Commentary on Roots Essay

Imagine for a second, if you will, being a slave who just escaped from your owner after the fourth time trying, and once caught, you having the choice of whether you want your leg or genitals being cut off as a punishment. Well as for someone, he chose his leg. This someone whom which I refer to, is none other than Kunta Kinte himself. That was just one of the examples that Kunta Kinte faced throughout his journey as a slave. His legacy was passed on within his family, so far going on seven generations, up to a woman named Bertha George who married Simon Alexander Haley. In 1921, they both had a boy by the name of Alexander Palmer Haley. He is the author of this book entitled, "The Roots."

Alex Haley was born an African-American in Ithaca, New York. Being told this story of his ancestor, Kunta Kinte, Alex mentally and physically probably felt as if it was he being tortured by his white owner. Just the fact of knowing that one of your family members went through such agony; it kind of puts you in the same perspective as them and truly does, in some miraculous way, transfer their soul's pain onto yours. These stories triggered Alex's mind to believe that no one should have encountered the wrong doings that his ancestors haveTherefore, Alex's family tree became, in his mind and in the mind of his readers, a dynasty. His family was forced to rip through the obstacles of slavery and undergo every last breath they had to survive. Kunta Kinte was stripped of his ever-lasting piece of dignity. He was caught by slave hunters, tortured, starved, cooped up in the lower deck of a big slave ship like a contortionist, put in chains like a criminal, put in cages like cattle, and sold as if an object. His named was even stripped from him to "Toby." "A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of others." - -Albert Einstein.

However, because Kunta had such a high belief in his Muslim religion, praising Allah, he had the will power to fight for his freedom. He struggled to give it his all so that his family could go on for generations and generations. His family would carry in their souls his legacy so they would not go through the same as he once did. Nonetheless, he succeeded through seven generations and still going strong. Alex Haley took it upon himself to share with the world the story of his family tree. Not only with Kunta Kinte's story, but going above and beyond with twelve years of research starting with Kunta's. Haley must have felt the need to share with the world the story of his ancestor's starting with Kunta because he was the foundation of the family. Without Kunta's high belief of religion, Alex Haley's family tree would not be of existence today.

The Roots has significantly succeeded as being Haley's best work and was formally turned into a miniseries as well. This book greatly portrays, in detail, the hardships of slaves. Thus, this book is greatly recommended to be used in a classroom because it fulfills the readers with great insight. There is no other book like it because a man whose family went through it all wrote it. "The only source of knowledge is experience." - -Albert Einstein.