Baldwin's Tragic Flaw

There is a very thin line between love and hate in James Baldwin’s essay “Notes of a Native Son.” Throughout this essay James Baldwin continually makes references to life and death, blacks and whites, and love and hate. He uses his small experiences to explain a much larger, more complicated picture of life. From the first paragraph of the essay to the last paragraph, Baldwin continually makes connections on his point of view on life; beginning with the day his father died, to the time that his father was buried. James Baldwin is an outstanding author, who creatively displays his ability to weave narration and analysis throughout his essays.

Burning fossil fuels isn’t the only reason for pollution; likewise, language isn’t the only key to social acceptance and identity. Baldwin’s argument about the importance of language as the "key to identity and social acceptance" is somewhat accurate. Society acceptances us due to our language and provides us with an identity. Social acceptance should be based on how one represents themselves in front of others. Language is of the aspects that determines one’s social acceptance, but it is not the only key to social acceptance. Identity is who you are and something that defines someone; however, language shouldn’t be the only key to one’s identity. Although language plays a significant role in social acceptance and

Other than Baldwin’s honesty, his ability to create emotion is also a part of his style. Zinsser advised, “Writers are obviously at their most natural when they write in the first person … Therefore I urge people to write in the first person: to use ‘I’ and ‘me’ and ‘us’...” (20). Zinsser believes that the use of first person allows the readers to relate and connect to the writing more. The words ”I”, “me”, and “us” signal that the book is written by an actual human and adds to the unique style of the writing. Baldwin is able to actively create a connection to the readers due to the story like manner of the book, yet, he is also able to get his point across by showing the differences in the experiences of a black man. Take for example, when

In many places throughout the world there are rigid top-down cultures and theories on education. These cultures have been seen in World War II Germany, in literature, and in education. It has been shown throughout history that these cultures can and will cause many problems to fester as a result. These issues include the manufacturing of sheep-like masses that simply follow what they are told and taught, the culture losing its ability to distinguish between what is morally right and wrong, and the forced masking of emotions and true feelings. The only way to prevent a culture from simply manufacturing sheep-like masses is by encouraging people to not be afraid to stand out in a crowd and allowing, and even embracing, free thinking.

Discrimination has afflicted the American society since its inception in 1776. The inferiority of the African American race – a notion embedded within the mindset of the white populace has difficult to eradicate – despite the efforts of civil rights activists and lawmakers alike. Many individuals are of the opinion that discrimination and racism no longer exist and that these issues have long since been resolved during the Civil War and the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. However such is not the case. Discrimination is a complex issue – one that encompasses many aspects of society. The impact of discrimination of the African American race is addressed from two diverse perspectives in the essays: “Notes of a Native Son” by James Baldwin and “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King .

Personal stories and descriptions of major events are narrated throughout James Baldwin’s works as he analyzes the nature of the relationship between white and black America. The marriage of narration and analysis are especially evident in Baldwin’s essay, “Notes of a Native Son.” As Baldwin describes his father and their relationship until his father’s death, he simultaneously comments about the relationship between white and black America. Baldwin compares the events of his experience with concurrent American events to conclude about the nature of his personal relationships and the relationship between races; namely, that one must come to accept the

The essay “Notes of a Native Son” takes place at a very volatile time in history. The story was written during a time of hate and discrimination toward African Americans in the United States. James Baldwin, the author of this work is African American himself. His writing, along with his thoughts and ideas were greatly influenced by the events happening at the time. At the beginning of the essay, Baldwin makes a point to mention that it was the summer of 1943 and that race riots were occurring in Detroit. The story itself takes place in Harlem, a predominantly black area experiencing much of the hatred and inequalities that many African-Americans were facing throughout the country. This marks the beginning of a

There have been many cases of social injustice on a number of occasions in the expansive history of the United States. The oppressions of the early movements for women’s suffrage and the relocation and encampment of Native Americans are two of many occurrences. Around the middle of the 20th century, a movement for equality and civil liberties for African Americans among citizens began. In this essay, Notes of a Native son James Baldwin, a black man living in this time, recalls experiences from within the heart of said movement. Baldwin conveys a sense of immediacy throughout his passage by making his writing approachable and estimating an enormous amount of ethos.

In The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin addressed the problem of racism that existed in the early 1960s. He gives very powerful accounts of his life growing up in Harlem in the 1930s and 40s. Throughout the book he gives accounts of how whites, blacks, Christians, and Muslims all can be blamed for the racial tensions that existed in the early 1960s. While Baldwin spends much of the criticism on whites, Christians, and Jews, and their inability to give up their hold on the political, financial, and religions power of the country, he also holds the Black and Muslim communities responsible for not working harder to make things better. Baldwin does not feel that the Whites are totally accountable for the racial situation that exists in the

Narrative is a form of writing used by writers to convey their experiences to an audience. James Baldwin is a renowned author for bringing his experience to literature. He grew up Harlem in the 1940’s and 1950’s, a crucial point in history for America due to the escalading conflict between people of different races marked by the race riots of Harlem and Detroit. This environment that Baldwin grew up in inspires and influences him to write the narrative “Notes of a Native Son,” which is based on his experience with racism and the Jim-Crow Laws. The narrative is about his father and his influence on Baldwin’s life, which he analyzes and compares to his own experiences. When Baldwin comes into

James Baldwin was an African American writer who, through his own personal experiences and life, addressed issues such as race, sexuality, and the American identity. “Notes of a Native Son” is one of many essays that Baldwin wrote during his lifetime. Within this essay, Baldwin talks about when his father died and the events that revolved around it. His father’s death occurs in the early 1940s, where oppression and racism were still fairly prevalent in many cities across the nation. So amidst the events that revolve around Baldwin’s father’s death, there are many riots and beatings taking place. This essay is simply not a recollection of what Baldwin experienced in the

James Baldwin’s “Notes of a Native Son” interweaves his own racial experiences with the ongoing chaos and claustrophobia in Harlem. Following the death of his father, a man “eaten up by paranoia,” the author embarks on an introspective journey, realizing how his identity is shaped by both the traits he inherits from his father and the experiences he has with racist attitudes and violence. Baldwin’s prose is as complex as the concepts he deals with, as he comes to the conclusion that hatred is a choice, not a fact of life.

    It is our desire as humans to be good, sure there a couple of that are jerks thrown in there, but that inevitable. Those who actually do good will go on to be admired by others, they will be seen as heroes, the ones who were raised right, they will be praised. Sure most people want to be good. But what about those who don’t ? What if the bad people had every intention of being bad and causing pain. What if the bad people think that what they’re doing is okay because they were never cared about enough to be taught otherwise. I have stayed up countless nights thinking about what a bad person could be doing to someone at that exact moment. Who is being raped? Who is being beaten? Who is being starved? Who is being murdered? All questions that pass through my mind as I lie sleepless in a quiet dark room that seeks peace of mind and lead me to the conclusion that we are truly born with luck. As a matter of fact we are so lucky that most people kill to be in our positions. If you truly think about it you will realize that we’re all lucky we are to be living the lives that we’re living, or to even be alive at all. The fact that we can drop dead at any second if truly astonishing and I wish I could say that no one in my close family has experienced any of that pain, I wish because someone really close to me already has, my mother.

People are weird. A lot of this is because there are so many, 7.4 billion Homo Sapiens cram themselves onto a damp rock swinging around a star and hurtling through the galaxy. On this rock we are born, grow up, thrive, grow old, and die. In general, this cycle of life has been consistent throughout history. Because of how common this cycle is, it has been subject to repeated attempts at improvement by philosophers and prophets of all time periods around the globe. One of the most important of these philosophers was a man named Augustine of Hippo, better known as Saint Augustine. Living in the fourth century CE, he constructed in his book On the Free Choice of the Will a philosophy where the mind is the dominant force that controls a person. Therefore, whatever rules the mind rules the person. The goal then is to have the mind ruled by reason and not by passions and desires. Someone who is ruled by passion and emotion will make illogical decisions, often leading to harm. There is also a Christian component to this. God’s creation is perfect, there is no evil in it. Humans make themselves a bit of an exception in creation because they have the free will. We can choose between being ruled by our passions and ruled by reason. In order to further explore this philosophy, we will take a look at two figures who live on opposite sides of history; the mythical and powerful Creon in the Sophocles play Antigone and the young and idealistic Chris McCandless in Jon Krakauer’s Into the

Freud argues that the human race was born inherently savage, meaning that each individual has inborn instincts that make them barbaric. In his book, Civilization and Its Discontents, he states, “The element of truth behind all this… is that men are not gentle creatures who want to be loved… they are, on the contrary, creatures among whose instinctual endowments is to be reckoned a powerful share of aggressiveness” (Freud 68). Through this quote, Freud contests that humanity is not kind-hearted and good. Rather, they are naturally aggressive and evil, and the desire to be repulsive overpowers the desire to be good. The main purpose of life is not to feel cherished, but rather to be tempted into wrongdoings. Freud argues that it is our natural instincts as human beings to behave in this manner because they are inborn