In my English class, we recently finished reading
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. I believe that my experience from reading this novel has impacted and changed me in several different ways. First, it has relinquished my, perhaps subconscious, stereotype that all white people around the time of the Civil War were racist. Gaines did a good job of bringing a subjective point of view to the novel and provided characters that contrast the racial stereotypes. For example, Job, a character in the novel, was a poor white man who helped Jane and Ned, two black children, and sheltered them. Another way that the novel has affected me is that it has opened my eyes to the idea that freedom isn't just about being free from the restraints held by other men, but also being free from restrictions of rights and free from judgments.
