The Use of the Nation of Islam in “Down at the Cross” Like his essay “Notes of a Native Son,” James Baldwin’s “Down at the Cross” offers a three-part essay involving Baldwin’s personal adolescent experience, a specific event in Baldwin’s life, and a final analysis concluding with a warning to the readers. Baldwin describes a general experience throughout his life, and his sense of the public’s overall experience, to discuss the progression of America throughout history; the progression of America is the advancement of the American Negro according to Baldwin: “[The American Negro] is the key figure in his country, and the American future is precisely as bright or as dark as his” (Baldwin 340). The Nation of Islam and its leader, Elijah Muhammad, play an important role in Baldwin’s analysis. Baldwin’s early religious involvement prepare him for his experience at Muhammad’s residence, and his combined experiences instigate reflections upon the progress of black and white America since the emancipation of blacks during the Civil War. Baldwin begins his essay with a recount of his childhood, growing up black in a nation which considered itself white. Baldwin explains the uphill battle fought by every American Negro, how many “were clearly headed for the Avenue” (Baldwin 296) of whores, pimps, and racketeers. Baldwin argues that the American Negro was doomed to remain in the same state in which he or she was brought into the world, just as “girls were destined to gain as much weight as their mothers, the boys … would rise no higher than their fathers” (Baldwin 298). Even an education would not rescue one from “the man’s” oppression. The man, of course, is the white man who “would never, by the operation of any generous human feel... ... middle of paper ... ...ns of the consequences if America fails the journey: “God gave Noah the rainbow sign, No more water, the fire next time!” (Baldwin 347). Works Cited Baldwin, James. “Down at the Cross.” 1963. James Baldwin: Collected Essays. Ed. Toni Morrison. New York: Library of America, 1998. 63-84. “Cultist is Slain Battling Police.” New York Times 29 Apr. 1962, sec. 1: 72. Dodoo, Jan. Nation of Islam. 29 May 2001. U of Virginia. 17 Mar. 2004 Kihss, Peter. “In Return for Years of Slavery, Four or Five States.” New York Times 23 Apr. 1961, sec. 7: 406. Quarles, Benjamin. “Lincoln’s The Black Muslims in America.” Rev. of The Black Muslims in America, by C. Eric Lincoln. Journal of Negro History. Vol. XLVI, No. 3 (1961): 198-199. White, Jack E. “An Unlikely Prophet.” Time 13 Dec. 1999: 103+
Rosenblatt, Roger. "Out of Control: Go Tell It on the Mountain and Another Country." In Black Fiction. N.p.: Harvard University, 1974. Rpt. in Harold Bloom ed. James Baldwin. New York: Chelsea House, 1986.
James Baldwin was an African American writer who, through his own personal experiences and life, addressed issues such as race, sexuality, and the American identity. “Notes of a Native Son” is one of many essays that Baldwin wrote during his lifetime. Within this essay, Baldwin talks about when his father died and the events that revolved around it. His father’s death occurs in the early 1940s, where oppression and racism were still fairly prevalent in many cities across the nation. So amidst the events that revolve around Baldwin’s father’s death, there are many riots and beatings taking place. This essay is simply not a recollection of what Baldwin experienced in the past, but it challenges, critiques, and tries to understand the current social condition of the time. He does this by recalling his personal experiences to draw the reader in and as a result of that, can begin to construct an analysis of the social condition.
Racism is an ugly word that churns up strong emotions whenever it is mentioned. Shocking images of lynchings, church bombings and race riots creep into the mind, and cause an almost physical reaction of repulsion and disgust. History books and old television clips do a good job of telling the story of racial hatred in America, but not what it actually felt like to be an African American during those times. James Baldwin, a noted African American author from New York in the 1950s and 1960s, knew what it was like to experience years of unrelenting, dehumanizing racial injustice. In his essay, “Notes of a Native Son,” Baldwin uses his literary skills to tell about his family’s painful history under racism and also to analyze the effects of racial hatred on society – hatred that he compares to a disease of the human spirit.
In “The Fire Next Time,” James Baldwin, uses two essays not only to examine racism during a time when the civil rights movement was just emerging, but also to present readers with the consequences America’s intolerance of the black population. During Baldwin’s lifetime, racial injustices plagued America, and, for blacks, equality was merely an idea, not a reality. Despite the racism, Baldwin sees that America still has a chance to right its wrongs by learning to love and accept those of different races. If blacks and whites learn to accept each other, Baldwin believes that America will become stronger as a nation.
James Baldwin is described in the film James Baldwin – The Price of the Ticket as an American writer who was born in 1924 and died in 1987. He wrote a wide variety of different types of books, examining human experience and the way in which love was a part of that experience. However, he was also very active in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. He was a voice that helped to bring about understanding, even if sometimes it was by slapping White America in the face. His message was that Black experience was very different than that of White, and change was necessary. He spoke about the black experience, but James Baldwin was focused on the ways in which people were the same,
Works Cited Baldwin, James. A. “Down at the Cross.” 1955. James Baldwin: Collected Essays. Ed. Toni Morrison.
From slavery being legal, to its abolishment and the Civil Rights Movement, to where we are now in today’s integrated society, it would seem only obvious that this country has made big steps in the adoption of African Americans into American society. However, writers W.E.B. Du Bois and James Baldwin who have lived and documented in between this timeline of events bringing different perspectives to the surface. Du Bois first introduced an idea that Baldwin would later expand, but both authors’ works provide insight to the underlying problem: even though the law has made African Americans equal, the people still have not.
The third and final part of the essay deals mostly with Baldwin’s father’s funeral. The day of his father’s funeral was Baldwin’s 19th birthday and he spent most of the day drinking with a friend. At the funeral, his father was eulogized as a thoughtful, patient, and forbearing Christian. Baldwin says this is a complete misrepresentation of the embittered and angry man they all knew. Nonetheless, he concludes, given the burden a poor black man with nine children had to bear, such a eulogy was somehow just. His father may have been cruel and distant, but he also had to contend with raising children in a world he knew hated them, and the hatred he felt in turn for this world had consumed and troubled him in ways unknown to anyone but him.
Analyze – Baldwin tries to say that everyone is equal, it is the society who discriminated the Negroes by their skin color and says that they are not Americans. Which describes the mentality of the people therefore, it is called “… in their darkness of our mind.”
James Baldwin’s a The Fire Next Time” Down at the Cross – a letter from Region of my Mind” directly relates with the relationship of religion and race, exploring the differences between his experience with the Christian church when he was a young man and the ideals of Islam in the town of Harlem. Baldwin explained the whites as a group of people trapped within a purity given by God, and within this purity it allows them innocence. Baldwin analyzes the church or the Christian faith, because it has historically been used to go against black people dating back to the pre-Emancipation, and with a connection gone bad with Africa he also denies the movement of Black Muslim because he seeks to rather reverse hierarchy, than to destroy it. Through
Notes of a Native Son, a widely acclaimed and celebrated book by James Baldwin was subjected to many reviews upon its first publication. There were many opposing views between reviewers but almost all came to the conclusion that Baldwin’s use of words was extremely eloquent and intelligent. Specifically an article titled “Rage unto Order” by Dachine Rainer was very adamant about Baldwin’s genius as a writer but hardly did anything to explain or exemplify that fact. Another review written by Langston Hughes reflects upon how Baldwin clings to the issue of racial discrimination on Negroes and that if he let go of that fact it would prove him to be a greater writer. In the third article the author tries to explain the meaning of Baldwin’s essay with specific quotes from within Baldwin’s work. However blatantly different there are several similarities between the articles. Some of which are Baldwin’s writing style and the articles share similar analyses of his viewpoints.
Coates discusses his son, while Baldwin begins his essay about his father. He speaks of how his son should know all aspects of how his ancestry’s bodies’ have gone through struggle in different ways, thus has been passed down to his bloodline and culture, “You must always remember that the sociology, the history, the economics, the graphs, the charts, the regressions all land, with great violence, upon the body” (10). Furthermore, when Coates’ child heard of the indictment of Michael Brown’s killers he did not try to console him in sugar-coated words, but expressed to him the reality of these types of situations and how he, himself, can overcome them, “this is your country, that this is your world, and you must find some way to live within the all of it” (12). He continues to progress on the topic, “I tell you now that the question of how one should live within a black body, within a country lost in the Dream, is the question of my life, and the pursuit of this question, I have found, ultimately answers itself” (12).
Baldwin, James. “Notes of a Native Son.” 1955. James Baldwin: Collected Essays. Ed. Toni Morrison. New York: Library of America, 1998. 63-84.
According to James Baldwin’s “My Dungeon Shook: A Letter to My Nephew” African Americans cannot obtain their piece of the American Dream. Baldwin wrote a letter to his nephew in hope of guiding him through life. Baldwin had many words of wisdom to share, mostly words provoked by pain and anger. Baldwin wanted to teach his nephew about the cruelty of society. His main point was to teach his nephew not to believe the white man and his words. He wanted to encourage his nephew to succeed in life but not to expect the unassailable. By believing the white man one can not succeed but by knowing where one comes from will lead to success was the foundation of Baldwin’s message (243-246).
Therefore, I will analyze the text through historical approach and racial perspective. James Baldwin wrote this letter to his nephew, a young black man, who absolutely was in lower class and often experienced racial inequality. James Baldwin writes: “Well, he is dead, he never saw you, and he had a terrible life: he was defeated long before he died because, at the bottom of his heart, he really believed what white people said about him”(4). At that time, black people had poor sources, and they often experienced discrimination. Although they wanted to defeat, they did not dare to do. Because they recognized they were white people`s slaves and they could not resist them. However, James Baldwin is a specific person in this letter because he is the unique one to against the unequal life. When other black men use moody to protect themselves but still feel inferiority, he encourages his nephew. He says: “You, don`t afraid. I said that it was intended that you should perish in the ghetto... You have, and many of us have, defeated this intention; and, by a terrible law, a terrible paradox, those innocents who believed that your imprisonment made them safe are losing their grasp of reality”(9). James Baldwin hopes his nephew not be influenced by what white men say. Likewise, he mentions there are many black men want to defeat with their unequal fate. He wants to achieve the real freedom, including the law, the realism, and the society. Furthermore, he has confident that African American can made American stronger, and he says: “ Great men have done great thing here, and will again, and we can make America what America must become”(10). The author suggests his nephew to study hard, and to build America with whites together, such as build railroads and dam