James Baldwin College Essays Samples For Students

The book Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin is a masterpiece in terms of bringing out the theme of pain and suffering encountered by African Americans after World War II. This paper intends to analyze this book in terms of its plot structure, character and character change, the narrator’s point of view, and its setting. The analysis seeks to explain how James Baldwin, the author, uses these features of his story to further the story's overall theme.

Focusing on the plot structure of the book Sonny's Blues, James Baldwin structures his plot in a way that he systematically addresses two ...

Discuss ‘Another Country’ as a Realistic Novel

Another Country is definitely the innovative and fresh novel of the time as it not only represents the tabooed topics and reveals carefully hidden truths but also gives the new lease of life to the genre of a realistic novel. This particular statement seems to be evident because James Baldwin made his book embody realistic novel’s main features, which are the reality, fidelity, docudrama, human psychology, complex characters, plot structure and narrative style (Shivaji University, 3).

Reality and Fidelity

Even the name of a realistic novel speaks on its behalf; therefore, it is obvious that the proper reflection of the reality ...

ANALYZE THE TROPE OF VIOLENCE IN ‘ANOTHER COUNTRY’

The story of an unsuccessful musician and his death is a knowingly violent one. The features of violence shape the general image of “Another Country”, revealing the deepest secrets of its characters and leading the plot to unexpected fields. The trope of violence, present in “Another Country” starts before Rufus’s death and is directly connected to him. As the story develops, violence starts to come out in other characters’ relationships.
The violence, which takes place in Rufus’s life, is mainly focused around his affair with Leona and Eric. In fact, the origins of heterosexual relations are rooted ...

Sonny’s Blues

Introduction
This is the heart-rending is the tale of how two extreme approaches through which people deal with the tribulations and trials of life. The story reminded me of my own conflict with my family regarding my choice of career as a guitarist. In the novel, Sonny’s Blues, the author James Baldwin narrates the story of two African-American brothers. The story revolves around the relationship between the brothers and how it changes dimensions with the change in circumstances. The narrator, Sonny’s elder brother, had promised his dying mother that he will care for and look after his ...

Modern instances of racism are rather subtle and usually harder to completely analyze from what the victim recounts later. It ranges from a tinge of scorn from the clerk at the usual supermarket to the stench of serious human rights violation by the police. The concept that these acts of racism are isolated and does not signify any underlying pattern was vehemently upheld by many men and women of authority until recently. But as of today, they stand corrected. Even from a passive standpoint, after hearing from a number of such victims, we have come to accept that this ...

Racial inequality is one of the most discussed and urgent problems in the USA. At first, non-white people fought for their freedom, for their human right to be equal with white people. And now, while other countries believe that in USA there are no racial discrimination, non-white people still suffer from unfair distribution of opportunities, powers, rights, and economic resources. Consequently, we can blame 300 years of physical, cultural, and political discrimination as a reason for current inequality. Different politicians, researchers, and writers are trying to come up with the theories, ideas, and historical background of racial identity of ‘ ...

Introduction

James Baldwin in this classic story writes about 2 brothers growing up in a black ghetto called Harlem in New York. These two brothers are from the African-American race and the story was written during the 1950s, a time when the black people were actually enforced to live in a world of discrimination, prejudice, suppression, and poverty. This means that the living standards of black people were very difficult. The idea of individual suffering actually hovers inescapably over this story. Every character suffers in a particular way that is, from poverty, grief, addiction, and limited opportunities in life. For that reason, this essay ...

[Your Name Here]
[]
[Course Name]
I find the reading a psychologically rich homage to recent history. James Baldwin as the author of this story would have been contemporary or participant to conditions much like conditions that this family lived under. James Baldwin was a black man who had come of age in inner city USA through WWII and the civil-rights era. He beautifully demonstrates the psychological effects of living in a paradoxical society. On one hand America was the bastion of liberty and justice throughout the world; on the other hand, it existed under the yoke ...

Identity has become an unavoidable part of people’s lives. Our identities have become our vectors and are defined by what we do and the reasons behind the acts. As much as people may want to believe that their identity is irrelevant, in reality, they often affect the way other people perceive them. There are many aspects of one’s identity. Therefore, every action that a person takes can have different meanings and implications to different people and thus people have become concerned about shaping their identities. Shaping and defending our identities has become more real to us than ...

“Sonny’s Blues” is a story by James Baldwin written in 1957. The story describes a position many adolescents find themselves in when they are in high school. They have to listen to teachers, parents, elder siblings, etc.; however, they have their own opinions, ideas, and passions. Adolescents become very frustrating when they feel that dear people do not understand them or take seriously. This is what happens with the protagonist, Sonny. His brother does not understand his desire to become a musician or join the military. In general, the story is about family, overcoming difficulties, music, and human ...

Blues for Mister Charlie, a term used to refer to “white men”, is a thriller based on Emmett Till’s case, a young African American man who met his death in cold blood in Mississippi in the year 1955. He was killed for an alleged act of whistling at a white woman. Interestingly, the murdered was soon after let free. This play is cyclical in structure. The play begins with and ends in the murder of one character in the name of Richard, while at the same time, occasionally making use of a series of flashback approach to establishing ...

Question One

Civil disobedience was viewed in different ways by various scholars. For Martin Luther King, civil disobedience should be used to pass over government rules. He also asserted that the theory of natural law and contemporary consent may be required by the law as a genuine act of civil disobedience. He also considered civil disobedience in the form of non-violent refusal to obey the laws of the government. Civil disobedience may be applied on a large scale to force the government to negotiate changes. It is also conscientious. This implies that it may be motivated by religious convictions and the ...

In 1960, a group of students called the “Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee” (SNCC) began to organize sit-ins with black students who would walk into restaurants throughout the south and sit in places designated for “whites only.” This stirred up a debate between Malcolm X and James Baldwin, who both played a prominent role in the history of the fight against the nation’s racial inequality that led to the Civil Rights Movement. Each of the men had some interesting, valid, and unique perspectives on their thoughts about the sit-ins that were occurring across the south that resulted in the ...

[First Name Last Name]

Sonny Blue is a short story by James Baldwin writing in 1957 incorporating the major themes of suffering, artistic expression and segregation in a society. It is a story about the narrator who has been successful in creating a secure and stable profession of teaching for himself despite the disparaging pressures that have seen so many black American lead astray (Baldwin 394). The narrator explains his bond with his brother in this story that was hit by stages of separation and return. The book starts when the anonymous narrator of the story while reading the ...

In “The Fire Next Time” author James Baldwin provides a unique perspective inside the lives of African American and race in the 20th century. Unlike his predecessors he shows an angle of life as an African American male that is different from that of those who came before him. Baldwin’s story tells of the challenges and anger that he held against previous generations of black men who had not done enough to fulfil the freedom of the black people. Baldwin’s experience is one of a young black man looking for an answer in a sea of confusing ...

Though stories vary greatly from one another, good stories have similar literary elements in common which make them a good story. This essay judges James Baldwin’s story Sonny’s Blues based on this criteria of characters, setting, and point of view and conflict.
Baldwin’s story features two protagonists, Sonny and his brother and his older, protective brother. Both are from an economically disadvantaged black neighborhood. Sonny is a musician, and as do many musicians, he used drugs. The reader is introduced to Sonny when he has just gotten out of jail and is no longer using drugs, but ...

Literature often deals with various conflicts involving people; wars, families, cultures, nations, and many other factors pit one or more people against each other. However, pivotal moments in literature often occur within the characters themselves. A character may struggle within himself, and this internal struggle can reveal much about the character and therefore the aim of the literature. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” and James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” are short stories that deal intimately with the internal conflict of their protagonists, which reveals much about the characters.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, “Young Goodman Brown,” ...

Anne Bradstreet and James Baldwin express their concern about the American society and their literary works critique and comment on the societal conditions of the land. Anne Bradstreet was the first woman poet of America and her literary works voiced her disapproval of the societal view of the women folk of the land. She refuted the stereotypical notion of the Puritan society of the 1600s that the female was inferior to the male. The American patriarchal society expected the women folk to embrace passivity and immanence finding solace in the constrictions of the household.
In the poem, The ...

Language Is The Level By Which We Navigate Through Life

Fredrick Douglas in his essay “Learning to Read and Write.” Reflects upon how he learned literacy with no teacher. Amy Tan’s essay deals with her discovery of not just speaking Chines and English, but speaking two different Englishes depending on context. In language, we learn from the world around us. In my personal experience of growing up in South Korea, I first learned to speak Korean, and did not even realize that there were other languages until I was older, when I was then taught English in school. While I do well with English, I do not feel ...