James Baldwin's Autobiography

Throughout his essay, Baldwin makes numerous use of italicize words or sentences to state a strong fact that he agrees with or deems important to readers. By italicizing that “Negroes want to be treated like men”, Baldwin clearly states his position. The extent, to which he uses this writing technique, signifies that he not only speaks for himself but also for his Community, Harlem. Aside from using italics Baldwin makes use of lengthy sentences, that are sustain with breaks such as hyphens and dashes, and a tone of sarcasm to affirm his position in the matter. He goes into hesitations when writing the lengthy sentences by including the dashes, which suggests that he is not only sustaining his position but also indicating that he has an experienced idea of what he is expressing. Baldwin`s degree of sarcasm in the opening paragraphs, is used to give an idea of how poorly their environment is but more over to show the insignificance that their environment has on others and their lack of attempt to “rehabilitate” it.

The turning point in the essay is when Baldwin states “Because if I am no what I’ve told I am, then it means that you’re not what you thought you were either! And that is the crisis.” By stating this it recognizes the faults in the education system, and leaves the audience intrigued wanting him to elaborate on his point. This statement also unfolds the truth about education which is “if you lie about one aspect of anybody’s history, you must lie about it all.”

Asides from giving complete information to the brother, Baldwin chooses to write the story in the first person point of view because he wants the reader to feel exactly as how the brother is feeling. By having it told from the first person, the reader could build a stronger connection with the character in the story. Baldwin distinguishes to the reader the difference between of being told a story and of experiencing the story first hand. The reader sees the events through the brother’s eyes, which makes the story more realistic and believable. For example, when the brother first discovers about his uncle’s death, he is stupefied and shock at the unbelievable news. Baldwin demonstrates this by stating,” I guess I didn’t want to believe this.” He ends with, “Still, I couldn’t move.” (51) If the quotes were replaced by “he” instead of “I”, the story would lose its credibility. The reader will be less reluctant to believe the true emotion that the brother is experiencing. The first person point of view connects character to the reader, allowing for a more complete understanding of what is happening.

Here Baldwin connected the death and violence of the civil rights riots and his father’s death, to the destruction of pride in his father and himself. Baldwin admitted throughout the essay that he had hatred for his father. The ideas of hatred and apocalypse are repeated in this paragraph. The repetition of these evil words showed the relationship between the end of two worlds that affected Baldwin. Baldwin felt that his father left him with the world around him crumbling and his own world as well. Baldwin used the central idea of death to tie together the two ideas of the riots and his father’s death.

Baldwin is known for his passionate and poetic style in 1963, which is based on his skillful use of rhetorical devices. In a detailed response, explain how the rhetoric language and its use of Aristotle's appeal are integral in aiding Baldwins purpose. In James Baldwin's letter to his nephew, written one hundred years after the Emancipation Proclamation, Baldwin emphasizes on the issue of In a detailed response, explain how the rhetoric  language  and its use of Aristotle's appeal are integral in aiding Baldwins purpose toward his intended audience.

The story “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin makes excellent use of multiple literary elements. Namely, I think the writer utilizes symbolism and the nuances of point of view to give the story a deeper connotation that could not be said plainly. The meat of the story is about an unnamed older brother’s relationship and differences with his younger brother, Sonny. Sonny’s aspiration to become a jazz pianist leads him in an opposite direction than his brother, and into a world where the common suffering is dealt with by heroin and music. The fundamental differences between the brothers in their lack of understanding for each other and their gradual acceptance of one another is highlighted and

The passage reveals the difficult relationship which Baldwin had with his father. He says “When he died I had been away from home for a little over a year” (222). Baldwin had not been living with his father which caused them to become even more distant from each other. Also, on page 221 he says, “When he was dead I realized that I had hardly ever spoken to him” which shows that the two didn’t like to converse with each other. Baldwin also describes his father as “the most bitter man” and “indescribably cruel” (221). And he uses repetition of the word bitter throughout the essay. His description of his father shows that his father wasn’t a kind father which made their relationship challenging. And also shows that Baldwin had a negative image of his father. This negative image came from the resentment his father held towards people. Furthermore, Baldwin discloses how other family members reacted to his father’s death. He says, “The younger children felt, quite simply, relief that he would not be coming home anymore” (222) this reveals that the father’s death brought liberation for the family. They felt that they had been liberated from the hatred their father had towards whites. They felt

“Notes of a Native Son” is a narrative of Baldwin’s life. It is mainly about his relationship with his father and how after his father passed away he realized how his anger and rage, which was depicted as a disease, was

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 interplay of dark and light motifs underlies the narrator’s most recent hardship. On his way home on the subway, the narrator comes across his brother’s name in a newspaper and “stared at it in the swinging lights of the subway car, and in the faces and bodies of the people, and in my own face, trapped in the darkness which roared outside” (Baldwin). Riding in the light of the subway car, the author makes the non-suspecting narrator subject to suffering, unguarded by the protective cloak of the outside darkness. Made vulnerable by the exposed light and people surrounding him, the narrator is hit harder by the unexpected news than if he had read it in the darkness of his private room. Under the “swinging lights,” the narrator is not prepared to cope with the troubling news. This emphasizes the importance of light as a symbol for one’s need of camouflage to properly cope with tragedy.

Another Country and Go Tell it on the Mountain are two of James Baldwin's most analyzed novels. Some see both novels as great additions to American literature, while others criticize Baldwin's unique writing style used in both works.

Baldwin begins the body of his essay by familiarizing the reader with the situation he is currently entangled in. His father has just died and it is the day of his funeral. Baldwin cleverly intertwines other details into this short introduction. He introduces the importance of Life and Death here. He informs the reader that on the same day of his father’s death, his youngest child was born. Life and Death are two very powerful words that employ incredibly symbolic meanings. Life and Death are direct opposites of each other immediately suggesting the distance Baldwin feels from his father at the beginning of the essay. Baldwin connects to the theme of life, because obviously he is the one who is alive, but it isn’t until later that he will realize that he will continue to live through his father. His father connects to the theme of death because he is dead and all of the themes and ideas that surrounded his life have died with him, waiting for someone to carry them on for him. Thus, Baldwin and his father contrast here because they represent the two opposite themes in a person’s life.

Baldwin talks about how prejudice creates different perceptions by explaining how he felt critical about his father's perceptions growing up. At the funeral for Baldwin's father, Baldwin expresses about how his point of view on the world seems different after he lost his father than it did when his father was still alive. Baldwin implies that he felt like there was nothing wrong with the world and the only problem was how his father perceived the world. During his lament on how wrong he was about the sentiments of the world, Baldwin writes "I had declined to believe in that apocalypse which had been central to my father's vision" (45). Baldwin's essay implies Baldwin's father's viewpoints and values about the cruel world they live in were right all this time. Baldwin also realizes it was wrong of him to let his prejudice get in the way of his father's perception of the world as his father lived under harsh conditions, such as violence and racism, for decades.

Throughout the entire essay, Baldwin uses his circumstances to make you feel sympathy towards him as an author. In one part of his works he tells the awful account of his father’s mental illness. When telling the audience what he had went through, at the age of 19, someone reading this, might say that brings them sympathy, while his tone in passages where he explains these sad expressions are unattached. He writes, “…In the morning the telegram came saying he was dead. Then the house was full of relatives, friends, hysteria, and confusion…” Here, he plainly states the facts of how his house was after his father’s death but does not describe how he feels about the people being in his house or the emotional toll his father’s death has taken on him. This is just one aspect of

James Baldwin is highly regarded as one of the great writers of his time. In the “Notes of a Native Son” he describes a very influential moment in his life. The essay’s setting takes place during the Harlem riots in New York City and Detroit. The riot in New York all began due the fatal shooting of a young African American boy by a white police officer. Protesters began to protest the police brutality, but then fights and looting broke out when some protesters became unruly. Baldwin’s essay reflects upon his interactions and feelings with and about his father. He analyzes how his father affected him and talks about what kind of person his father was. He also reflects on the impact of his father’s death. All the