Baldwin Essay

James Neal

English 102

Brooks

1/27/2008

Baldwin Essay

James Baldwin expresses his feelings of hardships when he was 19 growing up with the death of his father. He goes into description of his angered father constantly having outbursts as he is dying of tuberculosis. While having to deal with this a vicious riot broke out in Harlem, his father’s funeral was taking place. The setting in Harlem seems to just be brutal at the time when Baldwin says, “this is the closest situation to an apocalypse.” Growing up in a time of riot like this would already make living very difficult and then having to deal with the death of his father and newborn sister. The setting compiles many tragic events and they all seem to come crashing down on Baldwin at the same time just making his life very stressful. This component to Baldwin’s story because it gives key information in his life that demonstrate the stress and horror that he was forced to go through. Later in life Baldwin goes through his time spent in New Jersey, working for defense plants. He describes working for with people from the south, and how people wanted Baldwin to behave. He talks about how he went to the same self-service restaurant and was never served while all the Princeton boys were getting served. He later learned that black people were not served there. After living in New Jersey for a while he said that not only were restaurants prejudice but also everywhere else he went he was expected to just leave without saying anything.

Throughout this narrative Baldwin illustrates that hardships that seem to always occur during his time spent in Harlem and New Jersey. He gives images of pure hatred and sadness for the severe prejudice and racism he had to deal with. Baldwin gives very specific detail about the “Brown Out” in New Jersey, after going into a very classy restaurant “I hated her white face and for her great, astounded, frightened eyes. I felt that if she found a black man so frightening I would make...