The Confessions Of Nat Turner by William Styron - Try as I might I cant see that this is racist

Powerful, prize-winning 1967 novel depicts the odyssey of Nat Turner, leader of first slave revolt in the US. Styrons novel was profoundly controversial; some felt thats a white author had no right to the subject matter. By the acclaimed author of SOPHIES CHOICE, SET THIS HOUSE ON FIRE and LIE DOWN IN DARKNESS.

Try as I might I cant see that this is racist
This is an extremely controversial book. Before one comments on racism, it seems best to explain who you are. I am a caucasian male who would be classified as liberal. I acknowledge that, from my perspective, I dont always see racism or feel it in the same way as many minorities do. As with anyone, I can only view things from my perspective.

I found this book to be beautifully written, heartbreaking and with many layers.

As a previous reviewer wrote, this was a book where no character was portrayed as fully good or fully bad.

Nat Turner was highly intelligent and his rage and actions were understandable given the horrific injustice of slavery. I think his portrayal was complex and sympathetic. I felt I understood why a man exposed to what he had been exposed to and treated as chattel would act as he did. I was horrified by some of the choices to kill children but again I cant say how I would act in his situation.

This is a very hard hitting, disturbing work and I admire it tremendously. A point that is made very clearly is that slaveowners were different. Some were sympathetic and some were abusive. In the end, their characteristics did not save them. They were all slaveowners and were targets of the uprising. There were no good slaveowners and I like that this point was made.

There is a segment where Turner lusts for a young white girl and some believe that this is a demonstration of racism in that it propagates the idea that all black men want white women. I think it is a lot more complex than that. As Styron writes in his afterword, Turner only killed one person personally and it was a young girl who he likely knew. Styron invented a story to connect the two and it made for a very powerful scene when Turner kills her.

Whether you think this is racist or not, Id encourage you to read it.

I think its an absolute masterpiece and viewing it as racist seems a very twisted interpretation.

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