Notes of a Native Son Essay Questions

In the preface to the book, Baldwin contrasts his specific "inheritance" as a black man in America with his universal, human "birthright." Show how these concepts relate to the larger arguments of the book, citing examples.

For Baldwin, the "specifically limited and limiting" inheritance of being an African American must be connected to his birthright as a human being. He realized in writing these essays that he "need[ed] to accept the inheritance to claim the birthright.” We see Baldwin's investigation of this specific inheritance throughout the book. For example, in "The Harlem Ghetto" and "Notes of a Native Son," he describes the conditions in the neighborhood of New York where he grew up. Similarly, he discusses his family and the attitudes towards the world he inherited from them, such as his father's rage and suspicion.

Yet we see that Baldwin also insists on moving past his specific inheritance to his birthright that is “vast, connecting me to all that lives, and to everyone, forever.” We see this in moments where he argues that black and white people are deeply involved in each other's existence. In "Stranger in the Village," for example, Baldwin writes that the American "interracial drama" has shaped both black and white in new ways, so that what is at stake in overcoming racism is the humanity of everyone.

What are some of the images or metaphors used in the essays to describe the psychological effects of racism and what does Baldwin argue one's relationship to them should be?

Throughout the essays, Baldwin describes racism as creating a "rage," "fever," and "sickness" within him and his community. In "The Harlem Ghetto," bad living conditions and racism create a "furious, bewildered rage" with which all children grow up. Similarly, poverty and racism become a "cancer that attacks the mind and warps it. " This is an unavoidable reality, Baldwin argues, yet one should not let oneself surrender to this rage and sickness. One has a choice over whether or not to surrender to it. We see this in "Notes of a Native Son," when Baldwin's rage against segregation nearly causes him to kill someone or to be killed himself. While rage cannot be conquered, it can change shape into something else. Baldwin argues that every black person has a different way of channeling this rage and this should be explored more in literature. What is interesting is not the rage itself but the fact that African Americans continue to survive despite it.

In discussing race in America, Baldwin critiques novels that use stereotypical characters and writing about race that only focuses on the sociological dimension. What do stereotypes and sociology have in common and why is Baldwin against them?

Baldwin insists throughout the essays that human beings are complex creatures and that literature must do justice to this fact. In "Everybody's Protest Novel" and "Many Thousands Gone," Baldwin argues that modern society is always trying to reduce people into bite-sized pieces like cogs in the machine. Protest novels like Uncle Tom's Cabin perform the same kind of simplification, making characters into one-dimensional parts of an argument lacking any complexity or contradictions. For this reason, he is against stereotypical characters. Similarly, Baldwin is against a sociological approach to race. In discussing Native Son, he writes “the reality of man as a social being is not his only reality and that artist is strangled who is forced to deal with human beings only on social terms." Understanding society is certainly important for understanding people, Baldwin notes. Yet humans are not just the product of neighborhood, class, race, nationality, etc. Like stereotypes, the purely sociological approach ignores what makes people human: their thoughts, feelings, emotions, and histories.

According to Baldwin, does the historical past affect the present? If so, how?

For Baldwin, the past is constantly helping to shape the present. However, American society often tries to ignore this fact. For example, Baldwin writes that a black person at an "interracial cocktail party" cannot fail to create awkwardness, even if everyone there is ostensibly against racism. This is because the unspeakable past of slavery continues to affect people in the present, creating guilt, resentment, and other powerful emotions. Similarly, in "Stranger in the Village" Baldwin writes this relationship to the monuments of Western civilization is different than that of a white person. To understand this difference, he compares his ancestors who were forcibly enslaved hundreds of years ago to the people who did this enslaving and benefited from it. Though slavery has been abolished, this history continues to affect the present in creating different ways of seeing the world.

The last four essays in the collection are set in France and Switzerland. How does being in Europe help Baldwin reflect on what it means to be an American, particularly in terms of race?

Baldwin notices in France that race functions slightly differently. Racism certainly exists, but it is not as obvious as in the US. Even white Americans he encounters there tend to be more cautious in interacting with him. Yet their American "conditioning" still affects the way they see each other. Baldwin notes that white and black Americans have been shaped to the core by the history of slavery and the reality of race in America: "they have loved and hated and obsessed and feared each other and [black] blood is in their soil. Therefore he cannot deny them, nor can they ever be divorced." Yet the problem with the US, Baldwin realizes when he is in Europe, is that people are always seeking to escape from history. This "depthless alienation" from the past makes it difficult to grapple with the problems besetting society.