Left on Repeat

Throughout Baldwin’s collection of short stories, we have been reading of the different sides of racism in America. Whether it be someone who can’t find a home, a man afraid for the safety of his family, and most recently in “Going to Meet the Man”, the act of lynching, which was seen as a celebratory event as white people to gathered and ate while watching a man die because of the color of his skin. Now, an interesting aspect of this story is the fact that it is told in the perspective of the white sheriff, Jesse. He has never experienced an ounce of racism against him in his life, So, instead, he is one of the people dishing it out. But, giving us Jesse’s perspective helps us understand parts of his violent, racist personality.

The story begins with Jesse being unable to sexually perform, and so his wife decides to call it a night. Now, during this time, Jesse lays in bed thinking about why he seems so troubled. He thinks to the protestors he has to deal with the next day. He also thinks back to when he was eight years old, where his mother and father took him to his first celebratory lynching. “Now he saw the fire--of twigs and boxes, piled high; flames made pale orange and yellow and thin as a veil under the steadier light of the sun...then he saw that this chain bound two black hands together at the wrist, dirty yellow palm facing dirty yellow palm...he saw the kinky, sweaty, bloody head...His hands were straight above his head. All his weight pulled downward from his hands; and he was a big man, a bigger man than his father, and black as an African jungle Cat, and naked” (246). At first, Jesse is confused as to why everyone seems to be laughing and enjoying the event, while a naked man is tied to a pole, immersed in flames. But, as his father sits him on his shoulders, symbolizing the father-son aspect of this “picnic”, Jesse begins to understand. He forgets about Otis, his best friend, and begins to focus on how enjoyable the experience is. This sort of moment urges us to see how part of Jesse’s personality can be attributed to his upbringing. His father appears proud to bring his son to his first lynching, giving Jesse the idea that these sort of events are positive and meant to be enjoyed.

Now, with that being said, I don’t think all of Jesse’s personality can be blamed on how he was nurtured, because parts of his character are just his disgusting nature. After remembering this pivotal moment when was eight, Jesse becomes sexually charged and proceeds to finish what he was trying to start with his wife. “Something bubbled up in him, his nature again returned to him. He thought of the boy in the cell; he thought of the man in the fire; he thought of the knife and grabbed himself and stroked himself and a terrible sound, something between a high laugh and a howl, came out of him and dragged his sleeping wife up on one elbow...’Come on, sugar, I’m going to do you like a nigger, just lieka nigger, come on, sugar, and love me just like you’d love a nigger’” (249). The image of the boy he brutally injured and of the man dying in the flames with his genitals mutilated turns Jesse on, which is honestly one of the sickest things I’ve ever read. This shows the despicable, disturbing side of Jesse’s personality, proving that he is severely messed up.

Now, while looking at this scene, as a white girl, I am tempted to think that these sorts of things are a time of the past, and that we’ve moved on as a society to become more accepting. But, unfortunately, this isn’t true. As Mr. Butler says, “History doesn’t repeat itself, it rhymes”. Although we have become more accepting of races other than Caucasian (unfortunately, there is still evidence of racist to this day), we have chosen a different group of individuals to discriminate against; the LGBT community. As a country, we are still struggling with granting LGBT their God given rights. Even though gay marriage was legalized across the country, there are still cases where a gay couple is refused the right to marry because it apparently goes against the marriage license official’s personal beliefs (ie. they are ignorant and close minded...and also lawbreakers now). See, we like to think that we are advancing as a nation, but while problems are solved, other arise. Although gays and lesbians are slowing gaining more rights, transgender individuals are finding it increasingly harder to be accepted in such an, all together, close minded country.

So, although I would like to argue that, however horrific Jesse’s situation is, that those are times of the past, similar things are happening to this day. People are murdered just for their sexuality and/or sexual orientation, and even when this problem is eventually solved, new ones will bubble to the surface. We throw around religion like it’s a safe card to hide our true inner problems. I’ll bet Jesse and others told people that not lynching a black man would be going against the bible. And yet, to this day, we see similar phrases being used against the LGBT community.

Now, I could go on and on, but then this blog post may never end. All in all, although Jesse’s situation is awful and mortifying, his thoughts aren’t times of the past. People in America still discriminate against black people, except now it’s not acceptable to share those thoughts out loud. Being given Jesse’s inner thoughts allows us to see just how sick and twisted a person of that time could have been. But, even though we are given a glimpse into Jesse’s upbringings, his character should not be completely blamed on how he was nurtured. I believe, by nature, he has and would always have been a disgusting person, and that his parents just furthered his development down that path. So, we can see that as time goes on, history tends to repeat itself as new problems arise and we are led to discuss the rights and dictate the destiny of people we know nothing about.

Mixed Feelings

When asked at the start of class if we enjoyed the character Ruth in Baldwin’s “Come Out the Wilderness”, I can honestly say that I have mixed feelings. I mean, this is the first time in this collection that the female character has been brought to the forefront. Characters such as Roy’s mother, Eric’s mother, and Sonny’s mother are all figures that tend to wade out in the background of their respective stories. We aren’t even given most of their official names, just their relation to the main characters. So, assumably, it would be a breath of fresh air when Ruth came along; finally, a story with a female protagonist! But, unfortunately, I don’t think I’m sold. See, almost the entirety of the story involves Ruth’s internal thoughts as she struggles with the relationships in her life. Although I can see the pain Ruth has constantly had to endure throughout her life, I found her a somewhat frivolous and uninspiring character, as she thinks more about the men in her life than her own job or her future.

Now, with that being said, I do sympathize with Ruth. She escaped the claws of her religious, conservative family by fleeing to New York, a place seemingly symbolizing freedom and new adventure; a place where she could start a new life, out of the hands of those who wish to control her. But, unfortunately, New York ends up not being the safe haven she had hoped for. She came with heavy baggage on her shoulders. After getting caught being in a room along with a boy, she is proclaimed as “dirty” by her family, a label that she carries without wherever she goes. When she runs away with Arthur to apparently the land of promises, she begins to realize the problems she has made. First, Arthur is a controlling partner, never quite satisfied with Ruth’s personality. He opts to change her by sending her to school and dressing her the way he wishes. On the other hand, Ruth does credit him with allowing her to somewhat accept herself. “Through him, she got over feeling that she was black and unattractive and as soon as this happened she was able to leave him” (209). Once he had finished remaking her into the woman he wished to be with, she found the courage to go off on her own path. With Arthur, she felt like she was unable to move and breath the way she wished, for he was molding her into his ideal sculpture. Good thing she was able to leave him, right?

No. In fact, she got about a year or so of a break until she found Paul. Now, after leaving Arthur, Ruth found herself some new found independence. She found that she was able to support herself financially with her newly learned skills, and so I believe that she enjoyed Paul’s presence because she was not only able to support herself, but him as well. But, while Paul became seemingly financially dependent on Ruth, she became emotionally dependent on him. Even though now, she doesn’t even love him, she feels like he has a hold on her. “She had no place to go, she only wanted him. She had tried hard to want other men, and she was still young, only twenty-six, and there was no real lack of opportunity. But all she knew about other men was that they were not Paul” (199). At this point, she can’t image life without Paul. Even though she does not love him and thinks constantly of when he will end it between them, she is lost without him. Paul has created this void in her life that can’t be filled by any other man. She feels incomplete without Paul in her life.

It’s unfortunate that Ruth flees to New York, in search of a new life, a life of freedom and new opportunities, but  finds herself stuck, unable to break the molds others have set her in. She describes the scenery of Manhattan as: “For her as for most of Manhattan, trees and water ceased to be realities; the nervous, trusting landscape of the city began to be the landscape of her mind. As soon her mind, like life on the island, seemed to be incapable of flexibility, of moving outward, could only shriek upward into the meaningless abstractions or drop downward into cruelty and confusion” (203). The idea of Manhattan was this place where she could have a fresh start, but in reality, it has caged her in. She allows others decide her fate for her, leaving her no room and opportunity to expand the fields she wished to. She has found herself stuck in two dimensions, unable to break into the third. As she stays with Paul, she will increasingly find herself being reduced to the first dimension; a point. A dot that will stay stagnant, under the control of those she depends on.

But, like I said earlier, although I can see and sympathize with Ruth’s situation, I didn’t see her as a very compelling character. Perhaps it was the constant mentioning of her relationships that got to me, for she came off as sort of a drama queen. Now, I can’t even fathom being in such a binding situation where you are unable to move an inch onto your own path, but I still can’t seem to find Ruth a likable character. Her constant mention of the fact that her boyfriend might break up with her seems so middle/ high school - esque. We even get snippets of her conversations with Paul, where he doesn’t seem like he is going to break Ruth’s heart, and yet she builds the reader up to think so. She makes up situations in her head, not allowing life to come at her and take her where it pleases. She came to New York, in search of a free spirit, but she hasn’t let her feet leave the ground yet. Her mind doesn’t take the time to be concerned about herself, for she only thinks about those around her. She too worried about how her past has affected her in instead of focusing on what lies ahead.

Cryptic Endings

A very symbolic moment that caught my attention was the last scene in Baldwin’s “This Morning, This Evening, So Soon”. In it, the narrator picks up his son from a family friend’s place and proceeds to take him back to their room in order to get read for their journey to America. The two ride an elevator up with Paul, the narrator’s son, in his father’s arms.

I put him on my shoulder and walk out into the hall. Mme. Dumont looks up at him with her radiant, aging face.

“Ah,” she says, “you are going on a journey! How does it feel?”

“He doesn’t know yet,” I tell her. I walk to the elevator door and open in, dropping Paul down to the crook of my arm.

“She laughs again. “He will know later. What a journey! Fusqu’au nouveau monde!”

I open the cage and we step inside. “Yes,” I say, “all the way to the new world.” I press the button and the cage, holding my son and me, goes up.

Now, initially, this scene could be read as pretty straight forward. The narrator and his son are about to travel all the way to the new world and they are taking an elevator to their room so they can pack and head off. But, after Mr. Mitchell mentioned the possibly symbolism regarding the referral of the elevator as a “cage”, I began to think of alternative meanings to this ending. So, the first aspect to focus on is, as Mr. Mitchell pointed out, the “cage” that the narrator and his son ride to their room. The use of the word “cage” implies confinement, which is what the narrator has been getting at as he describes his past experiences in America and why they haunt him to this day. During his childhood, the narrator felt trapped in this role of always needing to serves to the white man’s needs. He had to be overly polite, subservient, while also giving them the benefit of the doubt. As he states when talking about Louisa’s experience with white people, “all the white people she had ever met needed, in one way or another, to be reassured, consoled, to have their consciences pricked but not blasted; could not, could not afford to hear a truth which would shatter, irrevocably, their image of themselves” (151). In their experience, in every aspect of their lives, they have had to cater to the white man’s needs. (And woman’s, for that matter). Even if they were being treated cruelly, they had to show them that their hearts meant well, even though they didn’t. They were forcibly put into this role that they never even auditioned for. Their lives were spent caged in this bubble, a confined space of which they didn’t have the power to break out of, having to obey the spoken and unspoken rules and regulations of white people. And now, moving to America with his family, the narrator worries that he’s just bringing his son and wife into the bubble with him.

Throughout this ending scene, the narrator seems very sarcastic, nervous, and a little pessimistic, which is very reasonable. His life may never be the same once he steps foot on American soil. And if he and his family’s life changes for the worse, he could be held responsible. He is the one bringing his family along in order to further his career, so he would be responsible if the environment ends up tearing them apart. He is the one bring his son into this cage, one that they may not be able to make their way out of.

A last observation that I noticed is that, when the narrator walks into his son’s room, Paul is asleep. In the beginning, we see that the narrator is worried about preserving his son’s innocence, and that if/ once he brings him to America, he will assumably be immersed in a hateful, racist environment, seemingly tainting his innocence. But, after talking to Vital, the narrator decides that they must travel to America, and so he wakes up his son, picks him up, and takes him into the elevator, which is one of the first steps in their journey. The narrator picks up his son and takes him into the elevator, but he says that they are going “all the way to the new world”. In this, the narrator could be inferring that they will soon enter a world where he can’t always hold his son’s hand. Paul is going to have to experience the harshness of the world sometime or another, and the time is now.

Now, all of this could be completely false, and Baldwin could be thinking of a different meaning behind his ending, but it’s interesting to see how this short ending can be interpreted in numerous ways. All in all, we know that the narrator has discovered that racism is everywhere and that Paris isn’t immune to it, so he sees that America may not be just a bad idea. There will be troubles adjusting, but the hope is that his family will stay strong as they travel overseas to the new world.

Nightmares to Reality

In “This Morning, This Evening, So Soon”, it’s interesting to see how the narrator’s life has changed since he’s left America and moved to Paris, and to speculate how his life will be when he returns. As he and his family prepare to relocate to America, where he can further his film career, the narrator has some concerns. He experiences flashbacks of when he was in the states and was constantly having to be on his toes, afraid to say the wrong word or use the wrong tone. Scared to be verbally, physically, and emotionally harassed, and being unable to do anything about it. “I had not had to deal with these faces in so long and I had forgotten how to do it. I had once known how to pitch my voice precisely between curtness and servility, and known what razor’s edge of a pickaninny’s smile would turn away wrath. But I had forgotten all the tricks on which my life had once depended on” (163). Just thinking about going through customs makes the narrator on edge. Throughout his life in the states, he went through immense psychologically (along with physical) torture, constantly having to play the role of the subservient, yet not too weak, black person living in a white man’s world. And now, he will be bring his family to America, and they will assumably have to endure the same thing.

But, there is more behind all of this. Once he moved to Paris, the narrator states that he felt free, not being constantly watched by those around him. He states that when he fell in love, he not only fell in love with his soon-to-be wife, but also Paris itself. “During all the years of my life, until that moment, I had carried the menacing, the hostile, killing world with me everywhere...that world on which I knew one could never turn one’s back, the white man’s world. And for the first time in my life I was free of it...For the first time in my life I had not been afraid of the patriotism of the mindless, in uniform or out, who would beat me up and treat the woman who was with me as though she were the lowest of untouchables” (158). Paris has provided the narrator with this safe haven, one where he’s left alone and isn’t judged by the color of his skin or the woman he is with. His wife, Harriet, is a white woman from Sweden. She has never been to America, so she has no idea what the kind of environment is like there. The narrator worries that when he brings her with him to America, she will be judged and ridiculed for her choosing of her husband. A white woman with a black man is seemingly unheard of, and would cause an outcry among the American people. This could possibly cause tension in their marriage, as they will have to fight through the all the pain other may cause them in order to see why they found and stayed with each other in the first place.

Another area of concern is Harriet’s and her husband’s son, Paul. Now, Paul is mixed, and this if fine in Paris, but it may not be taken so lightly when in America. The child of a white woman and black man could cause him to be seriously bullied in school. At his age, Paul still is very innocent, and the idea of him coming to America, immersing him in a dangerous, racist environment that his father remembers so vividly, worries the narrator. He won’t be able to protect his son from everything, and he will probably have to learn the hard way that things are different overseas.

Now, all of these are legitimate concerns, since the narrator has experienced the harsh, racist environment in America first hand. Knowing his background and concerns, it was interesting to speculate how his life will be once he gets to America. (Props to the group that led the discussion on Friday for coming up with this notebook prompt). So, typical answers to the prompt included that Paul would be bullied, Harriet may be able to fit in for a little bit until people find out that she’s married to a black man, and the narrator’s success may rely on how well he’s received, even though he is black. Now, these are all possible, and would confirm the narrator’s nightmares. But, while writing my answer for this prompt, I decided to take it in a creative route, one that would probably be unlikely, but I was having fun with it so here it is:

The whole family is on edge, specifically the father, on the trip to America. They are all nervous, wondering how they will be received. When they get to customs, even with the narrator’s grief, the whole family gets through fine with just a few judgemental stares from the officials. But, once they begin to settle in, things start to go south. The husband is very successful in his acting and is received relatively well among the community. But, his family endures a lot of backlash (subtle, but still present). Harriet is ridiculed in the community for marrying black man and having a child with him. Paul, being the son of two different races, is seriously bullied in school, prompting his mother to take him out and begin homeschooling. The husband is blind from all his family problems because he has been swept up in the fame. This causes marital tensions as Harriet begs her husband to look past all the lights and camera and see that they are suffering. Harriet then considers to take her son and leave and find a place where they can be safe...Well, this story could go on, but I wouldn’t want to give too much away to possible screenwriters. (Also, I didn’t have time to think about what would happen next).

So, this little plot line is just a “what if”, since Baldwin leaves us with the family getting ready to begin their journey to the states. But, it is definitely reasonable that the narrator is having nightmares over his experiences in America and worries about what will happen to him and his family once he returns. It will certainly be a drastically different environment than Paris, which has proved to be very open to the narrator and his family. My hope would be that societal pressure won’t break up the family, for it seems that the bond they made in Paris was very special and hopefully can’t be broken by American harshness and racism.

Has He Changed?

An interesting question that can be posed after reading James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blue” is if the narrator has changed. In the beginning, we get the sense that the narrator feels like he’s above most people. I mean, it is pretty impressive that he has relatively paved his own way by focusing on his education. He kept his mind straight, avoiding the many distractions I’ll bet he encountered on his way to becoming a math teacher. Because of this, he tends to look down upon those who lose track of their education. This is evident when he runs into one of Sonny’s friends and states, “I hated him. I couldn't stand the way he looked at me, partly like a dog, partly like a cunning child” (105). The narrator takes one look at this “boy” and equates him with a immature, misguided child who has no business hanging around the school playground. Now, first of all, the narrator remembers that this “boy” was one of Sonny’s friends, so I’m assuming that, right off the bat, the narrator is starting to place the blame of Sonny being arrested on this mystery guy. In fact, he refers to him as a child, even though he is a grown-up man. The narrator is stating that this man has yet to grow up and find a life for himself, unlike the narrator, who has become a successful mathematics teacher. In the narrator’s mind, this man has yet to move forward with his life as it seems like he has no direction to go with the way he’s living.

But, the narrator has a slight change of heart (don’t get too excited though) when this man mentions that he’s scared that Sonny’s incarceration could possibly be his fault. Having heard this, the narrator states, “I began to listen more carefully” (107). Listening proves to be very hard for the narrator, as we’ll see later on, because he believes that he doesn’t have to listen to those below him. He’s made a successful life for himself, so why should he listen to those who haven’t? But, once he sees that this man is handling the situation with Sonny better, seemingly acting more mature than he is, he begins to listen, because right now, he is wading in unfamiliar territory. Sonny and his brother barely even know each other and so the narrator is struggling with the idea that maybe it’s too late for Sonny and his help. Thankfully, the narrator decides to write to Sonny, even though it takes him a while, he still reaches out to his brother.

This leads me to when he and Sonny sit down and talk about the future. Now, I know this is before Sonny gets arrested, but this scene comes when the narrator is reminiscing and it helps play into my third point...so deal with it. Now, as the narrator sits down with his brother and asks him what he wants to do with his future, it seems as if he asks a loaded question. “What do you want to do?” (119). Now, this kind of question seems open ended, but I’m sure that is not the case with the narrator. He asks this question with the intent of wondering how far in the educational system Sonny will go up to, like if he’ll possibly become a math teacher like his older brother. So, he is surprised, and disappointed, to find out that Sonny plans to drop out of school to become a musician, a jazz musical to be specific. Now, the idea of become a jazz musician in particular doesn’t resonate with the narrator. Sonny’s brother is a math teacher, so he is a man of formulas and control. But, with jazz musicians, people are allowed to let free and improvise, assumably not having a clear path in life. Also, the narrator is seen to belong to a respectable class, and jazz musicians are seen as a rough group of people. (Sorry for the Mr. Sutton reference, but once Aarthi mentioned it in class, I couldn't get it out of my head). Sonny’s brother believes that there is a formula to life: go to school, get a job, and live a stable life. At the moment, Sonny is sacrificing step one, messing up the entire formula and leaving his life up for grabs. The narrator doesn’t get the meaning behind Sonny’s decision because it doesn’t fit into any formula, it’s more broad and free.

This leads me to the final scene, where the narrator actually hears his brother play the keys and seemingly has a revelation. “Freedom lurked around us and I understood, at last, that he could help us to be free if we should listen, that he would never be free until we did...I saw my little girl again and felt Isabel’s tears again, and I felt my own tears begin to rise” (140). Sonny’s piano playing brings his brother back to his own family, ancestry, and even further. It helps him realize the true nature behind Sonny’s talents and why jazz music is so special to him. The narrator has never listened to true jazz music and so once he finally does, he can seemingly understand the real things that have happened in his and Sonny’s life. He can see that jazz is Sonny’s vehicle to fly free in life, just like heroin does to most people, assumably Sonny as well. The narrator is finally, after all these years, able to open his ears and heart to Sonny and accept him for who he is. He may not understand his brother’s choices, but he can see how talented he is and why he’s seemingly addicted to it.

But, the question still stands: Has the narrator changed? I mean, I do feel like he’s had a revelation, but soon, he will return to his job, a job that requires precision and order. Sonny has just given him a taste of his free lifestyle and it would be interested to see if this affected him in any way. I definitely believe that he will view his younger brother differently, but I don’t think the experience will change his personality. Part of why the description of the music Sonny produces is so magnificent, is because we are reading the account of someone who has never been introduced to this kind of music before. So, he doesn't’ truly understand the meaning behind everything, although he can see how the music is a kind of dance in that there’s a lot of push and pull among the musicians as they play together. So, has the narrator changed? Well, we can’t say for sure, because Baldwin leaves it open ended, but I think he won’t have changed much. He may have a new understanding for Sonny, but he will never stop being the brother who pushes his sibling to continue his education so he can have a stable life.

the role he was never born to play

In Baldwin’s “Previous Conditions”, we see the character Peter is in an unfortunate situation in life. He is constantly bombarded with racism in every aspect of his life. From his job to his living situations, he is always having to settle because of the color of his skin. This kind of life has made Peter tired. Tired of be constantly forced into a role he has never wanted to play. Coincidentally, Peter is an actor. He travels from city to city, in search of a job, one that he won’t be type casted in, like Native Son. But, as Peter states, “[He’s] not tall and [he’s] not even good looking and [he]can’t sing or dance and [he’s not white; so even at the best of times [he] wasn’t in much demand”(84). Peter has all the odds stacked against him. All he can do is act, which wouldn’t be so bad if he weren’t black. See, most white actors don’t need the embellishment of singing and dancing to help their acting career. But, being a black man auditioning for presumably white productions, he already faces a setback for the color of his skin, and since he can’t do much else, he’s basically screwed nine times out of 10.

Another way Peter has been screwed in life is his housing arrangements. We read of a particular situation where Peter gets kicked out of his rented room for being black because he’s scaring the other tenants. Although I disagree with the act of kicking Peter out because he’s black, I do see the reasoning behind the landlady’s actions. Housing people is her profession, and, as she states, “I don’t have nothing against you, but you gotta get out”(91), she just values multiple tenants and the revenue they produce over just him. She runs a business and, unfortunately, she must make sacrifices. Now, we don’t know if she’s racist or not. In fact, all we know is that she is scared of kicking Peter out, assumably because she racially profiled him as aggressive and dangerous. She is scared to kick him out because of what she thinks he might do to her. She even threatens to bring in law enforcement, pointing out the fact that she has people on her side that will get this job done if he doesn’t leave. Basically, all throughout Peter’s life, it’s been him against the world. Even though he has friends, they don’t truly understand the pain he goes through on a daily basis.

This brings me to the third part of Peter’s life that unintentionally feeds to his disatisfaction, which is his friends. Now, I haven’t the slightest doubt that both Jules and Ida mean well when they try and talk to Peter about his problems, but, as Peter states it, they just don’t get it. Jules is a Jewish man, and although he experiences antisemitism, it’s not nearly as bad as Peter situation. This is because, on the outside, Jules is white. If people don’t know he’s Jewish, they just look at him like he’s your average white male sitting in a bar or walking down the street. But, Peter can’t do that. He wishes people didn’t judge him on the basis of his skin color, but he knows that people do it constantly, even when he’s walking down the street. Jules doesn’t have to sing and dance in order for people to accept him, the color of his skin does the talking. Unfortunately, Peter doesn’t have that luxury. I mean, his skin does some talking, but not in the way he prefers. In fact, he doesn’t even have to say or do anything in order to people to think negatively of him. He has no voice in this judgemental society.

Peter also has Ida, who is an Irish, white woman who married herself into money and attempts to help Peter is any way she can. It’s not clear what their relationship is (whether or not it’s platonic or romantic), but I do think that Ida means well in the ways she tries to help Peter. Unfortunately, like Jules, Ida has no idea what Peter goes through on a daily basis. She tries to console him by stating that other people have to deal with just as bad of problems, but it only makes the situation worse. The way I read it was that, by saying that, Ida was unintentionally telling Peter to grow up. Now, this seems like a very negative accusation, but it make sense. Ida is basically telling Peter that other people have problems too in other parts of the world, that he isn’t alone, and that they are dealing with them, so he should too. He should give in and accept his fate.

But, that’s it. Peter is sick and tired of getting in and settling for less than he deserves. Unlike Donald Trump, Peter hates that he is forced to settle. He’s trying to make his way out of Harlem, but he keeps getting knocked down by the white community. This causes him to not belong to either community, making him stuck in the middle with no way out. Peter just wants a day (or more optimistically, a life) without people constantly judging him and typecasting him. He’s even trying to play the part of a good, respectable citizen by being nice to policemen and paying his rent, but he just can’t seem to gain the respect of those who have already made up their mind about he and his race. It’s a very unfortunate situation and I can’t even begin to imagine what it would be like to live a life like that.

They’re Just so Lonely

In Baldwin’s “The Man Child”, one theme that I recognized is the idea of loneliness. Almost all the characters experience loneliness at some point in this story. Eric, Eric’s mother, Eric’s father, and Jamie all feel this emptiness in their lives. Jamie is the most obvious one because he has literally lost almost everything in his life. His wife left him and he wasn’t able to properly take care of his land, so his “best” friend, Eric’s father, had to take it off his hands. All Jamie has left is his dog, who seems to be a little crazy at times, and Eric’s father, who is apparently his best friend, but I’m not sure their friendship is as true as Eric may see it. Although they may have fought in the war together, it seems like, all his life, Jamie has always been subordinate to Eric’s father. It almost seems like that older-younger sibling relationship where you’re close, but the older sibling just seems to always do better in life. Things just seem to work out for them, leaving the younger sibling upset because they can’t seem to live up to their older sibling’s accomplishments. It’s sad because there’s nothing Jamie can really do about it. He is lost in life and things are just not working out for him.

Then we have Eric’s father, who seemingly has his whole life together, at least, compared to Jamie he does. He has a son, one who can look over the family lands once he gets too old. And then he also has another baby on the way. On the outside, life seems pretty good for Eric’s father. But, deep down, things aren’t okay. There’s a saying that adults always tell kids who are being bullied that states “If someone picks on you, that probably means they are insecure about themselves”. (This isn’t the exact saying, but ya’ll get the gist). One things that always bothered me about Eric’s father’s character, is that he feels the need to poke fun at Jamie’s life situation at any and every time he gets. But, I think he only does this because he’s trying to convince himself that his family situation is great, even though it may not be. His wife seems very distant from him and gets easily annoyed at his presence (mostly because his comments are very rude and somewhat disturbing). And his son doesn’t seem very interesting in the family business, or even the family at that matter. This is evident at the end scene, when in a dire situation, Eric offers Jamie all the land and even himself, offering Jamie the chance to kill his father and replace him. This is a very disturbing offer to be made, especially from a young child, and it comes to show just how dysfunctional this family is on the inside. Eric’s father can sense this and therefore tries to bring people together by having another child with his wife, providing a companion for Eric, while also offering to name the child after Jamie. Unfortunately, it comes off as him trying a little too hard, as in turn, it ends up pushing people away.

Then, we have the wife, whom I touched a little on earlier. Eric’s mother appears very tired with her marriage to her husband. Firstly, she has to cook and clean for her husband’s best friend, as if he’s her own husband/child. And secondly, she has to put up with Eric’s father’s possessive and negative comments towards her and Jamie. Eric’s mother seemingly has no say in this marriage, as she sits back and waits until she produces another child for her husband. Now, we can see that Eric is the only things she seems to truly love, so I would have no doubt that should would have loved her second child just the same. But, things took a turn for the worse as she miscarries and returns home to her only son. This event takes a huge toll on Eric’s mother, as she has just lost a huge pieces of her that would make her life a little bit more bearable. The loss of her second child has left her alone and hopeful that nothing will happen to Eric, for he is all that she has.

Not only does the loss of the second child effect Eric’s mother, but also his father. That child was a way that he was trying to keep the family happy and hopeful for the future. With the child gone, even though they still have Eric, a shadow seems to have been cast over the family as Eric’s father becomes very distant, straying away from his previous, peppy self, most likely because he has given up on a hopeful future.

All in all, it seems like all four characters experience some kind of loneliness. Although some appear to not be in order to save face, it is easy to see that there are tensions between all of them because of their discomfort around each other. Assumably, this family bond was doomed from the beginning, so as time presses on, things begin to become unbearable for all of them. One of them snaps, in a very unfortunate manner, and it deeply affects everyone.