"Notes of a Native Son"

"Notes of a Native Son"

Irony/Juxtaposition

Motif

Historical Background

Analysis:

"On the 29th of July, in 1943, my father died. On the same day, a few hours later, his last child was born... The day of my father's funeral had also been my nineteenth birthday" (Baldwin 39-40).

"When planning a birthday celebration one naturally does not expect that it will be up against a funeral" (Baldwin 52).

• Opposing ideas of life & death
• Situational irony of Baldwin's birthday & sibling's birth vs. father's death
• Begins journey of self-discovery

Analysis

• Father's hatred toward white people & life
• Bitterness ruined relationships with son & church congregation

Literary Criticism

"It is as if, through their mutual rage, they are drawn together; through their now mutual distrust of white people, Baldwin has discovered a common language" (Hart 294-95).

• Born in Harlem in 1924 to a poor, religious family, oldest of 9 kids
• Stepfather was a preacher, strict disciplinarian
• Held many jobs (waiter, handyman etc.) before becoming a writer
• WWII, job in factory & faced racism
• Self-proclaimed “disturber of the peace"(James Baldwin)
• Influence of Jim Crow laws
• Plessy vs Ferguson (1896)
• "protests [...] often proved futile, given law enforcement's complicity in the structure" (Jim Crow).

"...that the bitterness which had helped to kill my father could also kill me" (Baldwin 42).

"...hopeless bitterness, ...one knows that a human being one loves is beyond one's reach" (Baldwin 50).

Topics

Identity

• Searching for personal identity, refers to parents, physical environment of Harlem, social atmosphere
• More awareness, more anger

Race

• Implications of racism for both oppressed & oppressor
• "Negroes were not served there, I was told, and they had been waiting for me to realize that I was always the only Negro present" (Baldwin 45).
• Baldwin's "stubborn pride" (Hart 294)

Asyndeton/Polysyndeton

Thesis:

In “Notes of a Native Son” James Baldwin employs numerous rhetorical devices to identify and analyze the source from which racism develops, while simultaneously discovering his own identity.

Analysis

"...reports of muggings, stabbings shootings, assaults, gang wars, and accusations of police brutality" (Baldwin 49).

"She made me feel pity and revulsion and fear" (Baldwin 51).

• Growth of violence in Harlem & impact on Baldwin
• "Steady parade" or list of crimes not complete (Baldwin 49)- emphasizes great number of emotions/crimes
• Separation of feelings & singular intensity of each one

Applications

Extended Metaphor

• Huck Finn
• Variations in racial etiquette in setting- Jim Crow
• Modern World
• Ferguson, MO
• Violent protests vs. "Hands Up Don't Shoot"
• Police brutality instances
• Eric Garner
• Mike Brown

Works Cited

"I did not know what I had done and I shortly began to wonder what anyone could possibly do, to bring about such a unanimous, active, and unbearably vocal hostility. I knew about Jim Crow but I had never experienced it" (Baldwin 45).

Baldwin, James. “Notes of a Native Son.” 50 Essays A

Portable Anthology. Ed. Samuel Cohen Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2004. 50-71. Print.

Hart, Joyce. "Notes of a Native Son." Nonfiction Classics

for Students: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Nonfiction Works. Ed. David Galens. Detroit: Gale Group / Thomson Learning, 2003. 289-96. Print.

"James Baldwin." Contemporary Black Biography. Vol. 1.

Detroit: Gale, 1992. U.S. History in Context. Web. 18 Jan. 2015.

“Jim Crow.” International Encyclopedia of the Social

Sciences. Ed. William A. Darity, Jr. 2nd ed. Vol. 4. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2008. 198-201. U.S. History in Context. Web. 16 Oct. 2014.

http://www.cagle.com/2014/08/ferguson-mo/

"As John W. Roberts put it in the Dictionary of Literary Biography, the relationship between the youngster and his stepfather 'served as a constant source of tension [...] and the] demands of caring for younger siblings and his stepfather's religious convictions [...] shielded the boy from the harsh realities of Harlem street life during the 1930s'" (James Baldwin).

Literary Criticism

P.O.V.

Analysis

• Draws attention to hidden emotions of resentment, regret & disappointment
• Struggles to take objective stance when discussing father
• Separate himself from image father tried to force upon him
• Gives essay a more personal and credible tone

“I do not remember, in all those years, that one of his children was ever glad to see him come home” (Baldwin 41).

“I wanted to do something to crush these white

faces, which were crushing me” (Baldwin 47).

"I first contracted some dread, chronic disease, the unfailing symptoms of which is a kind of blind fever, pounding in the skull and fire in the bowels" (Baldwin 46).

“...irresistibly raising the question of whether or not such an antidote existed; raising, which was worse, the question of whether or not an antidote was desirable, perhaps poison should be fought with poison” (Baldwin 54).

“Hatred, which could destroy so much, never failed to destroy the man who hated and this was an immutable law” (Baldwin 59).

Epiphany

1

“I had forgotten, in the rage of my growing up, how proud my father had been of me” (Baldwin 55).

Analysis

• Demonstrates his beginning to understand his father's opinions= dislike of white people & general bitterness about life
• If father was right about this, then maybe he was right about other things too

• Inherits "disease" from father
• Racist attitude of white population wears away Baldwin's confidence
• Battling decision to rid mind & conscience of hatred
• Moves away from personal reflection and starts applying it
• Demonstrates progression of Baldwin's thinking- leads to epiphany

Literary Criticism

"It is during this time that Baldwin's father is diagnosed as suffering from paranoia. Baldwin does not ever mention this mental illness on a personal basis; that is to say, he never implies that he ever feels paranoid, but he does describe some of his thoughts that could possibly be interpreted as paranoid" (Hart 295).

3

“I knew why I had put off this visit so long…I had hated him and I wanted to hold onto this hatred…once hate is gone, that they will be forced to deal with pain” (Baldwin 51).

• Stayed away from father because easier to hate him than face own emotions
• Relates to all people- if they recognize that they have no reason for hate they will be forced to feel pain-> much easier to hate then to care

2

“…that my life, my real life, was in danger and not from anything other people might do but from the hatred I carried in my own heart” (Baldwin 48).

• Straightforward thinking
• Begins to move away from personal reflection
• Realizes threat is internal (disease & hatred), not external (actions & words of other people)

4

“It is this [hatred and imbalance of power], really, which has driven so many people mad, both white and black” (Baldwin 58).

• Becomes aware of & experiences hate & its power
• From an objective stance, recognizes the presence of hatred among both communities, black and white
• Both communities at fault for hate

Anupama Shah, Becca Segel, Emily Schmidt