Notes of a Native Son Analysis Essay Sample

Notes of a Native Son Analysis Essay Sample James Baldwin’s ‘Notes of a Native Son’ (1955) is a non-fiction book of essays that present his reflections on race relations in the United States of America. It is a collection of previously published ten essays that appeared in different periodicals. ‘Notes of a Native Son’ share Baldwin’s thoughts on how to solve the United States racial dilemma, and expresses his ideas on the issue of American identity. The essays represent different genres. Some of them are memoirs, for example, a short essay ‘Notes of a Native Son’ where Baldwin describes his relationships with his father. Other essays offer critique. For example, ‘Many Thousands Gone ’is an example of literary criticism and ‘Carmen Jones: The Dark is Light Enough’ is an example of a film analysis. Summary Let’s start with ‘Notes of a Native Son’ summary. The book has three parts. The first part is criticism, the second one is personal, and the third one describes his expatriate experience. This division serves only as structuring device because the major themes of the book are present in every essay. The first part of the book that includes three critical essays is devoted to the aesthetic problems. James Baldwin shares his views on the role of an artist and his image within the traditional cultural canon. He argues that an artist should not aim at representing an entire group or champion the social changes but mostly describe his own experience which any artist knows well enough to be able to speak with honesty and deep insight. He does not suppose that writers should write only memoirs, but his opinion is that all genuine works of art should be based on an artist’s own experience. That’s why he criticizes Richard Wright, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Otto Preminger and their works such as Native Son, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and the film Carmen Jones. James Baldwin does not consider them great works of art because they do not present a personal experience. The second group consisting of three essays focus on sociopolitical issues. It is a journalistic and anecdotal part of the book. It includes an essay about Harlem ghetto, another one describes a journey of African American musicians to Atlanta, and the las one is devoted to Baldwin’s relationship with his authoritarian preacher father. The last part of the book includes four essays that discuss questions of identity and deals with race issues in America and Europe. They arose in a new way when Baldwin was abroad. The last four essays discuss Baldwin’s experience of living in Europe. Analysis ‘Notes of a Native Son’ can be best understood as a book of a young writer who is searching for his own voice, for identity, and is struggling to find a way to reconcile his contradictory views that were determined by his experiences as an American, as a black man, and as a writer. Baldwin wrote elegantly and honestly about his main challenge that was to understand and determine what it meant to be a ’native son’. Baldwin discusses the race relations in America and speaks about racial prejudice in the States. He makes an attempt to analyze the prejudice, understand where it comes from, and decide how to deal with the racial prejudice. And he does it in different ways, one of which is using personal experience. We are living in an age of Black Lives Matter, and James Baldwins ‘Notes of a Native Son’ that tackle problems of life in Harlem, discuss the protest novels and movies, and life of African Americans abroad are as important, urgent, and powerful today as in the 1940s and early 1950s when they were first written. ‘Notes of a Native Son’ established James Baldwin as a strong interpreter of crucial social changes in the United States in the twentieth century and as a social critic. The essays create an interesting sketch of Black America and show Baldwin’s search for his unique way to identify himself as an artist, as an American, and as a black man.