African-American Author James Baldwin
How adversity fulfilled Baldwin’s dream to become a writer.
People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them — James Baldwin
Meet writer James Baldwin
After reading Baldwin’s Going to Meet the Man, I was deeply moved by this well-written book, so much so that it took me nearly a week to digest everything he was actually saying. The fact he had the ability to have the perception of a white person does not amaze; moreover, it clearly tells me there were words in him screaming to come out. These words were delivered from his emotions, life experiences of oppression, and perhaps emotional deprivation in his childhood. Also, they would not have been so succinctly stated in a short story if he did not have passion and compassion for his culture, nor the desire to command respect, respect which is a God-given right. The articulated words are to be valued for what they were trying to say of his culture and to his culture, as well as what they communicate to “white America.” So, then, would Baldwin have succeeded to have a place in the literary spotlight if he had not been a victim of oppression, and how did he try to reach “white America?”
