Gnes Ver?b

African American Cultural Clash on the Basis of Alex Haley's Roots: the American System of Slavery from an Outsider's Point of View Gnes Ver?b

Roots is more than the saga of Alex Haley's family, by means of his novel the author has managed to put slavery in a new light as well. With the help of his protagonist, Kunta Kinte, he was able to highlight such aspects of slavery which were not mentioned before. While analysing Haley's brilliant work, my aim was to focus on the American-born and the African-born slaves' relationship, which is tensioned during the whole novel though both of them live under the same oppression. I have tried to investigate what is the source of the lack of understanding each other and their common disrespect, which usually characterises the African born and the American born slaves' relationships. Besides this interesting point of the novel, my work also elaborates another remarkable aspect of the slaves' character, which seems to be a great burden for them; the American-born slaves' rootlessness and the African-born slaves' double identity. I would recommend this book for those who are interested in the history of slavery and in Haley's work as well and they would like to know not only the surface but also the underlying reasons and motivations of the slaves' behaviour and actions.