Book Commentary || Roots: The Saga of an American Family - Alex Haley

                                                                Roots By Alex Haley

Number of pages: 700

Published year: 1977

Genre: Historical fiction, Novel, Classic.

 

The story dates back around the mid-18th century. Readers can feel the pain that flows from the author's heart to his words.

Alex Haley has unmasked the other side of Americans through his novel. This story truly makes every reader understand that what we feel about Africans is not true. In fact, Africans were well-civilized. They were the first to use Iron tools, and they had invented fire. They had a very systematic governance for every small town over there. They had imparted compulsory education policy also. They were wealthy enough to lead a happy life before the advent of Americans.

So, the story starts in Gambia, and let's divide this novel into three sections for our review convenience:

 

I.  The first section deals with the description of a small village, Jappur, in Gambia country. The author has expounded on the routine life of people, and their festivals are beautifully defined. And the characters are getting introduced slowly in this section.

II.  The second section is the one that immerses every reader in pain. Americans had a practice of capturing mass black Africans, and they would sell them in the US market for cheap labor work. In doing so, one day Americans captured a boy named Kunta Kinte, the lead of this story. The part in this novel, which described the journey of hundreds of slaves from Africa to America in a large ship, was written with full of intensity, and the content was very raw while describing the painful journey.

III. In the third section, the author goes on to explain the story of seven generations of Kunta's progeny. The last generation is supposed to be the author of this novel.

 

Alex Haley

The way the author has finished this novel has taken this to the hill-top. The last few pages are high on emotions, and it is highly recommended to read, to understand the importance of knowing our roots. At last, I would like to conclude by saying, "It is not that how many rockets we send to space. It is not how many gold medals we won in the Olympics. It is not how wealthy we are. End of the day, the quality of human beings lies in BEING HUMAN."

 

Cheers.

Thanks.