3. African Americans In the Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 2006, Harris defines African
Americans American Blacks or Black Americans as a racial group in the United States whose dominant ancestry is from sub-Saharan West Africa. A variety of
names have been used for African Americans at various points in history. African Americans have been referred to as Negroes, colored, blacks, and Afro-
Americans, as well as lesser-known terms, such as the 19th-century designation Anglo-African.
Referring to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English language, Afro-American is of or relating to Americans of African ancestry. Afro-American
often called as black people or blacks also refers to people relating or belonging to an American ethnic group descended from African people having dark skin 31.
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
This chapter consists of three parts. They are theoretical review, historical review of the Afro American people in America, and theoretical framework. In
the first part of this chapter, theoretical review, the writer discusses critical approaches, theory of characters, theory of characterizations and ways of struggle.
The second part is historical review of the Afro American people in America. In this part, the writer discusses the historical background of the Afro American
people, when their first time coming to America and how they were enforced to be slaves. This part also discusses racism. It contains principle of racism and how
racism influences human’s life, especially the Afro American. The last part is theoretical framework. In theoretical framework, the writer explains the
contributions of theories and reviews in solving the problems of the study.
A. Theoretical Review
1. Critical Approaches According to Rohrberger and Woods in Reading and Writing about
Literature, there are five critical approaches which can be used in analyzing a work of literature. They are: the formalistic approach, the socio cultural-historical
approach, the biographical approach, the mythopoeic approach, and the psychological approach 6-15.
