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Loading... Notes of a Native Son (Beacon Paperback) (original 1955; edition 1984)by James Baldwin (Author), Edward P. Jones (Illustrator)
Work InformationNotes of a Native Son by James Baldwin (1955)
   » 5 more No current Talk conversations about this book.   ) mrbearbooks | Apr 22, 2024 |   ) JBarringer | Dec 15, 2023 | "I imagine that one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, that they will be forced to deal with pain." "It was better not to judge the man who had gone down under an impossible burden. It was better to remember: Thou knowest this man's fall, but thou knowest not his wrassling." "...no one was interested in the facts. They preferred the invention because this invention expressed and corroborated their hates and fears so perfectly." "Hatred, which could destroy so much, never failed to destroy the man who hated." "...one must never, in one's own life, accept these injustices as commonplace but must fight them with all one's strength. 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." ( ) BooksbyStarlight | Oct 25, 2022 | PendleHillLibrary | Aug 26, 2022 | Baldwin is most relatable when he writes about his personal experiences in France, but every essay in this book is important. (  ) nbornstein | Mar 5, 2022 |
James Baldwin writes down to nobody, and he is trying very hard to write up to himself. As an essayist he is thought-provoking, tantalizing, irritating, abusing and amusing. And he uses words as the sea uses waves, to flow and beat, advance and retreat, rise and take a bow in disappearing. ... Few American writers handle words more effectively in the essay form than James Baldwin. To my way of thinking, he is much better at provoking thought in the essay than he is arousing emotion in fiction. I much prefer "Notes of a Native Son" to his novel, "Go Tell It on the Mountain," where the surface excellence and poetry of his writing did not seem to me to suit the earthiness of his subject matter. In his essays, words and material suit each other. The thought becomes poetry, and the poetry illuminates the thought. The collected "pieces" of the author of Go Tell It on the Mountain form a compelling unit as he applies the high drama of poetry and sociology to a penetrating analysis of the Negro experience on the American and European scene. ... The expression of so many insights enriches rather than clarifies, and behind every page stalks a man, an everyman, seeking his identity...and ours. Exceptional writing. Is contained inContainsHas the (non-series) sequelIs abridged inHas as a student's study guide
Literary Criticism.
Sociology.
African American Nonfiction.
Nonfiction.
HTML:In an age of Black Lives Matter, James Baldwin's essays on life in Harlem, the protest novel, movies, and African Americans abroad are as powerful today as when they were first written. With documentaries like I Am Not Your Negro bringing renewed interest to Baldwin's life and work, Notes of a Native Son serves as a valuable introduction. Written during the 1940s and early 1950s, when Baldwin was only in his twenties, the essays collected in Notes of a Native Son capture a view of black life and black thought at the dawn of the civil rights movement and as the movement slowly gained strength through the words of one of the most captivating essayists and foremost intellectuals of that era. Writing as an artist, activist, and social critic, Baldwin probes the complex condition of being black in America. With a keen eye, he examines everything from the significance of the protest novel to the motives and circumstances of the many black expatriates of the time, from his home in ??The Harlem Ghetto? to a sobering ??Journey to Atlanta.? Notes of a Native Son inaugurated Baldwin as one of the leading interpreters of the dramatic social changes erupting in the United States in the twentieth century, and many of his observations have proven almost prophetic. His criticism on topics such as the paternalism of white progressives or on his own friend Richard Wright??s work is pointed and unabashed. He was also one of the few writing on race at the time who addressed the issue with a powerful mixture of outrage at the gross physical and political violence against black citizens and measured understanding of their oppressors, which helped awaken a white audience to the injustices under their noses. Naturally, this combination of brazen criticism and unconventional empathy for white readers won Baldwin as much condemnation as praise. Notes is the book that established Baldwin??s voice as a social critic, and it remains one of his most admired works. The essays collected here create a cohesive sketch of black America and reveal an intimate portrait of Baldwin??s own search for identity as an artist, as a black man No library descriptions found. |
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)305.896073Social sciences Social Sciences; Sociology and anthropology Groups of people Ethnic and national groups ; racism, multiculturalism Other Groups African Origin North America African AmericansLC ClassificationRatingAverage: (4.18)
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