Baldwins Father in Notes of a Native Son Essay -- James Baldwin

Playgrounds of Harlem Narrative is a form of writing used by writers to convey their experiences to an audience. James Baldwin is a ren admited author for take his experience to literature. He grew up Harlem in the 1940s and 1950s, a crucial point in history for America due to the escalading conflict between tribe of different races marked by the race riots of Harlem and Detroit. This environ handst that Baldwin grew up in inspires and influences him to write the narrative Notes of a Native Son, which is based on his experience with racism and the Jim-Crow Laws. The narrative is about his acquire and his influence on Baldwins life, which he analyzes and compares to his own experiences. When Baldwin comes into contact with the harshness of America, he realizes the problems and conflicts he runs into are the resembling his fix faced, and that they will have the same affect on him as they did his father. Baldwins father died a broken and ruined man on J uly 29th, 1943. This only paralleled the snake pit occurring around him at the time, such as the race riots of Detroit and Harlem which Baldwin describes to be as spoils of injustice, anarchy, discontent, and hatred. (63) His father was born in New Orleans, the first generation of free men in a land where opportunities, real and fancied, are thicker than anywhere else. (63) Although free from slavery, African-Americans still faced the hardships of racism and were still oppressed from any opportunities, which is a element that led Baldwins father to going mad and eventually being committed. Baldwin would also later learn how white people would do anything to keep a Negro down. (68) For a preacher, there was little trust and faith his father ... ...his father had acted the way he did, which caused him to be committed. He was facing the same experiences and the same side-effects his father once felt. However, faced with this dilemma between acceptance and equal power, Baldwin looks to the only man he can trust to help him, his father. He trusts his father because he knows that his father went through the same dilemma he is going through, he has seen the same affects in his fathers rage and hate. However, his father already passed away, and what help that could have been gathered from his father is gone Baldwin can only piece together his memories of his fathers character and life and compare it to his own to see how the two are really alike.Works CitedBaldwin, James. Notes of a Native Son. 1955. James Baldwin Collected Essays. Ed. Toni Morrison. New York Library of America, 1998. 63-84.