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James BaldwinA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
The motif of the native son lends the symbolic universe within which Baldwin writes. The native son is many things. Most immediately, there is the enormous impact of Richard Wright and his novel Native Son. Baldwin’s earliest writing inevitably emerges within the shadow cast by Wright’s work. Baldwin establishes himself as a new voice on the literary scene, in part, by staking a critical position on Native Son. There are obvious familial and religious overtones here. Baldwin’s writing career was fueled early on by his need to break free from his father’s house. His first novel was largely autobiographical in its depiction of a young man’s difficult relationship with his preacher father. Baldwin not only wrote Go Tell It On The Mountain, but also his first couple essays on Richard Wright, out of a need to assuage his own tensions between his stepfather and himself.
The religious overtones of the prodigal son, the chosen one, and the fallen one are also evident here. The prodigal son must risk disappointing the father to follow his own path; he must risk not being able to come home again. Baldwin had to flee the US to return home again several years later.
By James Baldwin
Another Country
Another Country
James Baldwin
A Talk to Teachers
A Talk to Teachers
James Baldwin
Blues for Mister Charlie
Blues for Mister Charlie
James Baldwin
Giovanni's Room
Giovanni's Room
James Baldwin
Going To Meet The Man
Going To Meet The Man
James Baldwin
Go Tell It on the Mountain
Go Tell It on the Mountain
James Baldwin
I Am Not Your Negro
I Am Not Your Negro
James Baldwin
If Beale Street Could Talk
If Beale Street Could Talk
James Baldwin
If Black English Isn't a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?
If Black English Isn't a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?
James Baldwin
Nobody Knows My Name
Nobody Knows My Name: More Notes of a Native Son
James Baldwin
No Name in the Street
No Name in the Street
James Baldwin
Sonny's Blues
Sonny's Blues
James Baldwin
Stranger in the Village
Stranger in the Village
James Baldwin
The Amen Corner
The Amen Corner
James Baldwin
The Fire Next Time
The Fire Next Time
James Baldwin
The Rockpile
The Rockpile
James Baldwin
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