The Confessions Of Nat Turner Analysis

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Abstract This essay seeks to overturn Kyle Baker’s claim that he represented the “true” character and “true” story of Nat Turner in his graphic novel Nat Baker. This essay first briefly examines the famous novel The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron, that is based on the same source as Baker’s graphic novel. This essay explores the techniques that made this novel controversial, and questions why this novel was more highly criticized than Baker’s graphic novel. Through a general explanation of the difficulties of interpreting history, one learns that it is truly impossible to depict history in a full, unbiased, honest form. Daniel S. Fabricant explains in “Thomas R. Gray and William Styron: Finally, A Critical look at the 1831 Confessions of Nat Turner” the various reasons as to why many, such as Baker, have trusted Gray’s document as well as why Gray’s document needs to be questioned. As a result of Baker trusting Gray, Baker did not depict the “true” historical story of Nat Turner, but rather Gray’s interpretation of Turner. The implications of this on Baker’s audience is the belief in a false history.…show more content…
Baker believed that Gray’s document was a document of complete officialdom, and therefore there was no need to briefly discuss and question Gray’s “The Confessions of Nat Turner.” As Fabricant wrote “disturbing is that Gray’s work bears the stamp of officialdom and authenticity.”[9] As a result of this, Baker decided there was no need to preface the novel with a word about the unknown surrounding Turner and the lack of validity of Gray’s document. By Baker not prefacing the novel with a word about the uncertainties of history and the authenticity of Gray’s “The Confessions of Nat Turner,” Baker is consciously deceiving his
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