are told about in the book is how all of the freed men from the splendid town of Charleston, had left a few weeks back to go vote. However, neither the town nor the men who left knew what balloting actually was. Not discerning 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 sign of the zodiac or non. Therefore, when they men were spotted walking back into town everyone was super excited and could not wait to assure all about this voting thing.However, it seemed that none of the men were sincerely talking, until one of them tells the town that they have approximately 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. at a time 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 gather up 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. in so far knowing that his wad wanted and needed him, he was determined to secure himself fit into the pattern their relys had cut out for him.However, none of them even offfully knew what a de legate was or what exactly 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 be elected. Then one twenty-four hour period, the postal man comes about 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 blank houses full of white folks making fun (p. 16-17). So in order to help him overcome that fear chum light beam tells him the hatful need a leader and because of how strong Gideon is physically and mentally, he was chosen to represent them. Because of sidekick bastard, Gideon decides to go to Charleston.When he arrives in Charles and he realizes that, he has no notes and no pl ace 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 fit to rent a room for the nights he depart be at the convention, buy some food, and clothes that bequeath 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 spill 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 undecomposed cannot help himself, he gets up and speaks. Nevertheless, he was still embarrassed that he could not find the right lecture for what he was saying and for the fact that he sounded very uneducated compared to some of the rest.However when he was ante upn some books that taught him how to read and speak properl y, he began to speak out more and voice his opinion. To his surprise he was heard, nation started to listen to what he was saying, and even siding with him. Fast explains that the Constitutional Convention worked because, though neither total darkness nor poor whites were overly fond of each other, both realized they had a common enemy in a planter group. With the help of Gideons voice, and some(prenominal) others they fought against the planter group. The fought for a corpse of public schools, the abolition of imprisonment for debt, a simple and fair divide 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. make up though he fought for all of these things, the most important ones for Gideon were fair and fitted command, and land.Throughout his time at the convention lets his wife slip away(p) from him and st ands by while a white northerner helps Gideons oldest son, Jeff, through medical checkup school in Scotland there was no medical school in America free enough from prejudice to accept him. Gideon loses site at what he whops the most in his life, and lets them all slip away because granting immunity seems more important than family. Some of the bags of this book are love and understanding, worry 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 contend 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 pass away 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 appreciate that it is a rather important one. The other theme I had mentioned was perplexity 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. brother 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 befool 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 psyche 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 okay 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, redeem 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 intend 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 w ould 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 uneducated, 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 detest 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 way Ca rdozo 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 kindhearted people to stand by someone who cannot even form the spoken language to fight by themselves. Before I actually started reading 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 incorporated Gideons thoughts, his writing and speaking was interesting.I loved that the real facts of what h appened 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.