James Baldwin's Notes Of A Native Son

James Baldwin’s “Notes of a Native Son’’ is in its essence an homage to the life of his father and a therapeutic exercise for Baldwin to deal with his father’s death, and his own concerns and premonitions about the future of his own life. Baldwin realizes that while he spent the majority of his life resenting and hating his father for his opinions and actions, which to Baldwin did not make any sense at the time, he now realizes the validity of his father’s opinions and the rationalization of his actions. He realizes just how toxic hate is and how it can change a man. Baldwin realizes he may never love his father but they were not as different as he at once thought them to be. In fact they are quite similar in many ways, and have a lot in common, …show more content…
He writes about how his father was a paranoid, cruel and bitter, but at the same time an extremely powerful man. He writes that this power comes from his “blackness”, and that the main reason for his father’s anger was his inability to really be proud of his blackness regardless of what he may have told his family and friends. From this inability to express his own feelings of anger and frustration of his own life in a healthy way Baldwin’s father lived and died a bitter man. It is this very bitterness that Baldwin himself couldn't understand as a child, but now as a man comprehends it and in fact is fearful because he acknowledges that he too has it, “He had lived and died in an intolerable state of bitterness of spirit and it frightened me, as we drove him to the grave yard through those unquiet, ruined streets, to see how powerful and overflowing his bitterness could be and to realize that this bitterness was now mine” (Baldwin, 95). Baldwin isn't exactly forgiving his father for his actions and behavior, more he is able to understand the events and experiences that drove his father to behave and act the way he did. As Baldwin grows older he loses his naivety and innocence and thus is able to see the why his father was so bitter, angry, and …show more content…
Baldwin realizes that his life was in danger, but he is not thinking of a physical danger (although his life was also in physical danger) he writes, I saw nothing very clearly but I did see this: my life, my real life, was in danger, and not from anything other people might do but from the hatred I carried in my own heart” (Baldwin, 100). Baldwin comes to the realization of how detrimental and destructive hate can be. He also is aware that his own hatred is turning him into something that Baldwin never wanted to be. Baldwin reflects on his anger, and the anger of his father. How this hate is baggage that if not dealt with will destroy him. It is around this time that he visits his father in hospital. His father is close to death, but he had been putting off the visit for a long time. When he sees his father he knows why he has been putting off the visit. Although he tells his mother the reason is because he hates him there is really more to