Compare And Contrast Baldwin And Ralph Ellison
Mirroring the lives, experiences, and traditions of society in different eras of American history; Bernard Malamud, Ralph Ellison, and James Baldwin, chronicle the impressions, perspectives, and dramatizations, of three men living in three different worlds but all trying to maintain their struggles with-in. All three authors use similar methods of writing to capture the true veracity of living in America. With the use of personal conflicts with-in themselves, imagery, and finally narration and tone, Baldwin, Ellison, and Updike, captured the quintessence of living in America during their respected eras. With all three authors using personal and cultural conflicts in their stories the reader is able to fully comprehend with great clarity
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what the main characters are going through throughout the story. In the "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison for instance, the main character is never asked for his participation or acknowledged for his individualism.
He plays the part of the tool or the pawn so many times that he is driven to bump strangers on the street, as in the case of the blond man, simply in order to recognize his own existence in their eyes. Yet they still don't see him. "It occurred to me that the man had not seen me, actually; that he as far as he knew he was in the midst of a walking nightmare!" (2077.) He finally recognizes his ability to exist outside of the scientifically categorized world he lives within; the narrator thus avoids classification because he exists between it and outside of it. "I remember that I am invisible and walk softly so I don't awaken the sleeping ones I learned that it is possible to carry on a fight with them without their realizing it" (2078.) In "Going to …show more content…
Meet the Man", James Baldwin illustrates personality conflict by illustrating two complex sides of a small southern police officer who by the end of the story, realized that he did not hate the blacks, he hated himself and his personal reflection of his inadequacies as a man. Raised to believe that the white race was superior Richard spent most of his adult life using black woman to heighten his own self doubt by believing that because of his race and position he was superior to the minority woman he sexually abused.
"You're lucky we pump some white blood into you every once in awhile- you're woman!" (2194.) "This was his wife. He could not ask her to do just a little thing for his just to help him out the way he could ask a n****r girl to do it" (2191.) In the end of the story Richard's flashback of a town lynching left little memory except of Richard's new found jealousy of the man's manhood. "The largest thing he had ever seen till then" (2201.) left Richard self conscious of his own sexual prominence and made him want to be a black man; strong, confident, reputable. The thought of becoming a black man in his own right excited him and gave him the energy (and means) to fulfill his desires. "He thought of the man in the fire... and he said to her "Come on sugar, I'm going to do you like a n****r, just like a n****r and you are going to love me like you'd love a n****r"..he thought of the moaning as he labored" (2202.) Unlike the other two stories however," The Magic Barrel" written by Bernard Malamud based itself on cultural value and character issues to develop the storyline. After
spending six years of his life in study for ordination, Leo Finkle a sheltered and passionless man felt that it might be easier to find employment as a married man decided to utilize the ancient art of matchmaking for his quest for a wife. "(Leo) had been advised by an acquaintance that he might find it easier to win over a congregation if he were married the function of a marriage broker was ancient and honorable, highly approved in the Jewish community. (2053.) The problem was Leo is found to be caught between finding a wife that was acceptable to his peers or finding a wife that me would marry out of love. "I now admit the necessity of premarital love. That is, I want to be in love with the one I marry" (2060.) In the end Leo disregard the cultural ideals of a companion and followed his heart to the one woman he could not live without "She is a wild one-wild without shame; this is not the bride for a Rabbi" (2063.) Finkle's only reply, "Love has come into my heart" (2063.) Finkle found everything that he was looking for. Narration and voice are two other tools to which the authors use to draw the reader into their stories. In "The Invisible Man" Ellison uses the narrator in the perspective of the first person to guide the reader through the succession of events which follows the outlook set by the Prologue allowing us to see his feelings but never giving him a name. Through the narrator, the reader becomes familiar with the other characters that shape and mold his attitudes, justifying his philosophic self-explosion at the end of the story. "That is why I fight my battle with Monopolated Light and Power. The deeper reason I mean: It allows me to feel my vital aliveness" (2079.) The narrator shows that because he was forced into his way of life by the people, he in turn has to lie, cheat, and steal, to survive. "But to whom can I be responsible, and why should I be, when you refuse to see me?" (2083.) Like Ellison, James Baldwin relies heavily on narration and language to help the reader get further insight into the main characters persona. The reader can not be told this story alone; the reader needs the character's tone, language tendencies, and insight into the character's mindset to fully appreciate the writing. From the story, statements by the narrator like, "What had the good Lord Almighty had in mind when he made the n*****s?" (2192.) or "They were animals, they were no better than animals. What could be done with people like that?" (2192.) Richard is shows as both a god fearing man, and yet racially prejudiced towards the black people. Narration in this story was an essential tool for telling the story. Unlike Baldwin and Ellison however, Bernard Malamud used narration in the beginning of the story to introduce the main characters (and the storyline) but wrote his story using character dialogue more than anything else. With this style of writing, Malamud gave the reader a more vivid picture of what was happening because the character's conversations were actual conversations; heartfelt, emotional conversation with two people, not subjective random thoughts given by a narrator. I found that these reading have both similar and different writings styles used by the author to tell their stories. Ralph Ellison needed to use more narration then the other author's to tell his story because the story basically revolved around one character. Ellison used that character's thought process to build up both his story and the main character's perspective on his place in society. The story may have not read the same if Ellison wrote the story like Malmud for example; which needed very minimal narration and flashbacks like Ellison, but relied more on dialogue and personal conflict to tell his story. James Baldwin utilized both authors' styles of writing in his story, but needed to fully develop his main character's personal and cultural conflict to tell his story. A tool neither author mentioned before needed to use.
what the main characters are going through throughout the story. In the "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison for instance, the main character is never asked for his participation or acknowledged for his individualism.
He plays the part of the tool or the pawn so many times that he is driven to bump strangers on the street, as in the case of the blond man, simply in order to recognize his own existence in their eyes. Yet they still don't see him. "It occurred to me that the man had not seen me, actually; that he as far as he knew he was in the midst of a walking nightmare!" (2077.) He finally recognizes his ability to exist outside of the scientifically categorized world he lives within; the narrator thus avoids classification because he exists between it and outside of it. "I remember that I am invisible and walk softly so I don't awaken the sleeping ones I learned that it is possible to carry on a fight with them without their realizing it" (2078.) In "Going to …show more content…
Meet the Man", James Baldwin illustrates personality conflict by illustrating two complex sides of a small southern police officer who by the end of the story, realized that he did not hate the blacks, he hated himself and his personal reflection of his inadequacies as a man. Raised to believe that the white race was superior Richard spent most of his adult life using black woman to heighten his own self doubt by believing that because of his race and position he was superior to the minority woman he sexually abused.
"You're lucky we pump some white blood into you every once in awhile- you're woman!" (2194.) "This was his wife. He could not ask her to do just a little thing for his just to help him out the way he could ask a n****r girl to do it" (2191.) In the end of the story Richard's flashback of a town lynching left little memory except of Richard's new found jealousy of the man's manhood. "The largest thing he had ever seen till then" (2201.) left Richard self conscious of his own sexual prominence and made him want to be a black man; strong, confident, reputable. The thought of becoming a black man in his own right excited him and gave him the energy (and means) to fulfill his desires. "He thought of the man in the fire... and he said to her "Come on sugar, I'm going to do you like a n****r, just like a n****r and you are going to love me like you'd love a n****r"..he thought of the moaning as he labored" (2202.) Unlike the other two stories however," The Magic Barrel" written by Bernard Malamud based itself on cultural value and character issues to develop the storyline. After
spending six years of his life in study for ordination, Leo Finkle a sheltered and passionless man felt that it might be easier to find employment as a married man decided to utilize the ancient art of matchmaking for his quest for a wife. "(Leo) had been advised by an acquaintance that he might find it easier to win over a congregation if he were married the function of a marriage broker was ancient and honorable, highly approved in the Jewish community. (2053.) The problem was Leo is found to be caught between finding a wife that was acceptable to his peers or finding a wife that me would marry out of love. "I now admit the necessity of premarital love. That is, I want to be in love with the one I marry" (2060.) In the end Leo disregard the cultural ideals of a companion and followed his heart to the one woman he could not live without "She is a wild one-wild without shame; this is not the bride for a Rabbi" (2063.) Finkle's only reply, "Love has come into my heart" (2063.) Finkle found everything that he was looking for. Narration and voice are two other tools to which the authors use to draw the reader into their stories. In "The Invisible Man" Ellison uses the narrator in the perspective of the first person to guide the reader through the succession of events which follows the outlook set by the Prologue allowing us to see his feelings but never giving him a name. Through the narrator, the reader becomes familiar with the other characters that shape and mold his attitudes, justifying his philosophic self-explosion at the end of the story. "That is why I fight my battle with Monopolated Light and Power. The deeper reason I mean: It allows me to feel my vital aliveness" (2079.) The narrator shows that because he was forced into his way of life by the people, he in turn has to lie, cheat, and steal, to survive. "But to whom can I be responsible, and why should I be, when you refuse to see me?" (2083.) Like Ellison, James Baldwin relies heavily on narration and language to help the reader get further insight into the main characters persona. The reader can not be told this story alone; the reader needs the character's tone, language tendencies, and insight into the character's mindset to fully appreciate the writing. From the story, statements by the narrator like, "What had the good Lord Almighty had in mind when he made the n*****s?" (2192.) or "They were animals, they were no better than animals. What could be done with people like that?" (2192.) Richard is shows as both a god fearing man, and yet racially prejudiced towards the black people. Narration in this story was an essential tool for telling the story. Unlike Baldwin and Ellison however, Bernard Malamud used narration in the beginning of the story to introduce the main characters (and the storyline) but wrote his story using character dialogue more than anything else. With this style of writing, Malamud gave the reader a more vivid picture of what was happening because the character's conversations were actual conversations; heartfelt, emotional conversation with two people, not subjective random thoughts given by a narrator. I found that these reading have both similar and different writings styles used by the author to tell their stories. Ralph Ellison needed to use more narration then the other author's to tell his story because the story basically revolved around one character. Ellison used that character's thought process to build up both his story and the main character's perspective on his place in society. The story may have not read the same if Ellison wrote the story like Malmud for example; which needed very minimal narration and flashbacks like Ellison, but relied more on dialogue and personal conflict to tell his story. James Baldwin utilized both authors' styles of writing in his story, but needed to fully develop his main character's personal and cultural conflict to tell his story. A tool neither author mentioned before needed to use.