Racial Hatred in Notes of a Native Son Essay -- James Baldwin

Notes of a inseparable parole Baldwins Essay on the Disease of Racial Hatred racism is an ugly word that churns up strong emotions whenever it is mentioned. Shocking images of lynchings, church bombings and unravel riots creep into the mind, and cause an almost physical reaction of repulsion and disgust. storey books and old television clips do a good job of tell the story of racial hatred in America, but not what it actually felt corresponding to be an African American during those times. James Baldwin, a noted African American author from New York in the mid-fifties and 1960s, knew what it was like to experience years of unrelenting, dehumanizing racial in unspoiltice. In his essay, Notes of a Native Son, Baldwin uses his literary skills to tell close his familys painful history under(a) racism and also to analyze the effects of racial hatred on society hatred that he compares to a disease of the human spirit.Baldwin uses the lecture of despair in his essay from the very start. In the opening paragraph, he sets the scene for everything that follows with five short, non-descriptive sentences that state the events going on around him at the time of his fathers death. The atmosphere is tense and solemn as the funeral procession moves through a barren wasteland of destruction on the way to the cemetery. Only the bare facts are written and Baldwin deliberately avoids development any colorful descriptions or interesting phrases in order to recompense the mood at this particular moment in his life. With this stripped trim narrative passage, Baldwin sets an overall tone of bleakness, harshness and helplessness that he carries on throughout the essay. The audience is bombarded with a list of facts his father is dead, his mother just gave birt... ...n in the 1950s, its message is still an important one for our society today. By sharing his personal life experiences, Baldwin provides readers with a snapshot of what life was like for a young African American man growing up in Harlem and how he was able to deal with racism on a personal level. By providing a running commentary and analysis of how his aver situation relates to the African American community as a whole, Baldwin provides readers with an priceless insight to the plight of people of color in the United States. In Notes, Baldwin uses his unique writing style to both inform and instruct readers about the dangers of allowing the divisions in our society based on race to continue unresolved. full treatment Cited Baldwin, James. Notes of a Native Son. 1955. James Baldwin Collected Essays. Ed. ToniMorrison. New York Library of America, 1998. 63-84.