James Baldwin's Notes Of A Native Son

Notes of a Native Son are composed of James Baldwin’s thoughts and views of when he was 19-years-old during, WWII and the Harlem Riot of 1943. Baldwin’s Notes of a Native Son are centered around racism and hatred towards his father, which are the main topics of his writing. James Baldwin is the main character of the story and he uses stream of consciousness to voice his thought process during times like his father’s funeral or when he’s being discriminated against for being African American. This is called character voice, in which he writes how he views the world. For example, he talks about how African American soldiers are mistreated during the WWII overseas and his father’s bitter behavior. Baldwin’s themes also contribute to his use of …show more content…
Baldwin’s father had an ongoing bitterness with white people, he didn’t trust them and saw them as threats. When James Baldwin was nine or ten, he had written a screenplay. His white school teacher love it, and invited him to see the play and his father questioned, “Why she was coming, what interest she could possibly have in our house, in a boy like me” (591). When his father had questioned him, Baldwin was in utter confusion why his teacher was interested in him. This made Baldwin inquisitive to why his schoolteacher was curious about him. The father had given him permission to attend the play with his the teacher, however Baldwin did not to accompany his teacher to the theater. When his father “did not dare caused me to despise him” (591), James Baldwin was mad at his father for not refusing for him to leave. This situation was something that his father had experienced before and it had frightened him. In his earlier text within the essay, Baldwin had wrote that his father loathed white people still he allowed his son to leave their house to watch a play with his white schoolteacher. His father had wanted to not give permission but he went against it; like any parent, they want their children to succeed even if it’s against their will. Baldwin talks about when he “first contracted some dread, chronic disease” (592) when he lives in New Jersey. Baldwin has a reputation, which began when he realized that the restaurant he frequents doesn’t serve black people yet he is determined to keep going. His notoriety got him fired from multiple jobs. The disease is in his blood makes Baldwin who “can never be really carefree again” (592), the fever will happen without a warning. Being fired from his jobs had angered him because his reputation that he had outside of work further declined his work life. The lives of black people have to be surrendered