Introduction
James Baldwin had to overcome an extremely challenging life as an outcast to become the prominent writer and person he is known as today. Baldwin was an outcast in society because he was a poor, homosexual, African-American man in a time where blacks were highly discriminated. Baldwin had a very tough childhood, his family was poor, his real father wasn’t around and he was the oldest of eight siblings growing up in Harlem, New York. James Baldwin reflects his life and childhood in the short story “The Rock Pile.” James Baldwin’s life is reflected in “The Rock Pile” and other of his books because of Baldwin’s constant feeling to get out there and show everyone who he really is, his state of contentment after he didn’t receive the
…show more content…
results he wanted, and his ability to defend his actions no matter what. Summary “The Rockpile” by James Baldwin is about two boys, John and Roy who live in Harlem, New York.
At the end of the street there is a big pile of rocks that all the boys go to, and on those rocks they all fight each other. John and Roy’s mother don’t allow them to go to the rock because she is afraid that they will get hurt. The boys sit by the window of their apartment everyday and watch the other boys fight at the rocks, until a group of kids come to their window and asked Roy to come to the rocks and fight. Roy was dying to go to the rocks to fight so he sneaks out. When Roy got to the rock pile he gets involved in a gang fight between two groups of boys. Then all of the sudden an empty tin can flew out of nowhere and hit Roy right on the head. John was watching through the window and he told his mother what was happening and why Roy went down there. Roy was carried back upstairs from the rocks. Roy and John’s parents were equally as mad at John as they were at Roy because John let him go downstairs without even trying to stop him. After Roy was brought back inside he defended his action to his parents. The theme of this story is that mystery and curiosity will push someone into doing something that they are not supposed to be doing or not used to …show more content…
doing. Research and Analysis James Baldwin’s short story “The Rock Pile” reflects his life because in both the short story and in Baldwin’s life they both felt the need to go out there and show everyone who they really are. Both Baldwin and Roy were sitting back and watching until they realized that they had to get out there and show everyone what they were made of. Baldwin was a “a black, impoverished homosexual” (Kenan 1) and he felt that this was a gift, that he couldn’t sit behind a window and watch the world, but that he had to get out there. Baldwin was once asked what the challenges were of being a “black, impoverished homosexual” (Kenan 1) and “Baldwin had laughed and said I thought i’d hit the jackpot” (Kenan 1). James Baldwin wanted people to know what it was like living as a homosexual African - American man but he didn’t want people to feel bad for him. He just wanted to teach people that they shouldn’t judge him or look at him in a different way. This was a very challenging thing to do because of the time period James Baldwin lived in where being a homosexual was nearly unheard of and African - Americans were highly discriminated against. This didn’t stop James Baldwin. He knew he was born to help the world and that is exactly what Baldwin tried to do day in and day out. As the well known author Janet Kinosian emphasizes, “His bold way of speaking truth to power ignited his literary career even as it created nervousness among the mainstream American public”(Kinosian 1). Baldwin wasn’t afraid to be the first one to come out and break the ice. This was a nervous and touchy subject for Americans in James Baldwin’s time period and Baldwin knew that someone had to be the first to bring it into the public eye. Roy was similar to Baldwin on a different level. Roy wasn’t able to sit by that window and watch the other boys fight. He knew he had to get out there and show all the other boys what he was made of. Roy and Baldwin both lept into the public and out of their comfort zone because of their curiousity of what would happen next. Baldwin was curious on how the world would react to his Homosexuality and Roy wanted to see what would happen if he went to the rocks and fought the other boys. No matter what the result James Baldwin got, he didn’t stop expressing himself.
He was always happy with the results he got even if they weren’t great. Just like in “The Rockpile”, Roy knew he couldn’t just sit behind the window and watch, he knew he had to get out there. Even though most of his reactions were negative, Roy and Baldwin both knew that they just couldn’t leave it alone. James Baldwin knew that the only way that people would start to understand, possibly even accept his beliefs was if he kept going. He showed this in his writing. He expressed his beliefs on Racism and racial stereotypes. Books were Baldwin’s way of getting his points across. He knew that if he stopped writing them the American people wouldn’t know what he had to live with. As Janet Kinosian pointed out Baldwin was Banned from speaking at the 1963 March on Washington. This is just one instance where Baldwin was stopped because people were afraid of what Baldwin would say but this didn’t stop him. James Baldwin was considered an “uncertain nervousness” (Kinosian 1), nobody knew what he was going to say and this is what made what Baldwin said so special every time he spoke. Baldwin also received harsher criticism on whatever he said because of his “homosexuality and interracial relations” (Kinosian 1). Overall James Baldwin had many reasons to stop pushing his beliefs onto people. If anything James Baldwin had more reasons to stop then to keep going, but he kept going. What makes Roy like James
Baldwin was that even after he went down to the rocks and got hurt he wasn’t upset with his decision he was still happy he did it. Baldwin does this as well because he doesn't get positive results when he tells the world that he is a homosexual but he is still happy with the decision he made to tell them. That's what made James Baldwin successful, not that he was talented but that he was relentless, nothing could get in his way. Lastly, in both “The Rockpile” and in the life of James Baldwin, the characters both defend their actions and beliefs no matter what. Roy defends his reasoning for going down to the rockpile over and over again and Baldwin refuses to ever change his beliefs and how he defends them. There were many times where it would have been easier for James Baldwin to forget his beliefs and just give in. It was the world versus James Baldwin and Baldwin won. Baldwin won because he just stuck and stuck to what he truly believed in. This is what led to the ultimate success of James Baldwin and he expresses this in his books. All of the characters in all of his books make up their minds early on and stick with their gut the whole way through. This is how he gets across his points on homosexuality and racism. He uses his characters perseverance to always back up and represent what they truly believe in to show the stereotypes and racial issues against African - Americans and Homosexuals. Conclusion James Baldwin’s challenging childhood and upbringing shaped him into the man and person that he died as. Baldwin was an outcast in society but this just pushed him harder and harder to teach the rest of the world what it was like to be an outcast. James Baldwin wanted other outcasts to know that they weren’t alone and that being an outcast wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Overall, James Baldwin’s life is reflected in “The Rock Pile” and other books he wrote because of Baldwin’s constant feeling to get out there and show everyone who he really is, his state of contentment after he didn’t get the results he wanted and his ability to defend his actions no matter what. James Baldwin lived a life being proud of his beliefs and being fearless of what the consequences could be of him telling the world about his homosexuality.
The way Baldwin describes his relationship with his father shows an overall concern of the family. With eight brothers and sisters, the poor preacher had little money to support their mouths let alon...
Reilly, John M. " 'Sonny's Blues': James Baldwin's Image of Black Community." James Baldwin: A Critical Evaluation. Ed.Therman B. O'Daniel. Howard University Press. Washington, D.C. 1977. 163-169.
Baldwin’s story is about how he becomes aware of himself and who he is as a person. James Baldwin never knew
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 contact with the harshness of America, he realizes the problems and conflicts he runs into are the same his father faced, and that they will have the same affect on him as they did his father.
James Baldwin’s short story “Sonny’s Blues” illustrates the inner struggle of breaking the hold of lifestyles unfamiliar to those normally accepted by society. Through the use of common fictitious tools such as plot, characters, conflict, and symbolic irony, Baldwin is able to explore the complex difficulties that challenge one in the acceptance of differences in one another. This essay will attempt to understand these thematic concepts through the use of such devises essential in fiction, as well as to come to an understanding of how the particular elements of fiction assist the author in exploring the conflict.
Baldwin executed a well written short story by making the point of view through the eyes of Sonny’s brother. The setting made the story realistic, and the themes were powerful and influential. Though Sonny had struggles in life along with the rest of the family, he is able to redeem himself through his music. “Sonny’s fingers filled the air with life, his life. But that life contained so many others. And Sonny went all the way back, he really began to make it his.”
James Baldwin is one of the premier essayists of his time. He draws on his experiences in a straightforward, unapologetic manner, which helps achieve his purpose in The Fire Next Time. His style elucidates his arguments for racial harmony and for the understanding of other religions.
Throughout Baldwin’s essay he strategically weaves narrative, analytical, and argumentative selections together. The effect that Baldwin has on the reader when using this technique is extremely powerful. Baldwin combines both private and public affairs in this essay, which accentuates the analysis and argument sections throughout the work. Baldwin’s ability to shift between narrative and argument so smoothly goes hand in hand with the ideas and events that Baldwin discusses in his essay. He includes many powerful and symbolic binaries throughout the essay that help to develop the key themes and principles pertaining to his life. The most powerful and important binaries that appear in this essay are Life and Death.
As a grown black male Baldwin had encompassed a range of experiences, both horrifying and gratuitous. Those occurrences most treacherous were a focal point when he adds that, “It doesn’t matter any longer what you do to me; you can put me in jail, you can kill me. By the time I was 17, you’d done everything that you could do to me” (“The Negro” 2). Reflecting back on “Down at the Cross” for a moment, Baldwin starts by explaining the metamorphosis of both the black girls and boys. Most of his friends became pimps and whores, and the b...
The Life of James Baldwin James Baldwin states, “I knew I was black, of course, but I also knew I was smart. I didn't know how I would use my mind, or even if I could, but that was the only thing I had to use” (PBS 2). This quote from James Baldwin from an article by PBS sums up the challenge he had to face because he was black. Through his personal life, his work and his accomplishments, James Baldwin has been considered one of the most prestigious writers in American Literature. Growing up an African-American in the early 1900s, James Baldwin didn’t have it easy.
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.
James Baldwin tells a story about an African American man named Sonny. The setting of the story takes place in the projects of Harlem New York during the nineteen fifties. The story is narrated by Sonny’s brother and in this story the narrator describes the hardships of growing up in the projects. Sonny was the family screw up for he fell into the life of crime and drug uses. Sonny fell into the life of crime for he grew up in Harlem where he “turned hard... the way kids can… in Harlem” (Baldwin 49). Sonny was especially into heroin or referred to as horse in this story. Because of his drug use he was always in and out of jail “He had been picked up, the evening before, in a raid on an apartment downtown, for peddling and using heroin” (49). Harlem and the society had and impact on the African Americans for they never had the same opportunities to succeed before the civil rights act. Even the narrator who was the good and smart kid who had a college education and who was sober could not afford to live outside of the projects. It seems as if nothing would work for every escape lead them back to the projects. Sonny tried every thing to escape poverty, but never could escape it. Sonny said “I don’t want to stay in Harlem no more, I really don’t… I want to join the army or the navy, I don’t care” (60). Sonny was so desperate to escape poverty that
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 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.
... the miserable life that African Americans had to withstand at the time. From the narrator’s life in Harlem that he loathed, to the drug problems and apprehensions that Sonny was suffering from, to the death of his own daughter Grace, each of these instances serve to show the wretchedness that the narrator and his family had to undergo. The story in relation to Baldwin possibly leads to the conclusion that he was trying to relate this to his own life. At the time before he moved away, he had tried to make a success of his writing career but to no avail. However, the reader can only be left with many more questions as to how Sonny and the narrator were able to overcome these miseries and whether they concluded in the same manner in the life of Baldwin.
...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.?