Preview

Baldwin's Going To Meet The Man

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
372 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Baldwin's Going To Meet The Man
In “Going to Meet the Man,” the reader is presented with one of the most horrific, graphic scenes in literature. This was by far the most disturbing script I’ve read. Baldwin manages to take the reader into the brain of a corrupt racist southern officer to show this man’s hatred. The major themes in this story includes racism and justice, as well as the intersections between sex, violence and power. The most interesting is an eye opening transformation of a young child who learned how to be a stereotypical Southern bigot. In the child's innocence, Jesse questioned his father regarding the recent scarcity of his friend. “‘We didn’t see Otis this morning,’ Jesse said. He did not know why he said this. His voice, in the darkness of the car, sounded

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Lee wants the viewer to respond with shock and horror to this evidence of the legacy of racism in American society. He shows how racism ran so deep in the South that even children became causalities of the efforts to integrate.…

    • 559 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Bad Man Langston Hughes

    • 525 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In the poem “Bad Man” Langston Hughes examines the effects of racism and discrimination on a black man in 1930’s America. the meaning or central theme of the poem is that when a man is viewed with prejudice he often becomes subject to identifying with those prejudices and stereotypes which allows his actions to proceed that belief, which Langston Hughes is able to convey through repetition, rhyme and diction.…

    • 525 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A black man wrongly accused of raping a white women does not stand a chance in the criminal justice system of Maycomb county and Tom Robinson is aware of that. Although he will not go down without a fight. Tom Robinson confronts his fears and shows courage by getting a lawyer to defend himself. Tom knows the jury is plotted against him but by getting a lawyer he proves he will not give up and will fight for the truth, displaying real courage. For example ; "Real courage...(is not) man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do"(Lee, 116). Tom knows the odds are against him but follows through anyway because he knows the truth and will not let a prejudice society dictate otherwise. Tom faces society and a great fear of standing up to a white community, with courage and his own dignity to keep him fighting for.…

    • 746 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In many older pieces of media, there tends to be a theme related to the issue of racial divide. This is true within the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee and the movie, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, produced by Stanley Kramer and written by William Rose. Both titles touch upon the idea of interracial relationships in a time when the idea of “race-mixing” was highly frowned upon by the general public, although the novel presumably takes place three decades before the movie’s setting. The novel, taking place in 1930s Alabama, and the movie, taking place in 1960s California, may represent society’s different stances upon interracial relationships throughout the years and locale. Although the two couples are met with varying levels…

    • 985 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In a time when attitudes towards the black community were still immensely tense, Baldwin recognized the viewpoints white people had towards them, and pointed such out in his work. He traveled to Switzerland and descried the differences in the perspective of black people from white Americans and white Swiss. From this he concluded that though the Swiss made him feel like a stranger, they did not have a racist prejudice as Americans do, rather were just curious. This prejudice and avoidance of the inclusion of black people in American history is expanded when he said, “American white men still nourish the illusion that there is some means of recovering the European innocent, of returning to a state in which black men do not exist”, in his story Stranger in the Village. From this, those reading are able to realize that the American Experience they have been living through is entirely different from a black person, due to the omission of America’s dark past. Baldwin’s relevance of this truth allows a more accurate addition to what the Experience actually is, through the social elements included in his…

    • 1242 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    But, because he was at the wrong place at the wrong time and that the witnesses saw he was black, they assumed that he killed these men. This took place in the 40’s, and it was when slavery was still a thing, black people didn’t have much freedom, and racially profiling was not addressed but it was surely there. This untitled photo relates to this book because police brutality is portrayed to be going off the walls, just like how slavery was really off the walls, and how much black people were put in jail. Angry. This relates to my book on a serious level. This book “A Lesson Before dying” conflicts so much anger from me and so much emotion from me. When I think of how blacks were treated back in the 40’s and before that, even after that, I feel angry. No one should be chained up and be treated unfairly. No one should be stripped of their freedom. When I look at this photograph is afflicts the same amount of anger, seeing a man chained to a truck holding a sign that questions the system, it makes me emotionally unstable. These two things, “A Lesson Before Dying.”, And this untitled photo is related by being able to afflict the same…

    • 627 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the history of literature there have been a lot of notable characters with certain traits or qualities that stand out. The reader often relates to these characters, whether they are real people or fictitious. In Brent Staples’s essay “Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space,” I can relate to Brent Staple himself as he write his essay. I am able to relate to Brent Staple because of the sorrow he feels by racial profiling.…

    • 474 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Slavery might end with the signing of a piece of paper, but ending racism is something different entirely. Growing up in the south as a black man surrounded by passive racism and backhanded comments, is a disastrous force to constantly push on a developing mind. “Battle Royal” is about a young black man following in what he thought was his grandfather’s footsteps. Until on his deathbed his grandfather admits the truth. He calls himself a traitor and a spy; in reference to all the kind deeds and smiles he has been giving out his entire life. This young man has been mirroring his grandfather’s actions but completely missing the meanings behind them. To confront subconscious internal conflicts within ones self, a young black man must go against his inherent reactions to his surroundings and think about the true reasons behind his actions.…

    • 1055 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Getting closer to the end of the story, Hughes uses dialogue to showcase even more situational irony. The reader, expecting the “white fellow” to be terrified, is shocked by the robbery victim’s reaction.…

    • 519 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the article published by The Nation titled “Report From Occupied Territory,” author James Baldwin is reporting about the gruesome violence police officers are showing minorities in the streets as he writers from first and third person. The subject and also the narrator in this article is a humble and ordinary salesmen who becomes a victim after coming to child’s aid. One of the first things that Baldwin addresses in this piece that is a common occurrence is that African Americans,…

    • 781 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Society in the 1900s was very different in terms of the social status among the American people. In the 1900s, blacks were strongly discriminated against the whites. Discrimination was not against the law as blacks were deemed free but must be segregated against the whites. The idea of a white dominate society was still in existent. Ellison was born (in the year 1914) into this era of racial discrimination and segregation. The story begins with the narrator reminiscing about the past when his grandfather was on his deathbed. The grandfather delivers a speech to the narrator that proves to haunt the narrator for the rest of his life. The grandfather said, “Son, after I'm gone, I want you to keep up the good fight. I never told you, but our life is a war and I have been a traitor all my born days, a spy in the enemy's country ever since I give up my gun back in the Reconstruction. Live with your head in the lion's mouth. I want you to overcome 'em with yeses, undermine 'em with grins, agree to death and destruction, let 'em swoller you till they vomit or bust wide open” (Ellison 258). The narrator was extremely puzzled with the words from his grandfather; he had thought that his grandfather had gone insane. The flashback the narrator has reminds himself of his roots, his grandfather had taunted him with his dying speech for the rest of the narrator’s life. The narrator had been living as a rebel and a traitor…

    • 1219 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mizzou Free Speech

    • 538 Words
    • 3 Pages

    He makes the audience sympathize with the African American teacher when she says “I have been called the N word too many times to count.” It was previously mentioned that the author spoke from many different perspectives so he can get an emotional response from more than one type of group. He brings up the “Black Lives Matter” controversy which tends to bring out some sort of emotion in the majority of Americans. Either people are completely supportive of the phrase or people believe that it should be “All Lives Matter.” There are few people truly do not care so this creates an emotion response. The final emotional appeal is when a student says “I don’t want to debate. I want to talk about my pain.” The two most frequent reactions to this is either complete sympathy and maybe even pity or it could be the complete opposite. Some people saw this quote and was off put by the immaturity it displayed. Even though these topics are controversial and there are a wide view of opinions, it still creates some type of emotion among those who keep up with today’s political…

    • 538 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    He and other journalists wanted readers to understand the black point of view and perspective of the social issues they were facing on a daily basis. While covering issues during the Watts riot, one of the journalists named Fleming suffered a fractured skull and jaw when black militants chased him while he covered the “son of Watts” protests. His empathetic response was, “If I was a young black man growing up on the streets of Watts…I might feel like hitting some white guy in the head, too” (Whitaker 37).…

    • 365 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Fear and love often go hand in hand creating some of the ugliest situations in life. It is human nature to fear the unknown; often that fear arises when something we love is jeopardized. As Hirman Hillburn watches the events pertaining to the brutal murder of the innocent African American boy Emmet Till, he discovers that the South he craved for from his past has more flaws to it than meets a child-like eye. Through the view of an outsider in a segregated society, along with a mix of unconditional family love and clashing beliefs, we see the moral struggle humanity faces when its identity is put into question.…

    • 712 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Child by Tiger

    • 286 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The short story, “The Child by Tiger” by Thomas Wolfe, shows the relationship between the Shepperton’s Negro Man, Dick Prosser, and the children. Dick was a reliable man who had recently been discharged from the Army; he could cook, he could tend the furnace, he could drive a car, and he could certainly shoot. The boys looked up to him for advice on many things from how to hold a football to how to make a fire. There seemed to be nothing Dick Prosser could not do. Until one afternoon, the boys were playing in the basement and happened to peak into Dick’s room and gawked at a rifle in the corner and Dick steaming over their shoulders. He assured the boys that the gun was a Christmas present but they were still left with an unsettling feeling that was proven to be true. The town was awoken from the cries of a siren alerting them about a madman loose in the streets. Word soon reached back to the Shepperton’s that it was their Negro Man barreling through town with his rifle already having killed six people who stood in his way. A mob set out for the man who was once prided throughout the town. Dick fled towards the river traveling on foot as far as he could go. The mob eventually caught up to him firing bullets through his bloody and beaten body, then strung him by his neck and drug his lifeless body back to town for all to see. All in the town soon went about their business again, but the boys finally ventured into the Negro Man’s room laid down his bible and closed his door…

    • 286 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays