A
non-fiction book, Notes of a Native Son
by James Baldwin and it was published in 1955 as his first non-fiction book.
The book starts with sentence
“The story of the Negro in America is the story
of America – or, more
precisely, it is the story of Americans. It is not a very pretty story: the
story of a people is never very pretty. … One may say that the Negro
in America does not really exist except in the darkness of our mind.” (24 - 25)
precisely, it is the story of Americans. It is not a very pretty story: the
story of a people is never very pretty. … One may say that the Negro
in America does not really exist except in the darkness of our mind.” (24 - 25)
My first
job was that understand this paragraph. How come “The story of the Negro in
America is the story of America”? I pick this sentence for In-class Exercise and
asked the reason to my classmates. They said African Americans stated to move
in the United States as slaves when white people establish the country. African
Americans were regarded as a precious property not a human being to white
people. Although in 1862, Abraham
Lincoln abolished slavery, after that, white people’s discriminations to
African American still remain. This is really brief version of African American’s
story but it helped me to understand the sentence, why African American’s story
is the story of America and why it is not pretty at all.
As I keep reading the
essay, I got another problem, Aunt Jemima and Uncle Tom, they were unfamiliar
to me, and I did not know what they mean. James Baldwin talked about typical
idea of Aunt Jemima, such as big black woman, usually shown in the kitchen,
cooking for white people. Uncle Tom is similar function as man. James Baldwin
says, ‘‘There was no one more forbearing than Aunt Jemima, no one stronger or
more pious or more loyal or more wise’’(28) Uncle Tom is ‘‘trustworthy and
sexless.’’(28) Baldwin says those two quotes are the public images of African
American. The fact is Aunt Jemima is faithless, vicious, and immoral; Uncle Tom
is ‘‘violent, crafty, and sullen, a menace to any white woman who passed by.’’(28)
According to the essay, it is their surface identity that most white people
want to believe. Since white people wanted peace, white people wanted to believe
in their artificial creation. James Baldwin stated that Aunt Jemima and Uncle
Tom was people’s creation and a device for “we” who hope peace.
Cho,
ReplyDeleteNice work! You came to this fairly difficult essay with a different cultural background and were still able to understand Baldwin's essential points and to point out some of the more subtle tensions in his writing.
I am glad that talking with your classmates helped you to gain a working sense of the history of the African American people and the racial tensions that are present in almost all of the works we'll read this semester and in African American literature in general. As you can imagine, Aunt Jemima and Uncle Tom were not writers of literary works - this is why these "artificial" creations do the work of keeping the peace.
Writing allows all of those deeper feelings and concerns to be expressed and can cause violent reactions. I think you'll find over the semester that students in the course will frequently disagree about fundamental parts of the assigned readings and that often they will both be correct in different senses.You also grasp the complexity of the "we" in the paragraph - I think that taken in some literal or direct senses, Baldwin groups himself with whites for the purpose of making a point. At other times, "we" includes whites and blacks and people of all other origins and races. "We" can frequently mean society at large. Bickering about the past is not necessarily a good thing or a meaningful thing in its own right, but if it furthers our understanding of who we are, who our ancestors were, and what we want to strive for during our lives, I think that it serves a purpose. I hope that you'll gain insights on the United States in this class that show that this nation is both incredible and incredibly tense and charged and problematic in ways that are sometimes similar to other places and other times unique.
Thanks for your contribution!