My Note on "Notes of a Native Son"

I am just going to use this blog post as an opportunity to get my answers to the question in class tomorrow sorted out. I read "Notes of a Native Son" last night and then read several different essays on it. I as hoping I would have crazy dreams that like connected dots and opened doors and I would be all like, oh, I get it. But my dreams weren't about "Notes of a Native Son"....

The thoughts below are just the beginning. I just want to make sure I have my basic footing under me for all the questions, so I can stop worrying about it...

1. Well the way the essay is structured in three parts also goes for the argument I plan to make for five as well. Baldwin structered this essay in three parts that could almost take on the title of the three parts from Wright's "Native Son," which are, "Fear," "Flight," and "Fate." Also Baldwin sets up this essay to mirror the story of the prodigal son. In the first section we read about the bitterness and fear that Baldwin's Father puts in him. His Father warns him of the dangers of white society, but Baldwin does not listen and moves to New Jersey where he experience extreme prejudice for the first time. In the second section Baldwin comes home, although he may be too stubborn to realize it at the time, he has realized the importance of what his Father has said. He realizes more and more about his father in the third section. Something interesting happens in the third section which, I plan to read more about later today, but he uses cinematic effects to draw the reader in.

I think the way it is written is to bring you on his journey. You learn the lesson as he learns the lesson. I also think the voice of wisdom that Baldwin brings to this piece, he was around thirty when he wrote this, gives it a nice feeling. Although the story is dealing with anger, it does not feel hostile to read. I think if he had structured the essay differently or maybe didn't tell it in first person it would have been more aggressive or had more tension. Even though bad things are happening, like the race riots, the extreme prejudice he faces in New Jersey, and his Fathers death you still feel safe because you are with Baldwin and its sort of like he is telling you it is going to be okay and were going to come out of this alive, and better people for it.

2. The biggest thing that the race riots and his Father's death that I see is that the race riots happened because of fear and bitterness and anger and Baldwin felt that his Father's own heart was filled with these things towards whites, and is actually the reason for his death. The riots are "Harlem's collective black rage monstrously personified" and in a way Baldwin's Father's death was his Father's own rage personified. Also the shambles that the riots leave Harlem in could also be signifying how Baldwin feels after his Father dies. Although one may argue that he is indeed free, just because you are free doesn't mean that there aren't shambles left behind that you have to pick up and make sense off. I think the race riots stand for his Father in a way, and the desperate things people can do when they are oppressed and how hateful the act of trying to free yourself can be. I wonder how the Father would have reacted to the riots. Like, I said before these are just baseline thoughts. I am excited to discuss these topics in class tomorrow.

3. Well right off the vat the three men have something in common because they are all men who project themselves onto their children. They are all men who seem to be driven from some kind of fear. They all come from underprivileged conditions. There was a passage in "Notes on a Native Son" that described the Father and sort of reminded me of the dad in "Barn Burning" it was, "He could be chilling in the pulpit and indescribably cruel in his personal life and he was certainly the most bitter man I have ever met; yet it must be said that there something else in him, buried in him, which lent him his tremendous power and, even, crushing charm." I just think that the Dad in "Barn Burning" would have been described by his son in the exact same way. I think that the Dad in "Barn Burning" is more similar. The Grandpa in " Invisible Man" didn't seem to have a sort of power that was asserted over many people, just his grandson and also the way the boys and sons reacted so differently. I feel like the kid in "Invisible Man" let his Grandpa words haunt him and they drove him in a more productive way, like he really wanted the acceptance of his Grandpa, where as the other boys, not that they didn't want the acceptance of their fathers but they had more anger towards them. I think all three men were driven by bitterness and anger and fear. I think all of these men left a sort of inheritance upon their children or grandchildren that can "cripple and destroy, particularly if that inheritance is defined by bitterness and rage." They left each one of these boys with a burden they are going to have to figure out on their own.

4. Yes. I think this is a modernist piece of literature. I wasn't sure if it was but then I looked up the definition of modernist literature and this just fit in so well. I really liked these words used to describe modernism on a blog,"Exile, loss of innocence, greed, violence, movement." The author of this blog then precedes to say something to the extent of these things are the ingredients in modernist writing. This essay has all of them, literally all of them.

5. Considering that "Notes of a Native Son" is pretty much a whole play on "Native Son" I am going to have to go with Richard Wright. There are a couple essays in this book I have to read that deal with this comparison, so I should know a lot more before the discussion tomorrow. Although earlier today I thought the comparison to Richard Wright was going to be an easy one to make because they write stories that are so seemingly similar. Just in the subject matter being about being black and oppression and the struggle and the rage. However, Baldwin was not that into Wright. I mean he was really into him, he sort of looked at Wright as a version of his father, Wright greatly influenced Baldwin, much as a dad would. Baldwin who was obviously really into his own father and being very open about all aspects of his being, was also very critical of Wright. Baldwin didn't want to be "just a black author" and he felt like Wright had put himself in that corner. I feel like much with his father Baldwin spent a lot of time trying not to be Wright, which is impossible because he loved Wright and admired him, so he would have some of his qualities.

6. I think this question goes hand in hand with question 9, considering what Baldwin writes after that sentence, "I imagine that one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once the hate is gone, that they will be forced to deal with the pain." With the hatred for his Father masking any sort of love or compassion or sadness he feel upon his death it is easier to shrug it off with a , "I hate that dude." I think everyone does this. All the time. Everything I hate is because I at some point loved it, and the loosing of it is something I would just rather not morn. I think hate is an easy emotion to have because it requires no accountability or understanding. Hate is black and dense. It is an empty void. Baldwin's views towards his father changed in the way that he almost felt sorry for the man for carrying around this hatred. He remembered a time when his Father wasn't cold or mean. He becomes much more empathetic towards his father. He understands how his Father must have felt so sad and frustrated because his own fear and hatred and bitterness got in the way of him loving his own children.

7. So, I read about this in one of the essays but I just didn't get what they were talking about. So what I can figure if that all the text and all the things his father taught him and left him, they were empty and completely up to Baldwin to do what he was going to do with him.

8. I think when he says no one is interested in the detail, he is almost talking about his own disinterest in realizing where his father is coming from. His father is mean, case and point. He does not care, I mean he does eventually care, to go back and explore, but at first he is hesitant. I think the narrative can leave things out when it chooses. It can also bring these things back into the light when the writer finds it appropriate. I think this essay almost beckons you to look deeper. The facts are not what they seem and facts are rarely so black and white. It is sort of like the hate thing though, if you dare challenge the facts what are you going to learn. Sticking to the facts of what you believed happened is very easy to do.

9.And I scratched all my notes for this on a piece of paper, and I'm kind of tired of typing. So I'm going to go ahead and end this long winded, poorly edited blog.