Analysis Essay on Notes of a Native Son PDF

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Summary

“Notes of a Native Son,” the famous narrative essay by James Baldwin is analyzed in this essay. the prompt included: The purpose of this analysis is for you to come to your own conclusion why Baldwin’s essay has had such a staying power. What’s there in Baldwin’s language and his outlook that draws ...

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Hemali Patel Professor Snezana Zabic UCWR 110 12 March 2019 The Effects of an Unjust Society Racism has tremendously affected American Society for hundreds of years because of the negative stigma that is attached to African Americans. Hatred has risen rapidly towards them, causing them to be mistreated simply due to the fact that they have a different skin tone from the Caucasian majority. In the 20th century of American history, movements for equality and constitutional rights for African Americans began and yet, as years have passed by, a vast majority of the population believe that this inequality still continues to exist in this so-called equal nation. James Baldwin, an author and activist, explores the first and secondhand racial experiences he has been through in his life, especially the ones brought upon him by his bitter father due to the mistrust of all white people. In the novel “Notes of a Native Son”, James Baldwin presents his encounters with racism by effectively demonstrating his inner inclination to fight through descriptive narrative language to bring forth this tragic cruelty to the American audience. The hate that Baldwin has suffered since he was a child is presented through use of pathos and therefore, creating a wave of emotions such as outrage, desolation, and agony of the traumatic experiences. Baldwin’s father had opinionated emotions towards all whites due to his horrendous confrontation with slavery, Jim crow laws, and his severe case of paranoia due to his past. After the death of his father, Baldwin comes to the conclusion that he in fact was hating on

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white people equally as much, maybe even more than his father, “This fight begins, however, in the heart and it now had been laid to my charge to keep my own heart free of hatred and despair” (Baldwin). He appeals his emotions to the audience while talking about his father because at this point, he stumbles across the discovery that he never really conversed with his father or had any sort of relationship with him. Even though Baldwin didn’t experience a traditional father-son relationship with his father, he felt a sense of empathy for what his father spent a lifetime being deemed inferior under. Baldwin holds faith in the thought “hatred…never failed to destroy the man who hated,” proposing that this is what brought his father to his ruination” (Baldwin 656). This is ironic because shortly after the passing of his father, Baldwin had started to foster an unhealthy relationship with hate towards the Caucasian members of society because he felt an absence in his life even though that void was never filled with the love and attention he desired from his father. The language that Baldwin uses creates a tone in which the audience can interpret ad visualize how exasperated he truly feels in the midst of these horrific circumstances. He describes multiple instances of his father being mistreated or injustice occurring to himself and the choice of words that are associated with them are what promote a foundation of understanding with the audience. A time when Baldwin expresses his annoyance is when he discusses the abuse his community has suffered, “I can conceive of no Negro native to this country who has not, by the age of puberty, been irreparably scarred by the conditions of his life”(Baldwin), which places a strong emphasis on the emotional abuse the children are mentally unable to process and, “All over Harlem, Negro boys and girls are growing into stunted maturity, trying desperately to find a place to stand; and the wonder is not that so many are ruined but that so many survive” (Baldwin). The description of these children creates an image in

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the readers heads, which causes pain in the readers’ hearts because children who are still just learning how to ride bikes shouldn’t have to worry if they’re going to be accepted into this society one day. Not only do they realize what’s being done to these children is nightmarishly ruining their childhood, but negatively impacting how they will perceive their safety and future in this country. Another example of where his tone promotes a vivid image within the audience is exhibited when Baldwin is refused to be served and he “wanted [the waitress] to come close enough for [him] to get [his] hands between [her] neck… [he] picked up [a mug half full of water] and hurled it with all [his] strength at her… just as [he] reached the doors [a man] began to beat [him] about the face” (Baldwin). The clear-cut description of this scene aids in making the audience feel as if they are present at this very restaurant, because the image of a glass mug hurling at the waitress portrays the burst of outrage from Baldwin has finally released after being held back for all these years. The lifelong memory that Baldwin has established here serves a major purpose that he tries to achieve in his whole essay, which is for the audience to indirectly feel what it truly feels like to be mistreated simply because of the color of one’s skin color. An additional rhetorical device that is constantly utilized throughout this piece is using a variety of forms of figurative language which he applies to his current thoughts and emotions and describes them in a way that can be directly sensed by the audience. After the incident at the restaurant, Baldwin delves into demonstrating the severity of racism by implementing an extended metaphor to show correspondence in being African-American to acquiring a deadly disease, “I first contracted some dread, chronic disease, the unfailing symptom of which is a kind of blind fever, a pounding in the skull and fire in the bowels…”(Baldwin) and describing this illness to be “chronic” and having “unfailing symptoms” emphasizes the fact that even if a possible cure if to be found, there simply is no use for it because they will continue to feel the

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detrimental effects of the disease for the rest of their lives and he continues, “There is not a Negro alive who does not have this rage in his blood — one has the choice, merely, of living with it consciously or surrendering to it. As for me, this fever has recurred in me, and does, and will until the day I die” (Baldwin). The hefty point that Baldwin portrays here from the use of this metaphor is crucial to the purpose of the novel to emphasize idea of how much of a toll events like these bring onto a person’s mental health due to the severe amount of outrage they contend. For example, the rate his father’s health was deteriorating at was being taken lightly because everyone believed he was just being the bitter, old man life had raised him to be, which was to be spiteful towards to ones who caused this agony. However, in reality, the rage and indignation that he had carried with him the entirety of his life was leading him to behave the way he was towards the whites of society. Throughout this novel, Baldwin has greatly utilized a variety of rhetorical devices to bring forth the injustices that have occurred to the African- American people since the beginning of their time in the United States. The way he portrays his outrage, disappointments, and distress for the future American citizens of this country is the key to creating a long-lasting effect on the readers and will continue to even after the year 2055. It strongly portrays the mistreatment of African-Americans simply because they were a darker skin color, the mental struggles they endured, and physical traumas they suffered throughout generations of family. In “Notes of a Native son”, James Baldwin uses many forms of narrative language and personal experience to describe the injustices that the audience may be unaware of because of this society being unaccepting of some members due to ignorance. The insight that readers have gained from this piece shines light on the aspect of confronting the malicious beliefs from the past to prompt the coming generations to fight for equality for all.

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Works Cited Baldwin, James. Notes of a Native Son. Boston: Beacon Press, 1984. Print....