Essay Sample on James Baldwin: Intellectual, Activist, and Literary Icon

Introduction

American novelist, playwright, and essayist, James Baldwin, attracted admirers and critics with his incisive intellectual and artistic observations and narrations. His literary works explored several social and racial issues, including gay relationships. He also played a significant role in civil rights activism. Baldwin was born in Harlem, New York, in 1924, and died in 1987 (Hardy III 61). In his early years, he followed in the religious footsteps of his stepfather. His active role in the church was inspired by the difficulties he faced in life, which included being abused by his stepfather. Baldwin admitted that "being in the pulpit was like working in the theatre; I was behind the scenes and knew how the illusion was worked" (Raoul 10:00 - 15:00). He also attributed Black Americans' strong stand against oppression to religion. Thus, Baldwin's literary works were influenced by his early life in the church and his belief that the concept of God was only useful if it made people more loving and freer.

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Baldwin's first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, was a partially-autobiographical bildungsroman. It traced the life of a male character, John Grimes, who was under pressure to follow in his father's footsteps. The central theme in the novel was the relationship between black people and their church. The characters perceive God as forbidding, stern, angry and vengeful. In the book, John has both a biological father and a stepfather, a cruel religious fanatic. The novel explores the influence of the Pentecostal Church, then, in the lives of African-Americans. From the way that the relationship between this sacred institution and the people is drawn, the church contributed to the moral hypocrisy and repression of the black people ("The black scholar interviews: James Baldwin" 2). It also contributed to the positive inspiration of the community. In this novel, Baldwin more or less captured his predicaments and shared insights from his experience with the church, and its key players ("James Baldwin: Letter from A Region In My Mind" 3). Therefore, his early life in the church, the strained relationship with a religious stepfather, and his deductions as a junior church minister were evident in the storyline of the novel.

The second novel, Giovanni's Room, was an expression for his desire for an accommodating and equally loving society. In the novel, a young American named David is left in Paris by his girlfriend who travels to Spain to contemplate marriage. David meets a gay partner in a bar (Giovanni's room 8). Some of the themes addressed in the novel include social alienation, identity, and masculinity. James Baldwin wrote the novel after having left the United States for France out of the frustrations with social exclusion in his home country. At the time, the black American population was prejudiced, and Baldwin hoped that identifying as a gay would add more condensation and reduce his readership. He believed that individuals needed to be free to express their identity and to settle in relationships as they wished. It is noteworthy that the church would not entertain such a relationship he considered to be forbidding and patronizing. There was thus an apparent attempt to free himself from the restrictions the church had put in him. These restrictions required that he suffers in silence in the hope for a reprieve in the afterlife.

In Another Country, Baldwin sought to highlight relationships beyond the brotherly love preached by the church and advocated for by key civil rights figures such as Martin Luther King Jr. (Hardy III 61). The novel tracks down intimate and friendly relationships between various character. Baldwin considered Rufus Scott as a symbol of black suffering. The character's life was affected by intrinsic racism and the constant pursuit of power. Besides race relationships and the plight of the black people, the novel also focused on the subject of love. He addressed the intricate elements that hindered the realization of love in American relationships. More importantly, the novel addresses the issue of willing ignorance, with Vivaldo openly ignoring his bisexuality. These subjects compare with Baldwin's perspectives as an active member of the church, where his perception of love was that it should be accommodating. He also believed that unifying factors, such as God and love, were supposed to allow people the freedom to express themselves in the best way that represented them (Raoul 22:00 - 27:00).

The fourth novel, Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone, explored a wide range of themes which include institutional racism, white privilege, the use of incarceration to maintain a biased economic landscape and to promote racial inequality, bisexuality and fundamentalist Christianity. Once again, there was the element of the church, as well as the deception founded in a belief system. Caleb overcomes his anger against the white society after his unfair imprisonment despite being a World War II veteran, by adopting fundamentalist Christianity. This aspect of the novel is drawn from Baldwin's observations of protestant Christianity as creating an illusion of equality in the eyes of God when there was systemic racial prejudice (Raoul 27:00 - 35:00). There was also the aspect of freedom to choose whom to love, to accept oneself, and to be accepted. These issues were at the heart of Baldwin's dissociation with the church, which he considered to be led by hypocritical individuals. Instead of allowing for double standards, Baldwin believed that the environment was supposed to be accommodative enough to enable people to be proud of their identity, including homosexuality.

If Beale Street Could Talk, another of Baldwin's novels was set in Harlem, his childhood environment. Like its predecessors, the novel highlights systematic prejudice against blacks. It was alleged that Fonny raped a woman and was incarcerated due to the failure of the justice system. There is, however, the celebration of love, like in most of Baldwin's novels. The underlying aspect of Baldwin's literary works, as depicted in this novel, was the attempt to humanize black people through the creation of functional relationships with lovers, parents, children, and siblings. This aspect is drawn from Baldwin's formative years in which he grew up under an oppressive stepfather and a restrictive religion which denied him the opportunity to express himself wholesomely (Raoul 32:00 - 45:00). Furthermore, Baldwin addresses love in a way that transcends the relationship between man and woman, to that between family members and which require extreme sacrifices. It is noteworthy that Christ expressed the same love and that Baldwin's early years as in the church must have influenced him to desire such kind of love.

Baldwin's plays were equally influenced by his early years in the church. In his first play, The Amen Corner, he focused on how the African-American family was influenced by the church, and how poverty contributed to racial prejudice. From the play, while Margaret makes her congregation to believe that she had been abandoned by her husband, it turns out that she had run away from the husband. Baldwin uses these characters to examine how religion allowed people to live deceptive lives while also letting them hide from their fears. In depicting the theme of love, Baldwin amplified his belief that love should allow for closer relationships with all of God's children (Raoul 43:00 - 55:00). He believed that no person deserved to be prejudiced based on their being different. Baldwin had himself grown with an abusive church minister as a stepfather, and his familial relationships must have influenced such depictions. More significantly, his growing up in the church defined his view of what love should be like.

In his second play, Blues for Mister Charlie, Baldwin critiques Christianity and addresses the issue of morality. He depicts Christianity as a framework often used to enslave the black population. He notes that Christianity was no different from a plague designed to dismantle human relationship. He also observed that Christianity was outwardly preached passively while inherently supporting violence. The play refers to Christianity's promotion of "the white God" that turns a blind eye on the suffering of people who are mistreated by irrational individuals (Raoul 57:00 - 1:15:00). The reverend is accused of praying to a god that only protects whites. In this play, Baldwin ascribed qualities often given to whites to his black characters. Such qualities included godliness and courage. There are instances of inspiration from his early days in the church which are evidenced in this play.

Foremost, there is the choice of the church and religion as the reference point. Secondly, there were the white-black relationships which characterized the church at the time, and the ascription of negative qualities to black people by people who upraised Christianity that was shared with the black population. Similar themes run in the short stories collection, Going to Meet the Man, and his essay collections, Nobody Knows My Name, No Name in the Street, The Devil Finds Work, The Prince of the Thicket, and Notes of a Native Son. In all these literary works, Baldwin addresses the issues of identity, relationships, and love. He exposed the hypocrisy of the existing system which promoted prejudice, and the role of the church in the oppression of the black community (Collected essays 4). Equally, they promote the view that when individuals are allowed freedom to express themselves without restrictions, they are capable of excelling in whatever they choose to undertake.

Baldwin underwent a religious crisis at the age of fourteen. However, his Christian beliefs were drawn from his overly religious family. The stories he wrote about were inspired by his personal experiences as a young boy living with his mother and a stepfather. However, the view of love from the perspective of the church was not satisfying, so he left the church to pursue what he enjoyed, writing. Further, he was openly gay, something he believed would not be accommodated in the church then. It is the intricate system of prejudice, however, that drove him away to Paris, and later back to be part of the civil rights movement. Even in this role, there was a heavy presence of church ministers leading the fight for freedom, and his work was to document it. Therefore, even while taking note of the gains attained from the civil rights movement, Baldwin explored the underlying relationships between whites and blacks and questioning whether love had prevailed.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is noteworthy that James Baldwin's literary pieces have a common thread, his active involvement in the church in his formative years. Growing up with an abusive stepfather who was also a senior member of the church, Baldwin could not sustain the hypocrisy and fails to live up to his stepfather's expectations. This aspect is mirrored in most of his works. Also, Baldwin developed the belief that love should be founded on an environment that sets people free and promotes healthy relationships which allow individuals to express themselves. There are many of his literary pieces that directly include the role of the church and others that highlight the racial prejudices and systemic discrimination in a setting that is promoted by those who also actively support the church. Baldwin was interested in seeing the practical side of what was preached in the church. As a young person, he had experienced the hypocrisy of religion right at home, and used his experiences as a canvas to express his literary artistry.

Works Cited

Baldwin, James. "The black scholar interviews: James Baldwin." The Black Scholar 5.4 (1973): 33-42.

Baldwin, James. Collected essays. Vol. 2. Library of America, 1998.