Alex Haley's Influences And Vision In Shaping Literary Heritage

Mansour

Mr.homo English 9 H:B

17 May 2023

Exploring Alex Haley’s Influences and Vision In Shaping Literary Heritage

Alex Haley was an influential African American writer and journalist, who left his mark on American literature through his revolutionary “Roots '. The Saga of an American Family. “This book dives deep into the black experience during the time of slavery and the reconstruction era. Haley traced his own family lineage several generations to Africa. To truly fathom how extraordinary this classic in African American Literature is you need to explore the influences that shepherd this marvel. This paper seeks to investigate the significant events in Haleys’s life and the ones that shepherd his perspective.

Haley’s upbringing

He expressed, “It was in the 1960s and there was you know civil rights and I began to hear you know the Africa black this that the other and it sort of took me back thinking about the first time I ever heard about Africa was that african in the story my grandmother and her sister told in the family” Haley started to reminisce about the past when his grandmother would tell him stories about their ancestors. This initial experience with his ancestral roots would later become the source of his determination to delve deeper into his ancestral background. Furthermore, according to an interview (“Time Capsule 1991”).“One day I went to the archives of the United States in Washington and I found on microfilm the same family that my grandmother and her sisters had talked about”. Following the completion of “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” which solidified him into an increasingly known author. Haley had the urge to undertake a more significant topic. "Haley considered his work with the Civil Rights Movement and his experiences as a journalist to be his training ground for the writing he would later undertake."(source : https://www.biography.com/writer/alex-haley). Moreover upon this realization, Haley became aware of an undocumented world that needed to be unveiled and shared with others. Motivated by the curiosity of the heritage of black individuals.

He does this by emphasizing their resilience and courage. The book sheds light on the lasting impact of slavery and the struggles African Americans face causing a deeper understanding and empathy. In an Interview with (UWTV 1991) Haley stated “ Roots Just gave a better insight you know all of us used to hear expressions that used to float around and rally had not much anchor meaning for us like the black experience what I like to think is that roots gave insight to what that meant.” Roots shed light on the struggles and triumphs of African Americans throughout history. By Haley tracing his family all the way to Africa and going into the same ship that his ancestors went into to get to America, gives a vivid portrayal of the challenges faced by enslaved