Preview

James Baldwin Essay

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1540 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
James Baldwin Essay
In James Baldwin’s essay “Letter to My Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of Emancipation” in The Fire Next Time, Baldwin advises his black, adolescent nephew living in the 1960’s during the African-American Civil Rights Movement on what living a free life means based on Baldwin’s own experience as an adult. As an existential thinker, Baldwin attributes a person’s identity to the collection of accomplishments and failures in his or her entire lifetime, as opposed to accepting a person as determinately good or bad. In order to be truly free of oppression, according to Baldwin, African Americans must seek to be authentic by not conceding to the expectations and restrictions of racist white Americans. A person’s authenticity lies in his or her willingness to take risks, accept responsibility for any consequences, and live by personal experience, not by the constraints or unattainable expectations of others. A person must cherish and cling to his or her own beliefs in what is right or wrong, despite difficult circumstances. Any man or woman is only free up to how much he or she is willing to risk, claiming freedom and dignity and accepting neither inferiority nor superiority. Taking risks requires a person to be of good faith and conscience. A person in good faith commits fully to the responsibilities of life and death with sincerity and earnestness, addressing both predictable and unforeseen consequences. By avoiding responsibility and risk, a man lives a fraudulent life. His is relatively safe, his life uneventful and unfulfilling. Baldwin charges his nephew, James, “to cease fleeing from reality and begin to change it” (10). James is in charge of his own life, his own successes, his own freedom, and his own identity. Cruel and hateful white Americans may attempt to restrict James with laws of segregation, like the Jim Crow laws, or an unspoken code of conduct for how they expect him to act, sit, stand, and speak in public. His physical body may be
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Comparing Baldwin's Speech And Young Soul
    • 476 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Comparing Baldwin's Speech And Young Soul

    I agree with your feeling of seeing a sort of resemblance between Baldwin's speech and the poem "Young Soul." They both make reference to getting to know yourself. Which does give some commonality between the two. I do however feel there are some differences, even though the points are basically the same. The difference is within the way you accomplish getting to know yourself. Baldwin's speech carries on about finding yourself through writing. In the "Young Soul" the speaker is persuading the reader to get to know themselves through reading. As you had expressed, there are different parts to our personalities and we have to allow ourselves time and opportunity to explore who we are, I completely agree. As would both authors of these pieces…

    • 476 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Analysis of Excerpt from Martin Luther King’s “Why We Can’t Wait”
    • 760 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Analysis of Excerpt from Martin Luther King’s “Why We Can’t Wait”

    America in the 1960’s was a dark, despairing environment for African Americans, or Negroes. Conditions in all areas of life were poor, chances of success were slim to none, and appreciation or acceptance in the community was barely a dream. Negroes of this time were downtrodden, disrespected, and poorly treated. In his book, “Why We Can’t Wait,” Martin Luther King uses historical allusion, emotive imagery, rhetorical questions, and juxtaposition to convey the negative, daunting poor social conditions of Black Americans in the 1960’s.…

    • 760 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Nella Larsen And James Baldwin: A Literary Analysis
    • 461 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Nella Larsen And James Baldwin: A Literary Analysis

    Throughout the inspirational yet innovative writing of both authors Nella Larsen and James Baldwin, reader experience similarities and differences. While both authors depict oppression and race, both also have a beautiful way of revealing the actions which they wrote about. Baldwin undergoes the usage of motifs and symbols to illustrate how power, racism, and superiority, influenced on a person's actions.…

    • 461 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    To what extent do you agree that the lives of Black Americans improved significantly between 1945-52
    • 1212 Words
    • 5 Pages

    To what extent do you agree that the lives of Black Americans improved significantly between 1945-52

    “Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”1 Nearing the end of the 1950’s, the fight for equal rights had gained momentum in relation to the bleak future that paraded itself following the Second World War in 1945, however the implementation of the ‘Jim Crow’ laws in the Southern states rebuked most of Black Americans basic human rights; the legalisation of such discriminatory practices meant that they had been in operation since 1876 and did not fully dwindle till around 1985; the legal confinements of these laws had a direct effect on the lives of Black Americans, leaving them vulnerable to racial hatred and abuse. This haltered the developments that could have allowed Black lives to improve. The 1945-6 post war attacks on Black servicemen during the presidency of Harry Truman effectively translates the dismal reality that many Black Americans suffered during this time. The implications of these discriminating practices…

    • 1212 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Biography of an Ex-Colored Man
    • 1847 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Biography of an Ex-Colored Man

    Although the Civil War left slaves under the impression that they had won their freedom, blacks were still constantly the target of discrimination and it took many years for them to finally gain equality. In James Weldon Johnson 's The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a story is told through the eyes of a man in this troubling time, who learns in his early childhood that he is black, but with the ability to pass as a white man. Throughout his life he develops and fights a conflicted opinion: whether to live safely as a white man, or acknowledge his racial identity and act to advance his own race. Having been passed as a white by his mother the first several years of his life, with no knowledge of being in any way different from his white companions, the lines of race in America soon became blurred. This gave him the advantage of seeing and understanding both sides of the race issue. This man, half-white half-black and of very light complexion, was forced to choose between his heritage and the art that he loved and the ability to escape the inherent racism that he faced by passing as a white. This man learned about and struggles with his identity; he made his way through each of the social classes, became a linguist, and learned the tongues of the different people and through this becomes his own person. Above all, the ex-colored man realized the distorting influences in which colored men act upon in the U.S. in the post-Reconstruction era. These influences were external, a result of the societal pressures around him and the actions of others.…

    • 1847 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Washington vs DuBois
    • 565 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Washington vs DuBois

    On January 1, 1863, the United States’ Negro population was proclaimed “henceforth and forever free” according to President Abraham Lincoln’s establishment of the Emancipation Proclamation. However, years after its release, the Negro population was still mistreated. After the Civil War, white southerners were relentless in establishing themselves as the superior race. The newly implemented Black Codes restricted African Americans' of their new freedom and essentially began a new form of slavery. African Americans experienced violent discrimination and devastating poverty daily. In an attempt to diminish this oppression, two great and well respected leaders of the black community, Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. DuBois, offered contrasting approaches. Both methods contributed to the movement; however, one was more appropriate for the time period. Overall, Washington’s philosophy of self help and acceptance of discrimination was the better fit.…

    • 565 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Dr Carter G Woodson The Study Of The Negro Summary
    • 808 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Dr Carter G Woodson The Study Of The Negro Summary

    Undoubtedly the aim of his oppressors has been to convince him that his history is unimportant so as to deprive him of the sense of pride that is so necessary to feel wholly human. By espousing that “he has no worthwile past, that his race has done nothing significant since the beginning of time, and that there is no evidence that he will ever achieve anything great” (Woodson 6), his oppressors can be sure that the African American will continue down the path of mis-education that so allows for his subservience to a system that cares nothing for him. However, “if you teach the Negro that he has accomplished as much good as any other race he will aspire to equality and justice without regard to race.” (Woodson 6) The core purpose of African American studies is to take back from obscurity that piece of the historical puzzle without which the African American would be amidst an endless identity…

    • 808 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    English Essay Baldwin Staples
    • 599 Words
    • 2 Pages

    English Essay Baldwin Staples

    3.“Just walk on by: A black man ponders his power to alter public space.” By: Staples, Brent. Literary Cavalcade, Sep98, Vol. 50 Issue 5, p38, 4p.…

    • 599 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Jamese Baldwin, an Annotated Bibliography
    • 1291 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Jamese Baldwin, an Annotated Bibliography

    As I shall show in the paper that follows, a quest for family stability and the ability of self-…

    • 1291 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Melba Patillo Beals Analysis
    • 726 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Melba Patillo Beals Analysis

    Summon a vision of yourself in a crowded setting, surrounded by white men, women, children and seniors. With that image carved, draw yourself as a young African American in the 1960s, despised by the white man. Though you stick out like a sore thumb, eyes glance past you, blinded in your midst. An ‘outcast’ has now become your terminal label- segregated, judged, despised. Does this story sound familiar? Yes, it does, as millions of books in the 21st century alone, have exhibited these themes. While eloquently written, Melba Patillo Beals unoriginality in the subject of hardships in African American lives in the time of severe oppression makes this story a tale told too often, which should not be exposed to a classroom of easily distracted teenagers.…

    • 726 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Charles Baldwin Letter To America Analysis
    • 363 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Charles Baldwin Letter To America Analysis

    Baldwin uses a tone that is not anger, but that is conquering. He calls out the people or “countrymen” of America, for their ignorance and their claim of innocence:…

    • 363 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter From Birmingham Jail
    • 922 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter From Birmingham Jail

    In a land that promises life, liberty, and prosperity, the spirit of the African American people had been ridiculed and relentlessly robbed of these freedoms as exposed in Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter From Birmingham Jail. Even though our Founding Fathers established these rights to all of the people in 1787 and slavery had been abolished in 1865, a negro’s life did not fall under this covenant of freedom. Hostility and intolerance plagued these times, and someone needed to put an end to the oppression. Too much scarlet red had oozed out of the lives of innocent negro men, women, and children. Martin Luther King Jr. was one of those individuals who rose up and fought for justice and freedom. His letter, Letter From Birmingham Jail, paints…

    • 922 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    What Role Is The Educated Slave Race By Frederick Douglass
    • 1249 Words
    • 5 Pages

    What Role Is The Educated Slave Race By Frederick Douglass

    According to Douglass, the “rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence” expressed in America’s Declaration of Independence and Fourth of July were not “extended” neither to enslaved black Americans nor the “Negro race”. White Americans freely celebrated the Fourth of July while millions of enslaved and free black Americans suffered from “the wrongfulness of slavery”. Douglass’ American slavery tirade on the Fourth of July embodies the urgency and need for abolition. Turner speaks on the same issue over fourteen year later, a testament to American “cowardice” and “pusillanimity”. The American system, eager to “make war upon” black Americans, punished white representatives who worked towards securing rights for black Americans without hesitation. This issue was not only for black men; in fact, as stated by Turrell, both black and white American men ignored the contributions of “Colored women” for “[regenerating] and [uplifting]” black Americans across the country. America’s “political freedom” and calls for “natural justice” were extended neither to black men nor…

    • 1249 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    James Baldwin's Essay What It Really Means By Freedom
    • 287 Words
    • 2 Pages

    James Baldwin's Essay What It Really Means By Freedom

    James Baldwin’s statement about “what it really means by freedom” that challenged the United States to rethink the meaning of the statement because racism segregation was still happening. On the February of the year of 1960, four black students from North Carolina and Agriculture and Technical State University which in short terms was a black only college. All four students entered a local Woolworth’s store to purchase a couple of items and bravely decided to sit down at a white’s only lunch counter. Do to the color of their skin these individuals were told they would not be served, but they remained in their sits until closing and kept coming back every morning. They were able to gather support from other students and even gathered the…

    • 287 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Jesse Jackson
    • 1047 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Jesse Jackson

    Knowing how to address Jesse Jackson might be a problem. Should one call him Mr.Jackson, or should he be addressed as Jesse in response to his relaxed, unaffected style? Perhaps he should be called Reverend Jackson to acknowledge that he is an Baptist ordained minister, or Dr. Jackson in recognition of his doctor of divinity degree. However one decides to address him, only part of this complex and influential person will be acknowledged. (1)…

    • 1047 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More

Related Topics