Prejudice And Racism Essay

Abrams (2009) states that literature has become the expression of human's thought and emotion. The word literature derived from the Latin 'Litteraturae' which means 'writing'. According to Luken (2003) literature is described as the part of writing works which exist because imaginative artistic qualities. Novel is one of literary work that tells the story of its character’s life. Sometimes, topic that is told in the novel comes from the experience or imagination of its author. Racism becomes the most discussed topic in the novel because the problem related to human races is always exist.

The term racism refers to negative action and treatment against certain people because some races claim that only their races are the best. One of the factors that usually determine the superiority is the skin color. This factor raises the supremacy ideology which spread the idea that race

The terms that people usually use to call this ethnic including negro, blacks, nigger, colored and Afro-America. African-American have always become the victim of racism. If it is seen from the historical background, this problem cannot be separated from the immigration of African-American people. According to Foner (2006), between 1492 and 1820 there were 7.7 million Africans are brought by the British colonizer to the New World to work and there were thousands of Africans are transported to America to be slaves. At that time, white people as their master ignored their rights as human being, so that their rights were completely limited. African-American became inferior group and they are not allowed to participate in political, economic and social developments in America. In Jim Crow era, African-American had to face a segregation, they were separated from white people in the term of public places, school, church and other facilities. Even after Jim Crow era is over, African-American still have to experience