The Life Of James Baldwin Essay Research — страница 2

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movement. He also began to write of his newfound observations of New York intellectuals and the racial and sexual tension among them in, Another Country (1962). In 1961, Baldwin received true recognition for his literary skills. His best selling essay collection, Nobody Knows My Name, was chosen as one of the most outstanding books of the year. Three years later Baldwin would produce two other plays that were very important to his writing career. The Amen Corner opened first at Howard University under the direction of Owen Dodson. Then, there was the publication of, what was quite possibly his most important work, Blues for Mr. Charlie. Blues for Mr. Charlie was based on the true story of a racial murder occurrence in Mississippi in 1955. James Baldwin was not done writing yet.

He still had two good books left in him. First, in 1968, he published Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone as a bitter account of American racism. Then, he wrote The Evidence of Things Not Seen (1985). This was written as an analysis of the Atlanta child murders of 1979 and 1980. Although many of Baldwin’s essays come off as being bitter, he should not be looked upon as a bitter man. He was simply fed up with the disgustingly intollerable racial problems in the United States and in the world. Baldwin wrote novels, poetry, essays and a screenplay in the later years of his life. Sadly, he died of stomach cancer in December 1987, at his home in St. Paul de Vence, France. James Baldwin died, a man loved and respected by many. Even the well-respected writer, Maya Angelou spoke

at his funeral. Blues for Mr. Charlie In order to get a better understanding of James Baldwin; I read one of his works, Blues for Mr. Charlie. Blues for Mr. Charlie is a story/play loosely based on the murder of the black youth, Emmett Till, in a small town in Mississippi in 1955. The murderer, who was white, was acquitted and Baldwin shows, through his writing, that the African American people did not have a fair chance of justice in the United States. The play, Blues for Mr. Charlie, was first produced by the Actor’s Studio. It opened at the ANTA Theatre on Broadway on April 23, 1964. The play was a racial wake-up call to all of the races and cultures in the United States, which might find racism or ethnocentrism as a social “security blanket”. It also called the African

American man to the civil rights battlefield and forced the white man to look at and analyze himself through a critical looking glass. Blues for Mr. Charlie deals with the murder of a young black man, Richard, by a white shop owner, Lyle Britten. Richard is a bitter, busted musician returning home. His open expression of hatred towards whites, we learn, leads to his death. Later, the pastor, Meridian, Richard’s father and civil rights leader, expresses his faith in Parnell, a friend and white liberal, to help. Parnell seems to represent Baldwin’s belief in the fact that you should not let one or one thousand seeds ruin a good crop of millions. Parnell is a sort of “Great White Hope” for the black man. Meridian is a kind of Martin Luther King, Jr. figure who is forced to

wonder if his non-violent approach is wrong. Meridian must deal with the conflict drawn between the bitterly divided Whitetown and Blacktown (fictitious towns used by Baldwin to simultaneously emulate and mock The United States’ racial tension). Baldwin also brought up the relatively new idea of whites being the victims of racism in America (a topic which is still being discussed today). The play’s overall significance not only relates to race relations in the South, but in the entire United States. The contemporary significance of Blues for Mr. Charlie may be evident in the O.J. Simpson outcome or the Million-Man March. (Both of these recent events have increased African-American political awareness and unity.) Blues for Mr. Charlie received mixed reviews from critics. Many

saw it lacking structure. Walter Meserve writes in The Black American Writer: Poetry and Drama, Vol. 2, Baldwin tries to use theatre as a pulpit for his ideas. Mainly his plays are thesis plays-talky, over-written and clich dialogue and some stereotypes, preachy and argumentative. Essentially, Baldwin is not particularly dramatic, but he can be extremely eloquent, compelling, and sometimes irritating as a playwright committed to his approach to life. Baldwin was less concerned with the success or failure of a play than he was with its impact on the audience. He believed in shocking the reader into thinking. This style of writing has been mimicked and used by other writers such as Orson Scott Card ( a science-fiction novelist ) and George Lucas. In Card’s novel, Ender’s Game,