A Dream And A Hero Analysis
1.3 A Dream and A Nightmare: Heroes and Villains Martin L. King and Malcolm X have become the two most recognizable
African-American icons of the twentieth century, but a popular understanding of the two men rarely extends beyond caricatures and sound bites (Carson, The Unfinished Dialogue of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X). While many scholars believed that the African-American population achieved equality as a result of the civil rights movement, they did not necessarily show a united front in their struggle for civil rights. And while many believed in nonviolent protest and civil disobedience, as practiced by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., others, such as
Malcolm X believed violent rallies and protests would be more efficient. …show more content…
In the "Autobiographical Notes" that serve as the introduction to his first book, (The Collection of Essays “Notes of a Native Son”: "One must find, therefore, one's own moral centre and move through the world hoping that this center will guide one aright"(Baldwin: 1963: 3). Baldwin perceived the consequence of racial tensions in America as an “inevitable result of things unsaid, (in which) we find ourselves, till this day, oppressed with a dangerous and reverberating silence.”’, Baldwin, as an essayist and as a philosopher, reveals the troubles and issues that are behind the scene of the unspoken story of racial brutality that qualifies any claim for the achievements of American democracy (L. Balfour …show more content…
was asked about the difficulties facing ‘Negro Problem’, he responded, “ What did the Negro want? Ask James Baldwin.” Yet, Gates adds, “the puzzle was that Baldwin’s arguments, richly nuanced and self-consciously ambivalent, were far too complex to serve straightforwardly political ends.” And at the same time, “Baldwin rejected liberal (integrationist) calls for incremental change and militant (separationist) demands total opposition.” Thus, “he found he “found himself, as a result, alternately embraced … by both whites and blacks, mistaken for an assimilationist and
African-American icons of the twentieth century, but a popular understanding of the two men rarely extends beyond caricatures and sound bites (Carson, The Unfinished Dialogue of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X). While many scholars believed that the African-American population achieved equality as a result of the civil rights movement, they did not necessarily show a united front in their struggle for civil rights. And while many believed in nonviolent protest and civil disobedience, as practiced by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., others, such as
Malcolm X believed violent rallies and protests would be more efficient. …show more content…
In the "Autobiographical Notes" that serve as the introduction to his first book, (The Collection of Essays “Notes of a Native Son”: "One must find, therefore, one's own moral centre and move through the world hoping that this center will guide one aright"(Baldwin: 1963: 3). Baldwin perceived the consequence of racial tensions in America as an “inevitable result of things unsaid, (in which) we find ourselves, till this day, oppressed with a dangerous and reverberating silence.”’, Baldwin, as an essayist and as a philosopher, reveals the troubles and issues that are behind the scene of the unspoken story of racial brutality that qualifies any claim for the achievements of American democracy (L. Balfour …show more content…
was asked about the difficulties facing ‘Negro Problem’, he responded, “ What did the Negro want? Ask James Baldwin.” Yet, Gates adds, “the puzzle was that Baldwin’s arguments, richly nuanced and self-consciously ambivalent, were far too complex to serve straightforwardly political ends.” And at the same time, “Baldwin rejected liberal (integrationist) calls for incremental change and militant (separationist) demands total opposition.” Thus, “he found he “found himself, as a result, alternately embraced … by both whites and blacks, mistaken for an assimilationist and