Stranger in a Village
Thursday, September 25, 2008
What is Baldwin's intent in writing Stranger in a Village?
Baldwin uses Stranger in a Village as social commentary on the treatment of blacks and the idea of white supremacy, especially in America.
"There is a dreadful abyss between the streets of this village and the streets of the city in which I was born, between the children who shout Neger! today and those who shouted Nigger! yesterday—the abyss is experience, the American experience. The syllable hurled behind me today expresses, above all, wonder: I am a stranger here. But I am not a stranger in America and the same syllable riding on the American air expresses the war my presence has occasioned in the American soul."
This paragraph is central to the essay, and is also part of Baldwin's intent in writing this piece. He is comparing the difference in treatment of blacks in Europe and America. He is criticizing the American experience for shaping the way Americans think and treat others.
Baldwin wishes to bring across the message that throughout history, blacks have gone through nightmare after nightmare of being "trapped in history, and history [is] trapped in them."
He also uses this essay to explain and bring awareness to the "rage" and "contempt" that the black people feel against their treatment.
Baldwin is expressing his belief that white people should no longer "keep the black man at a certain human remove because it is easier for him thus to preserve his simplicity and avoid being called to account for crimes committed by his forefathers, or his neighbors.Blacks have been outcasted and treated like strangers for too long. "[N]o other people has ever been so deeply involved in the lives of black men, and vice versa." It is time for change; it is time for equal treatment for "[t]his world's white no longer, and it will never be white again."
Labels: AP English
