James Baldwin creates a casual relationship with the audience in the opening two paragraphs. The informal tone builds a relaxed feeling between the author and reader. In his introduction, Baldwin claims himself as a “commuter” than an “expatriate”. Meaning he travels around the world instead of remaining in a different country. He introduces himself as someone who surrounded himself with knowledge about the subject. In the first sentence, Baldwin uses the word “we”, indicating that he is engaging with the people that are present. This allows the audience to become closer, feel comfortable, and think on the same level. As the paragraph continues, he states his viewpoints on education to a group of teachers, specifically African Americans. Baldwin …show more content…
himself is an African American and relates to the same struggles growing up. Although he is not a teacher, he acts in a position of one. Baldwin establishes his ethos by describing familiar experiences or events the audience might understand as African Americans. The crucial paradox is education. Baldwin claims that education is influenced by society. He claims the purpose is for a person to make their own decisions in search of their identity. Instead of staying in the lines of others, education allows people to express their opinions and choose their own path. To choose what he himself believes. However, Baldwin states that society is not looking for that type of person. “Societies really want a citizenry which will simply obey the rules of society”, claims Baldwin. The result is to encourage a person to change the rules of society. If this happens, then the citizen will do anything to make the beliefs of education different. Throughout paragraphs three and five, Baldwin appeals to pathos. In paragraph three, an African American who experiences education, in America, ends up with a mental health issue. The African American acts like any other American, pledging to the flag and having the opportunity of becoming president. However, his country reminds him that his past is humiliating, his contribution to civilization was nowhere to be seen. Paragraph four describes a black child’s thoughts. Being a young child is not knowing many things about life. The child is aware of his parents’ actions and what he’s supposed to do but does not know the reason behind it. Specifically, black children are unaware of their ancestors past until they reach the age of education. Until then does he uncover the truth of his mistreatment. The next paragraph, five, discusses the experience of a child living in the ghetto. His home is located in an undesirable neighborhood, near the pimps and junkies. The child is aware of his surroundings, but he’s clueless. Ultimately, growing up as an African American is not rainbows and sunshine. African American children are being treated like garbage while a rich kid experiences a better life. A child is oblivious to why the world is treating him and his family a certain way. In the beginning of paragraph six, Baldwin includes his personal experience.
His lines are, “I still remember the first sight of New York”. This adds authorization that Baldwin is a reliable source and allows the audience to know where his point of view comes from. Baldwin isn’t just some regular guy who read articles about this matter, he has personally been through these situations. He continues his experience by stating “it’s very hard to relate yourself to this”, meaning the audience would know what it was like if they were in his shoes. It’s also important to remember that Baldwin is sharing his story with African Americans who could relate to his …show more content…
history. During paragraphs eight and nine, Baldwin’s use of pronouns connects himself and others who have been in the same situation. This emphasizes that he is not the only person who thinks about the value of education. He delivers this speech to a group of African Americans who each have different stories and perspectives. There are millions of people worldwide who deal with this issue every day and some don’t even know why it’s happening. Baldwin stresses how the child can be aware of his surroundings and decide if it’s for him or someone else. Baldwin’s perspective on history is reliable, but it is one perspective out of millions of African Americans. He describes how he lived throughout his childhood and others as well. As for providing historical evidence, Baldwin refers to the era of Reconstruction and the Depression of the 1930s. He declares that during the era of Reconstruction, freedom was not declared. During the 1930s, years later, no changes were made between African Americans and white workers. These documentations supports his argument by describing events where African Americans were discriminated back in the day. Even after a hundred years later, people still don’t realize everyone is the same no matter what skin color they are. Society has not changed its mindset of African Americans. The word “nigger” is a racial slur used towards African Americans.
Baldwin includes this term to show how the world labeled black people. Non-blacks were going around using this slur to innocent black people for no reason. It is a word that engraves a horrid mark on an African American. Being called a racial slur constantly is not a pleasant feeling, especially when it’s unnecessary. If a less provocative term was used, “negro”, it would not be as effective and meaningful. The term “negro”, is a less offensive word towards black people. It would not remind African Americans of the horrific times they were called
“nigger”. By stating “What passes for identity in America is a series of myths about one’s heroic ancestors”, means the actions of one’s ancestors defines who one is today. Back in the day, immigrants traveled to America in search of their “American dream”. They leave their old life behind to begin fresh. However, it was not as easy as it sounded. On the other hand, white people did not have to face as many struggles as black people. White people were not called racial slurs, they weren’t called racial slurs, and they weren’t as friendly as they should’ve been. In history, children are taught how heroic white people “discovered” America, while black people were slaves. The false statement is describing the white people as “heroic” because they did not discover America. The addition of the two sentence paragraph adds a break, a pause in thought for the reader and audience. It is sandwiched in between two long paragraphs to emphasize the importance of the Bible reference. The Bible reference also provides further evidence of how people today, are intimidated by “lack of vision”. The vision people are lacking is God’s vision of the world. Go envisions a society where people treat each other equally. However, if this does not happen, then the world will be filled with violence. Baldwin highlights the fact that people need to treat others equally in order to create peace. Throughout the last paragraph, Baldwin repeats the phrase “I would”. This technique, anaphora, engages the audience to what the speaker is trying to say. The repetition floods the audience's mind, forcing them to remember what Baldwin wants to try. He indicates how he would try to teach children to face all of the struggles with knowledge. Instead of growing up, obeying rules with an unknown meaning, Baldwin urges to educate them. The repetition also expresses how eager Baldwin wants to try. Baldwin appeals to logos throughout the whole speech. He is constantly making connections with history, the Bible, and his own experiences. The Biblical reference is most important because it is the word of the God, the person who believes in equality. On a topic about equality, using reliable and relevant sources causes the audience to believe in the claim. The overall tone Baldwin uses in the speech would be passionate and sophisticated. He devoted his time to express his feeling about education on African Americans and wanted to spread his message. For instance, Without making the speech difficult to understand, Baldwin includes references that every African American can relate to.
The absence of true freedom is apparent in Baldwin?s other essays, in which he writes about the rampant prejudice and discrimination of the 1950?s and 60?s. Blacks during this time were limited as to where they could live, go to school, use the bathroom, eat, and drink. ?Such were the cases of a Nigerian second secretary who was rebuffed last week when he tried to order breakfast in Charlottesville, VA, and a Ghanaian second secret...
American dream at the expense of the American’s Negros. Debate between Baldwin and Buckley. Baldwin was a superior persuasive and an intelligent man. Although, the audience were white college students who looks life Buckley, Baldwin was speaking confidently. He states about the black free labor in 1960s in America. As he states in the debate, America’s road, ports, cities and the economy was built by free labor of black people. However, they do not have fundamental right as human being. They are murdered, arrested, and suffered terribly by white people. He strongly described that black people in Selma, Alabama were brutally beaten. Therefore, the white people treated black people not as a citizen of the country, they treat
In 1955 a civil rights activist by the name of James Baldwin wrote his famous essay “Notes of a Native Son”. James Baldwin was born in Harlem, New York during a time where racial tensions where high all throughout the United States. In this essay he highlights these tension and his experience’s regarding them, while also giving us an insight of his upbringing. Along with this we get to see his relationship with a figure of his life, his father or more accurately his stepfather. In the essay James Baldwin says “This fight begins, however, in the heart and it now had been laid to my charge to keep my own heart free of hatred and despair”. This is a very powerful sentence that I believe
The words Negro, nigger, and nigga have always been a sensitive topic, yet it is a topic that needs to be addressed in light of the more common use of its vernacular. One word is used to describe a color, while the others are used to define a people. It’s very clear to many the negative connotation these words carry, but where did these words come from? Furthermore, is there a difference between the word nigger and nigga; and why is it that African-Americans now use the word nigga to degrade each other in today’s society? These words, in spite of their spelling, still holds the same degrading power as it did during the time of slavery, and they are still spoken out of cruelty and ignorance, but who is to blame? Can one still blame the Spaniards for considering people of a darker skin tone –Black? Can we blame the Europeans for perpetuating their hatred and ignorance of superiority over a race of people to the point they felt it lawful to define and dehumanize them? Or does the blame lie with the African-American race as we use this degrading labeling on our own kind, thus becoming the victimizer. Either way nigger or nigga are words that should be eliminated from the vocabulary of every human being.
Baldwin’s father died a broken and ruined man on July 29th, 1943. This only paralleled the chaos occurring around him at the time, such as the race riots of Detroit and Harlem which Baldwin describes to be as “spoils of injustice, anarchy, discontent, and hatred.” (63) His father was born in New Orleans, the first generation of “free men” in a land where “opportunities, real and fancied, are thicker than anywhere else.” (63) Although free from slavery, African-Americans still faced the hardships of racism and were still oppressed from any opportunities, which is a factor that led Baldwin’s father to going mad and eventually being committed. Baldwin would also later learn how “…white people would do anything to keep a Negro down.” (68) For a preacher, there was little trust and faith his father ...
When reading “My Dungeon Shook: A Letter to my Nephew”, it was clear that Baldwin was not just writing a letter to his nephew but to society by interacting personal thoughts with public awareness.
The key themes of Baldwin’s essay are love, hatred, rage, and anger. These themes quickly transform into recurring strands that Baldwin applies throughout his essay. These ...
Baldwin's mind seems to be saturated with anger towards his father; there is a cluster of gloomy and heartbreaking memories of his father in his mind. Baldwin confesses that "I could see him, sitting at the window, locked up in his terrors; hating and fearing every living soul including his children who had betrayed him" (223). Baldwin's father felt let down by his children, who wanted to be a part of that white world, which had once rejected him. Baldwin had no hope in his relationship with his father. He barely recalls the pleasurable time he spent with his father and points out, "I had forgotten, in the rage of my growing up, how proud my father had been of me when I was little" (234). The cloud of anger in Baldwin's mind scarcely lets him accept the fact that his father was not always the cold and distant person that he perceived him to be. It is as if Baldwin has for...
...erance for those who are disrespectful, but realizes that people can and hopefully will change and that we need each other to change. The New York Times described the James Baldwin segment as "a television experience that seared the conscience" (qtd. in PBS Online). In one instance Baldwin makes a hearty and honest “can’t we all get along” statement. “In short, we, the black and the white, deeply need each other here if we are really to become a nation – if we are really, that is, to achieve our identity, our maturity as men and women” (Baldwin 342).
The works of James Baldwin are directly related to the issues of racism, religion and personal conflicts, and sexuality and masculinity during Baldwin's years.James Baldwin's works, both fiction and nonfiction were in some instance a direct reflection his life. Through close interpretation you can combine his work to give a "detailed" look into his actual life. However since most writings made by him are all considered true works of literature we can't consider them to be of autobiographical nature.
Before he talked about African-American culture he first talked about French speaking people. Saying, “A Frenchman living in Paris speaks a subtly and crucially different language from that of the man living in Marseilles; neither sounds very much like a man living in Quebec; and they would all have great difficulty in apprehending what the man from Guadeloupe, or Martinique, is saying, to say nothing of the man from Senegal--although the"common" language of all these areas is French.”(Baldwin, paragraph 2). Explaining to readers that even though those people in each place speak French they are separated by their dialect. Making the point that speaking a certain dialect of a language ties you with that culture. Pointing the reader to accept or listen to African American expression of English. By giving this example about dialect, Baldwin wants to express that dialect is a way to separate cultures among people. He then talks about the African American “slang” and how it ties to the
James Baldwin was born in Harlem in a time where his African American decent was enough to put more challenges in front of him than the average (white) American boy faced. His father was a part of the first generation of free black men. He was a bitter, overbearing, paranoid preacher who refused change and hated the white man. Despite of his father, his color, and his lack of education, James Baldwin grew up to be a respected author of essays, plays, and novels. While claiming that he was one of the best writers of the era could be argued either way, it is hard to argue the fact that he was indeed one of the most well-known authors of the time. One of his intriguing skills as a writer is his ability to intertwine narration and analysis in his essays. James Baldwin mixes narration and analysis in his essays so well that coherence is never broken, and the subconscious is so tempted to agree with and relate to what he says, that if you don’t pay close attention, one will find himself agreeing with Baldwin, when he wasn’t even aware Baldwin was making a point. Physical placement of analytical arguments and analytical transitions, frequency and size of analytical arguments, and the language used within the analytical arguments are the keys to Baldwin’s graceful persuasion. Throughout this essay, I will be using Baldwin’s “Notes of a Native Son” for examples. “Notes of a Native Son” is an essay that Baldwin wrote which focuses primarily on his life around the time his father died, which also happens to be the same time his youngest brother was born.
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 while, within the essay, Baldwin uses different techniques in order to obtain and intrigue his readers. He primarily makes his essay a narrative. However, he also incorporates his analysis, which usually stem from his use of binaries and contrasts. His use of repetitive words also plays a big part in his style. All of those techniques all intertwined in a way that will help the reader understand Baldwin and his ideas a lot clearer. His combination of both narrative and analysis can be viewed in the very first paragraph.
Baldwin being visits an unfamiliar place that was mostly populated by white people; they were very interested in the color of his skin. The villagers had never seen a black person before, which makes the villager
...as a reader I must understand that his opinions are supported by his true, raw emotions. These negative feelings shared by all of his ancestors were too strong to just pass by as meaningless emotions. Baldwin created an outlook simply from his honest views on racial issues of his time, and ours. Baldwin?s essay puts the white American to shame simply by stating what he perceived as truth. Baldwin isn?t searching for sympathy by discussing his emotions, nor is he looking for an apology. I feel that he is pointing out the errors in Americans? thinking and probably saying, ?Look at what you people have to live with, if and when you come back to the reality of ?our? world.?