The Imagery of James Baldwin’s Typewriter
The typewriter is a weighty symbol in James Baldwin’s life in “The Discovery of What it means To be An American”. He uses it to re-fabricate his history through typing. The typewriter types all of James Baldwin’s recollections and involvements, thus, it is a distinctive witness to James Baldwin’s unearthing of his identity.
By the same token, in “The Black Boy Looks at the White Boy”, the typewriter is dominant as James Baldwin recalls that “the typewriter would be there staring at me.” The typewriter’s stares are an aide-mémoire that James Baldwin must finish his manuscripts.
American Masculinity (“The Black Boy Looks at the White Boy”)
James Baldwin takes up American masculinity as he is not nostalgic like the white people. Furthermore, he is not apprehensive about mislaying his innocence. James Baldwin’s masculinity stems from the reality that, “ to be an American Negro male is also kind of walking phallic symbol; which means that one pays, in one’s own personality, for the sexual insecurity of others.” The ‘phallic symbol’ makes reference to the muscularity that all the black males are expected to take up notwithstanding of whether they are gay or not. Therefore, to sustain the American masculinity, a black man is obliged to appear to be tough and rough on the outside.
