Notes of a Native Son

By james baldwin.

  • Notes of a Native Son Summary

The book begins with a preface, written for the 30th-anniversary edition, in which Baldwin explains how he felt unprepared to publish this collection of essays. Baldwin describes the importance of African Americans reclaiming the specific inheritance that was taken from them through slavery and racism while also reaching toward what is shared and universal among all people. Baldwin ends the preface by noting that he published the collection when he was just 31 and how, in more than 30 years, very little has changed in terms of racism in America.

In the first chapter, entitled "Autobiographical Notes," Baldwin presents some details about himself. Baldwin was born in Harlem and was interested in reading from an early age. His father wanted him to become a preacher but Baldwin felt little interest in religion. When he was 20, Baldwin left for Paris where he began writing more actively. While there, Baldwin decided that he must write about his experience as a black man before being able to write properly anything else.

In the next essay, "Everybody's Protest Novel," Baldwin discusses the well-known novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin . While many hailed the novel as progressive, Baldwin criticizes it for treating the subject of slavery from a sentimentalist view. This is, in Baldwin’s opinion, an overly simplistic way to look at the situation and does not analyze the reason why the slaves were treated the way they were. Baldwin also points out that in the novel, black people are still presented in a stereotypical way and that whiteness is still associated with goodness and beauty. Baldwin also critiques Richard Wright 's novel Native Son for oversimplifying complex issues and giving into rage and violence.

The next essay is "Many Thousands Gone." Baldwin argues that the reason why African-African experience is so little understood is that white people are unwilling to listen. In time, white society developed a certain way of looking at the black community through racist stereotypes. Baldwin again criticizes Richard Wright's Native Son for the way it accepts the image constructed of African Americans by white society.

"Carmen Jones: The Dark is Light Enough" is a review of the film Carmen Jones . The movie was adapted from the French opera Carmen but only black people were cast as actors. Despite this, Baldwin notes that the movie depicts black people in an unnatural way and removes certain aspects of the black culture such as their language to make the actors and their actions appear more suitable. Baldwin also criticizes the movie for desexualizing black people and for making it seem as if their sexuality is a threat and something negative that must be avoided.

In his next essay, "The Harlem Ghetto," Baldwin talks about Harlem, the neighborhood of New York City where he grew up. He describes the poor conditions in the neighborhood, noting that Harlem has changed little since his youth despite the efforts made by some black leaders. Baldwin also criticizes the press and how it fails to distinguish itself from the publications written by white people. Baldwin notes that countless churches can be found in Harlem, which reveals the importance of religion for many in the community. At the same time, he notes that black people have strong tensions with the Jewish people who live in proximity to the neighborhood. Baldwin also disagrees with the idea that oppression makes people wiser and claims that oppression only makes the oppressed feel angry and want revenge.

In "Journey to Atlanta," Baldwin discusses how African Americans are skeptical of the politicians running the country. Blacks are also less inclined to believe in politicians who are black as well since they all end up just as the white politicians, caring only about themselves. Often, black people are used by white politicians to further their agenda, as happened to one of Baldwin’s brothers who traveled to Atlanta to play music for the Progressive Party presidential campaign of Henry A. Wallace. Baldwin's brother was made to gather votes instead of performing by a white party member. Because of this, the quartet made almost no money and returned to Harlem even more disillusioned about politics.

In the title essay " Notes of a Native Son ," Baldwin discusses his father, who died in 1943. Baldwin describes his father in depth, a man who was born while his parents were still slaves. His father had trouble connecting with his children, who were scared of him. Towards the end of the father’s life, it was discovered that he was mentally ill, and this contributed to his failing health. Baldwin remembers how his father taught him not to trust white people. Baldwin adopted some of his father’s views while also trying to resist them. When Baldwin was living in New Jersey, he witnessed racial bigotry when he was not allowed to eat in certain restaurants because he was black. Because of this, Baldwin reacted sometimes violently, expressing his anger towards the people who refused to treat him in the same manner. Baldwin returned to Harlem a few days before his father died and he notes that only days after, his youngest sister was also born. The day of the funeral, riots broke out in Harlem. Baldwin describes these riots in great detail, showing how the ghetto periodically revolts again racism and poverty.

In the next essay, "Encounter on the Seine: Black Meets Brown," Baldwin writes about the situation in France and how the African Americans living in Europe had a different situation than those living in the United States. He describes interactions between African Americans and white Americans, white French people, and North Africans in France.

"A Question of Identity" also offers Baldwin's observations in Paris. He describes the American students, most of them WWII veterans studying in France via the GI Bill, who live in Paris. The students chose to remain behind after the war in Europe. The Americans have a romantic idea about what life in Paris will be like but then are quickly disappointed by it. Some decide to return home while others think they are adapting to the local life while holding onto old-fashioned stereotypes about the country. What all these types of American students share is an inability to reflect clearly on what it means to be an American.

In the following essay, "Equal in Paris," Baldwin is arrested after he is accused of possessing stolen sheets. The man who stole the sheets was an American acquaintance of Baldwin's who left his hotel after it became uninhabitable. Baldwin arranged for him to live in the same hotel as him and uses the sheets his friend brought with him without knowing they were stolen. Baldwin is arrested for the stolen sheets and then sent to prison a few miles away from Paris. There, he waits for his trial and he spends his Christmas Eve in despair that he might never be released. A day later, the charges are dismissed. When he is released, Baldwin looks at the judges who laugh at his situation and Baldwin thinks that privileged people all over world laugh like this because they know they will never end up in a similar situation.

The last essay in the collection is "Stranger in the Village." It takes place after Baldwin has left Paris and gone to the mountains of Switzerland. Baldwin stays in a little village where he is the only black person that has ever been seen. They treat Baldwin with great curiosity and yet with coldness, never acknowledging that he is a human being and not a spectacle. While in the village, Baldwin witnesses a festival during which a child dons blackface and then attempts to raise money for the community to "buy" black Africans so they can be converted to Christianity. Baldwin leaves the village but then returns in the winter to write. Some people get used to his presence while other people are suspicious and criticize Baldwin. He then ends the essay by discussing how black and European perspectives on the world diverge.

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Notes of a Native Son Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Notes of a Native Son is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Note of a Native Son by James

This is really asking for your opinion. I don't know what meant something to you. It is a personal question.

In what month and year do the events of the essay take place?

Notes of a Native Son is a collection of essays written and published by the African-American author James Baldwin. Your question depends on which essay you are referring to.

What is the author’s goal in this book? And what kind of effect does he want his book to have in the world?

Baldwin believes that one cannot understand America without understanding race. Yet this does not only mean looking at the experiences of African Americans, though this is crucial. Baldwin argues that the racial system in America (the history of...

Study Guide for Notes of a Native Son

Notes of a Native Son study guide contains a biography of James Baldwin, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

  • About Notes of a Native Son
  • Character List

Essays for Notes of a Native Son

Notes of a Native Son essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin.

  • The Identity Crisis in James Baldwin’s Nonfiction and in Giovanni’s Room (1956)

Lesson Plan for Notes of a Native Son

  • About the Author
  • Study Objectives
  • Common Core Standards
  • Introduction to Notes of a Native Son
  • Relationship to Other Books
  • Bringing in Technology
  • Notes to the Teacher
  • Related Links
  • Notes of a Native Son Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for Notes of a Native Son

  • Introduction
  • Autobiographical notes

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Notes of a Native Son

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Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Essay 1 Summary: “Everybody’s Protest Novel”

“Everybody’s Protest Novel” was first published by in spring of 1949 in the first issue of Zero , an English-language literary magazine launched in Paris that year. The essay was republished a few months later in June 1949 in the more established magazine Partisan Review , launching Baldwin’s writing career. The essay analyzes Uncle Tom’s Cabin , the novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe, first published in 1852. Baldwin sees Stowe’s novel as indicative of a uniquely American literary genre , the protest novel; and he views the genre itself as an American cultural condition.

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Notes of a Native Son

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Inheritance, Tradition, and Belonging Theme Icon

Inheritance, Tradition, and Belonging

Throughout the book, Baldwin explores the fraught senses of inheritance and belonging among African Americans. Baldwin argues that black Americans’ relationship to their own country and heritage is unlike that of any other people in the world because “his past was taken from him, almost literally, at one blow.” Because of the systematic erasure of African traditions and black family relationships during slavery (and in the decades after), African Americans have been denied a tie…

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Language, Narrative, and Truth

As a writer, Baldwin is preoccupied with the power of language and stories. He is particularly interested in the way in which language can be used to convey the truth lying beneath superficial and misleading ideas about the world. He argues that “Every legend… contains its residuum of truth, and the root function of language is to control the universe by describing it.” With this statement, Baldwin proposes that existing narratives can contain kernels of…

Language, Narrative, and Truth Theme Icon

Progress vs. Stagnation

Much of the book is colored by a sense of disappointment and resentment at how little progress has taken place in the world, despite the superficial appearance of change. Baldwin illustrates this idea with the French phrase: “ Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose ,” meaning “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” This statement is crucial to understanding Baldwin’s view of progress and stagnation. He admits that there has…

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Prejudice, Dishonesty, and Delusion

Baldwin’s emphasis on expressing truth through language is a direct rejection of dishonesty and delusion, which he shows to be major components of the system of white supremacy. One example of this dishonesty comes in the form of derogatory myths and stereotypes about black people, which have been used to justify racist oppression. Baldwin critiques the ways in which these negative ideas can be present within cultural representations of black people, such as Richard Wright’s …

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Intimacy vs. Hatred

Many people believe that racism is solely a form of hatred, and that in racist societies white people exist in a relationship of alienation and hatred to racially oppressed peoples. However, in Notes of a Native Son Baldwin contends that intimacy is, in fact, also a part of racism, and that intimacy and hatred often coexist. One of Baldwin’s major arguments is that, rather than being a superfluous or compartmentalized group, African Americans are a…

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COMMENTS

  1. PDF Baldwin James Notes of a Native Son

    Created Date: 12/8/2011 3:44:37 PM

  2. PDF From Notes of a Native Son

    From Notes of a Native Son JAMES BALDWIN In this title essay from his 1955 collection (written from France to which he had moved in 1948), James Baldwin (1924-87) interweaves the story of his response to his father's death (in 1943) with reflections on black-white relations in America, and especially in the Harlem of his youth.

  3. PDF California State University, Dominguez Hills

    Notes of a Native Son [593] My last night in New Jersey, a white friend from New York took me to the nearest big town, Trenton, to go to the movies and have a few drinks. As it turned out, he also saved me from, at the very least, a violent whip- ping. Almost every detail of that night stands out very clearly in my mem- ory.

  4. Notes of a Native Son: Notes of a Native Son Summary & Analysis

    Intro Plot Summary & Analysis Themes Quotes Characters Symbols Theme Viz Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Notes of a Native Son makes teaching easy. Everything you need for every book you read. "Sooo much more helpful than SparkNotes. The way the content is organized and presented is seamlessly smooth, innovative, and comprehensive."

  5. James Baldwin

    Notes of a Native Son (Part II/Essay 3) Lyrics On the 29th of July, in 1943, my father died. On the same day, a few hours later, his last child was born. I had not known my father very well. We...

  6. Notes of a Native Son Study Guide

    Quotes Characters Symbols Theme Viz Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Notes of a Native Son makes teaching easy. Everything you need for every book you read. "Sooo much more helpful than SparkNotes. The way the content is organized and presented is seamlessly smooth, innovative, and comprehensive." Get LitCharts A +

  7. Notes of a Native Son Summary

    Notes of a Native Son is a collection of essays published previously in various periodicals. Though not originally written to be published together, they share Baldwin's concerns over the...

  8. Notes of a native son : Baldwin, James, 1924-1987

    Notes of a native son by Baldwin, James, 1924-1987 Publication date 1984 Topics Baldwin, James, 1924-1987, Baldwin, James, 1924-1987, African Americans, African Americans, Noirs américains, Noirs américains, Aufsatzsammlung, Rassendiskriminierung, United States African Americans Social conditions, 1950-1955 Publisher Boston : Beacon Press

  9. Notes of a Native Son

    Notes of a Native Son is a collection of ten essays by James Baldwin, published in 1955, mostly tackling issues of race in America and Europe. The volume, as his first non-fiction book, compiles essays of Baldwin that had previously appeared in such magazines as Harper's Magazine, Partisan Review, and The New Leader. [2]

  10. Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin Plot Summary

    Intro Notes of a Native Son Summary Next Preface to the 1984 Edition In the preface, Baldwin notes that he was initially resistant to the prospect of writing a memoir, but he eventually came to see it as a good opportunity to explore his "inheritance" and identity.

  11. Notes of a native son : Baldwin, James, 1924-1987

    Search metadata Search text contents Search TV news captions Search radio transcripts Search archived ... Notes of a native son by Baldwin, James, 1924-1987. Publication date ... inlibrary; printdisabled; internetarchivebooks; americana Contributor Internet Archive Language English. Essays A Bantam Sixty Access-restricted-item true Addeddate ...

  12. Notes of a Native Son

    Notes of a Native Son. James Baldwin. Beacon Press, Nov 20, 2012 - Literary Criticism - 208 pages. #26 on The Guardian's list of 100 best nonfiction books of all time, the essays explore what it means to be Black in America. In an age of Black Lives Matter, James Baldwin's essays on life in Harlem, the protest novel, movies, and African ...

  13. Notes of a Native Son Analysis

    PDF Cite. Notes of a Native Son is a collection of ten essays that James Baldwin published in magazines such as Commentary, Harper's, and The Partisan Review between 1948 and 1955. It also ...

  14. Notes of a Native Son Summary

    by James Baldwin Buy Study Guide Notes of a Native Son Summary The book begins with a preface, written for the 30th-anniversary edition, in which Baldwin explains how he felt unprepared to publish this collection of essays.

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  16. Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin

    20,338 ratings1,477 reviews Since its original publication in 1955, this first nonfiction collection of essays by James Baldwin remains an American classic. His impassioned essays on life in Harlem, the protest novel, movies, and African Americans abroad are as powerful today as when they were first written. --back cover

  17. Notes of a Native Son Essay 1 Summary & Analysis

    Chapter Summaries & Analyses Essay 1 Summary: "Everybody's Protest Novel" "Everybody's Protest Novel" was first published by in spring of 1949 in the first issue of Zero, an English-language literary magazine launched in Paris that year.

  18. Notes of a Native Son

    Other articles where Notes of a Native Son is discussed: African American literature: James Baldwin: …Baldwin collected his essays in Notes of a Native Son, a mix of autobiography and political commentary on race in America that identified Baldwin as the new conscience of the nation on racial matters. Subsequent volumes of essays, Nobody Knows My Name (1961) and The Fire Next Time (1963 ...

  19. Notes of a Native Son.pdf

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  20. Notes of a Native Son Themes

    However, in Notes of a Native Son Baldwin contends that intimacy is, in fact, also a part of racism, and that intimacy and hatred often coexist. One of Baldwin's major arguments is that, rather than being a superfluous or compartmentalized group, African Americans are a…. read analysis of Intimacy vs. Hatred. Previous.

  21. Critical Analysis of a Non-Fiction Essay: 'Notes

    Abstract: The life of James Arthur Baldwin (1924-1987) is full of mystery, difficulty and problems on the account of racism and skin color. The racial problems and issues are not associated with Baldwin only, but every black African American undergoes this unpleasant experience. Non-fiction essay 'Notes of a Native Son' of James Baldwin ...

  22. Notes of a native son : Baldwin, James, 1924-1987

    Search metadata Search text contents Search TV news captions Search radio transcripts Search archived web sites Advanced Search. About; Blog; Projects; Help; Donate. An illustration of a heart shape ... Notes of a native son by Baldwin, James, 1924-1987. ... Essays Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2021-03-26 11:01:03 Boxid IA40082104 Camera

  23. Analysis Essay on Notes of a Native Son

    Analysis Essay - Grade: A Preview text Patel 1 Hemali Patel Professor Snezana Zabic UCWR 110 12 March 2019 The Effects of an Unjust Society Racism has tremendously affected American Society for hundreds of years because of the negative stigma that is attached to African Americans.