When an author writes any type of work, he or she tends to focus on certain aspects such as theme, setting, genre, and character development. These key characteristics shape the story or work into what the author intends it to be. Sometimes readers don't immediately understand what the author meant, while sometimes it's obvious. The world of literature is very broad, although many works may share common themes, settings, and other literary characteristics even though they were published in very different time periods. A perfect example is “The Artificial Nigger” published in 1955 by Flannery O'Connor, and “The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man” published in 1912 by James Weldon Johnson. These two literary works share the common theme of racism and in each story Nelson, the child protagonist, is completely unaware of what race is at first. Nelson's grandfather, Mr. Head, seems to always make racist comments, and asks Nelson a few times if he has ever seen a black man. Nelson, like every other child, tries to act the way he did, when in reality he doesn't even know what a "nigger" looks like. While on the train, Mr. Head points out an African-American man and asks Nelson if he knows what kind of man he is. Nelson responds with innocent comments about the man's height and age, but says nothing about the man's skin tone. Mr. Head is completely driven by what he calls "ignorance." At this moment in history, O'Connor shows that racism is not innate in people. Instead it is something that is taught by others. Nelson does not distinguish black from white, which demonstrates innocence and equality. This notion is quickly quashed when his grandfather adds the label “nigger” to a dark-skinned man. When the black man leaves and Nelson believes it is to mock him, Mr. Head's unrealistic ideas that blacks are bad immediately consume Nelson. O'Connor uses the theme of racism to drive the rest of the story forward. Other crucial moments are when Mr. Head disrespects the black worker and when Nelson and Mr. Head get lost in a black neighborhood of Atlanta. Racism is the key theme motivating this story. Although at the beginning of the story, the narrator, like Nelson, has no idea what race is. The narrator, once again like Nelson, displays complete innocence when it comes to race. Although the narrator is black in blood but white in skin, he does not discover that he fits the label of "black" until his teacher points it out to him. When the narrator learns the difference between black and white is one of the most pivotal moments in Johnson's story. After learning about the “difference” between blacks and whites in school, the narrator immediately begins speaking using racial slurs and adopts misconceptions about blacks from those around him, just like Nelson. In the rest of the story, the narrator struggles to find what identity he would like to adopt since he can pass as black or white. The narrator finds that he constantly faces racism when he chooses to identify as "black" and decides that it is easier to identify as white. The theme of racism is the driving force behind Johnson's work, just as it is for