The created character is an illustration of another black. The protagonist destroys all possible stereotypes about African Americans.Īt the same time, this character shows that the African American world is not that homogeneous. ‘Monk’ understands that he does not fit into the African American world which is created by media, society and African American literature.

He knows that he is an intellectual who likes Ancient Greek and English literature. He is “no good at basketball” but “good at math”, he cannot dance, and his parents were doctors and he “did not grow up in an inner city or the rural south” (Everett 1). Nonetheless, ‘Monk’ also stresses that he does not have characteristic features which are often attributed to blacks. He writes, “… the society in which I live tells me I am black that is my race” (Everett 1). However, he describes himself in a very specific way. The first page of his book is his –self-portrait. It is noteworthy that ‘Monk’ knows exactly who he is. His works are intellectual and they simply do not fit the rest of the highly promoted but rather one-sided African American literature. Character Analysis Thelonious Ellison ‘Monk’Īs has been mentioned above, Monk is a writer who can hardly publish his works. It is possible to trace this attempt through analysis of the two main characters of the novel. Importantly, the protagonist knows who he is so he wants to make people understand that he (as well as thousands of African Americans) has nothing to do with the stereotypes created in American society.

It is necessary to note that the main focus of the book is made on the concept of identity and the protagonist is trying to understand how to live in the world which attributes certain identity to him. This book becomes successful as it is understandable for the reader and the protagonist has to solve numerous personal issues to come to terms with himself.

The writer decides to write a novel which will be a parody of any of ‘traditional’ African American stories. The protagonist does not like the way African American writers who speculate on one side of African American experience and create one-sided image of the whole ethnicity. At the same time, the protagonist is angry as he sees that stories about impoverished black people living in ghettos are positively accepted by publishers and readers.

Erasure novel