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. Jazz is a motif used in the book to describe a human’s motivation. As Rufus’ father said, “A nigger lives his whole life, lives and dies according to a beat (Baldwin, 6)”. The saying obscures what is going on. Rufus describes how was his first taste of marijuana, gang fights and gang “bangs”, the boy who died from overdose, were events lived by the beat. The beat is supposed to be the rhythm of life. It is
Leona is a white female with a traumatic past, who drinks, feels lonely, separated from her child and vulnerable. Rufus, besides all the advantage he can have over her for the reasons mentioned previously, likes power. His desire for power is exploited upon Leona. Rufus degrades her making her a sex object. When the rape or rough sexual experience was happening, Baldwin explains, “...he was staring at her throat. He wanted put his mouth there and nibble it slowly, leaving it black and blue (Baldwin, 19)”. Rufus’ fantasy of bruising her skin is also an example of how superior he feels to the ability of damaging pure white skin. Baldwin uses various motifs, much like Nella Larsen to get their point across as to why power, racism and superiority influenced so much on how a person in the U.S lived. As for Rufus, who is the example for all three, feeds of the power he has over Leona. Leona being the only white person left for him to dominate made him angry. His indigent black life was unfair and to be fixed with mistreatment of a white