James Baldwin was a profound American novelist born in Harlem, New York on August 2, 1924. He wrote many short stories, essays, poems, and novels. In addition, to such an amazing career in writing, Baldwin produced movies and plays. Baldwin started his writing career in high school, DeWitt Clinton High School, where he found his passion for writing. Baldwin didn’t attend college but instead began his career right out of high school. Later in his life James was diagnosed with stomach cancer. The stomach cancer eventually killed James on December 1, 1987, he was 63 years old. James died in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France but was buried at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.
James Baldwin was a talented author that influenced many lives through his use of themes, mainly the topics about civil rights issues and his own personal issues. The most common themes used by Baldwin were race, religion, sexuality, social class, and death. Additionally, Baldwin was able to relate to his readers using a unique style of writing. Baldwin wrote about many societal topics that related not only to the people of his time, but also relate to issues present in our time as well.
James Baldwin used the theme of race in most of his works mainly because he could relate to this theme the most. James, as stated before, grew up in Harlem and it wasn’t considered the best place for anyone to live. Mostly filled with African Americans his family fit right in. It was when James travelled for work or just went away from Harlem where he would get remarks
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O'Brien !2 and comments about his color. Some of the things that James mentions in his stories sticks with
people. As one of James’ readers said about his book “Just Above My Head,” “the Ku Klux Klan could just be seen walking around killing people and it was a normal occasion. African Americans were hung all around town and some even seen on their own porch.” (Jeskova 9; 77).
Baldwin uses the theme of race to tie his characters into the story. After reading Baldwin’s “Blues for Mister Charlie,” one of James’ reader states “it doesn’t matter how popular you are or how successful you are in life, if you’re African American you will always be seen as a lower class citizen to the white population.” (Mitchell 64; 33). This was true for Baldwin because after a couple of stories that he wrote he was still seen as a lower class citizen. One thing a reader did agree with Baldwin about after reading “Blues for Mister Charlie,” was the when James started, “I can vision one day in the future that America will become one big unit and there will be no problems between African Americans and whites.” (Mitchell 64; 33).
James talked about the comments and looks he received while walking through the city. “A jazz musician walking through New York City got a lot of dirty looks and comments and just felt like he was never a part of society. He always felt like he wasn’t fit for society during the time period just because the color of his skin.” (Hogue 56; 1-2). James incorporates the jazz musician characteristic into this story. James loved music and during the time period jazz was the biggest genre to listen to. To make the time period more relatable to readers James using a jazz musician as part of this characters title.
James likes to use the theme of race to include some problems that happened in the past that are still problems in our present day. For example, a drug problem in our world today was just as bad or even worse back then during Baldwin’s time. In “Sonny’s Blues,” James talked about a family of a teenage boy and his brother. “Sonny’s Blues is about an African American
O'Brien !3 community where two young boys are living by themselves, the older brother is in charge of the
younger brother and has to keep him out of trouble. The younger brother, Sonny, gets involved with a bad group of boys and gets caught buying drugs. He was only a young boy but this was very common back then with teenagers and you g adult.” (Reilly 4; 56). James included the drug addiction into this story because he could relate to what the older brother was feeling. Growing up James’ step-father was an abusive drug addict. He would come home high or intoxicated in any way and start harassing the family and children. Problems like these can be seen in many of Baldwin’s stories because he likes to talk about his family and the problems he had to face growing up.
Religion was also mentioned in many of Baldwin’s stories as a theme. Growing up religion was important to him and his family and he was a youth minister at one point. Problems within the family lead him to find a solace religion and avoid believing in any catholic teaching. In “Another Country,” James Talks about the Puritan faith. “A man named Rufus Scott was known to be a Puritan, which at the time was accepted in society. He felt like an outcast and believes that with both the color of his skin and his religious belief he will never be able to fit into society.” (Hogue 56; 1-2). Baldwin also talks about the Catholic faith in his story, “Just Above My Head.” “The Ku Klux Klan would go around and scare the catholic African Americans and would go as far as hanging them and burning them to death.” (Jeskova 9; 77). The reasons why Baldwin used Catholicism and Puritan beliefs was because he believed in both of these religions growing up. He followed his step-fathers faith by attending Puritan church. After listening to what the church he thought it was very racist and hypocritical so he left. He entered into a sect of Catholicism called Pentecostal Church. He became a youth minister and after a couple of years decided to leave the life of faith for good and be known as just an author.
O'Brien !4 Sexuality was a major theme for Baldwin. At a young age Baldwin found out that he was
a homosexual. He knew it was going to be hard to express his feelings because during this time it wasn’t accepted in society. He believed he had nothing to lose because he was already being mistreated for being an African American so he decided to share that he was gay. He wrote about being gay in many of his stories. One story in particular is “The Outgoing.” This story is a unique piece by Baldwin because it’s an autobiographical work. “Baldwin was a phenomenal author that reached out to the lives of many people especially African Americans. He was recognized for being an outstanding author at St. John the Divine in New York City. He was proud of himself for receiving such a memorial but he wanted people to know him as a gay author more because it was the type of person he was.” (De Romanet 22; 1).
In “Another Country,” Baldwin uses the theme of sexuality to describe the emotions of a character. “Rufus, the main character of the story, was a homosexual African American man that lived in New York and was looking for a job because he was also very poor and didn’t have a place to stay. He ended up staying on the streets some nights and eventually gave his body up to become a male prostitute. He was a terrible fit for society so he decided to give up trying to be successful and just accept that he failed in life.” (Hogue 56; 4). Baldwin was exactly like this man, Rufus, when he grew up. He knew that African Americans weren’t accepted in society and to top that he was also a homosexual. He was so against the normal of society that he just wanted to give up. Even though James describes Rufus giving up in the story Baldwin himself never gave up on his dreams. He became a very well known author with numerous successful and known stories.
Baldwin uses the social class theme in many of his stories. This is a problem that we have today in our present society. We see poverty throughout our country and the world as a whole.
O'Brien !5 The most well known story of Baldwin that uses the theme of social class is “Sonny’s Blues.” In
the story, “A boy named Sonny and his older brother grow up leaving alone. It’s just the two of them living in Harlem, New York.” (Reilly 4; 56). It’s a very poor town and leads them to make wrong decisions. In particular, Sonny, which was talked about earlier. Baldwin likes to talk about the lower class because that’s the way he grew up. Living in Harlem, New York in a very poor neighborhood with a lot of crime. He uses Harlem as a setting in many stories because he relates to the story more and can describe Harlem very well to allow the readers to picture what’s happening while reading.
In “Another Country” Baldwin describes the poor life of Rufus. “Rufus was looked at as such an outcast to society that he couldn’t find a job or friends also. He decided to live on the streets and give his body up for money. This can be seen as one of the lowest points in anyone’s life.” (Hogue 56; 4). Another example of social class can be seen in “Just Above My Head.” This story is about two different families, Hall and Arthur’s family, and Julia and Jim’s family. “Hell and Arthur’s father is successful because it talks about how the children are dressed nice, how they have excellent manners, and are guided throughout adolescence to be successful. On the other hand, Julia and Jim’s father is very mean and even is seen as scary. Julia describes how she used to get raped by her own father.” (Jeskova 9; 78). These are two completely different examples of social class. Arthur and Hall having a successful father and them being prepared and guided to do the same while Julia and Jim’s father treats them like objects and they are affected by it.
The last theme that has to be included when talking about James Baldwin is death. James Baldwin uses death in almost every story that he writes. Many people believe that he was just a dark person because he talks about depressing topics all the time but Baldwin was a very happy
O'Brien !6 and successful man. He uses death because it relates to everyone. At one point everyone will
experience death. Death is a hidden theme in “Sonny’s Blues.” It’s hidden because it’s not really mentioned but just inferred while reading the story. It is said that, “Sonny and his older brother live alone so the parents must’ve passed.” (Reilly 4; 56).
In “Another Country” Baldwin writes about Rufus, an African American, homosexual, jazz musician. “Rufus is distant from society and can’t find his place. Instead he believes that giving up his body is the best answer. After realizing how much of a failure he was he decides to kill himself.” (Hogue 56; 1-2). This was definitely one of the darker sides of Baldwin but it just tells the readers how much emotion they showed when they walked around the streets. They were constantly getting harassed for just being an African American and it made Baldwin so made he had thoughts of suicide. He portrays this in “Another Country” but Baldwin didn’t end his life by suicide.
“Just Above My Head” Talks about the loves of four children. Prior to the story James talks about the time period they are in so he talks about the Ku Klux Klan and how it was acceptable for lynchings and discrimination. “The Ku Klux Klan would walk around and burn and hang African Americans and scare them into voting or doing whatever the whites wanted them to do. No one would stop them so they got away with this stuff.” (Jeskova 9; 77). One reader actually goes as far as to explain what happened in recent years. “People like to avoid the fact that there was a noose hanging on the doorstep of a African American professor that worked at Columbia University just a year before President Obama was elected.” (Jeskova 9; 77). This just shows how far America has advanced in the past couple years.
“Just Above My Head” also talks about a young pianist named Peanut. Peanut loves to play the piano and he went to pianist class with Hall, Arthur, Julia, and Jim. They were all talking
O'Brien !7 about how, “white people had embraced and endured this slaughter for generations, and appeared
more than willing to perpetuate it for generations to come.” (Jeskova 9; 78). This is a tougher topic because Baldwin also talks about the importance of life and how quick life can flash before your eyes. This is a young boy named Peanut who loves to play the piano and is killed for people African America. He didn’t even get to live his life to the fullest. It was ended by white men who only killed him because they didn’t like the color of his skin. It was truly a terrible time period and that’s why Baldwin was credited for being such an amazing author. He helped so many lives during this time period and he got the message across to others, including whites, using descriptive writing and horrific details to his stories.