Response Paper

Response Paper

James Baldwin, a man of faith, lives a different from his beliefs. An openly gay black man, he became a spokesmen reproving discrimination of gays and the Civil Rights of blacks. Nevertheless, Baldwin's attributes as a writer are undeniable. Baldwin, in his lifetime, was able to effect a large population through his works of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and plays. The eyes of not only Blacks but also Whites where wide open to the issues of the times thorough this man's creative expression and imagination, bring his life to the world. James Baldwin's personal life, in some ways, are revealed in writings throw the promise of a transparent sexual grounded in a healing unveiling of a serenely accepted identity.

The early Life of James Arthur Baldwin was born in Harlem, New York, Illegitimate and never knowing his birth father, he grew up in poverty the oldest of nine children. At age 3, his mother married a factory worker who also was a storefront preacher. Feeling trapped by his troubled relationship with his strict religious stepfather; at a young age Baldwin searched for an escape. The inspiration for his passion began in his teens. Harlem Renaissance poet Countee Cullen, his French teacher at Frederick Douglass Junior High, influenced Young Baldwin. This led to Baldwin spending much of his time in libraries and finding a passion for writing. Oddly enough, at age 12 his first works, as a writer, appeared in a church newspaper. At age 14 he became a preacher at a revival church. And it seemed to him, that the violence which rose all about us as his father left the world had been devised as a corrective for the pride of his eldest son, It had declined to believe in that destruction which had been central to his father's vision; very well, life seemed to be saying, here is something that will certainly pass for an destruction until the real thing comes along. It had inclined to be disapproving of his father for the conditions of life, for the conditions of there lives.

In the 1940s, James Baldwin relocated his faith from religion to literature. James Baldwin moved to Paris, France where he lived for eight years often returning to the U.S. to teach and lecture. He divided his time between the south of France, New York, and New England. Then Baldwin began spending half of each year in New York City becoming an active participant in the Civil-Rights struggle allowing