Racial Oppression

Elwood’s experience throughout the novel are representative of the ways in which racial oppression has existed in recent American history, as well as ways in which such oppression still exists. Firstly, Elwood’s arrest and imprisonment represents the ways in which racial biases of the American justice system unfairly target African-Americans for the purpose of denying them freedom and personal growth. Elwood is arrested, he is a kind and studious young man, but he is wrongfully arrested and convicted over the false charge of stealing a motor vehicle. Not only is Elwood denied his freedom due to this racist persecution, but his personal trajectory is deeply disrupted by incarceration. Not only are he and the other Nickel students forced to provide free labor (which is a prison practice that still continues in America) but he is also unable to continue his education while in...