In the short story “The Rockpile” James Baldwin takes the reader into a specific atmosphere of Harlem. This is an atmosphere of suspense, stress, and struggle that Baldwin masterfully transfers to the pages of “The Rock Pile”. Therefore, there is an aggravated tension throughout the whole story. Baldwin creates this mood by focusing on frightening details, and using direct speech of the characters.
First signs of tension already appear in the beginning of the story when nothing even dreadful happened yet. The narrator describes how all the boys in the neighborhood “were to be seen there (the rock pile) each afternoon after school… They fought on the rockpile. Sure footed, dangerous, and reckless, they rushed each other and grappled on the heights,
First signs of tension already appear in the beginning of the story when nothing even dreadful happened yet. The narrator describes how all the boys in the neighborhood “were to be seen there (the rock pile) each afternoon after school… They fought on the rockpile. Sure footed, dangerous, and reckless, they rushed each other and grappled on the heights,