Stranger in the Village Essays

Stranger in the Village Essays Stranger in the Village Paper Stranger in the Village Paper Essay Topic: The Stranger To start off, this essay is the first hand account of James Baldwin experiences in a tiny Swiss village 4 hours outside of Milan. Lets begin on who James Baldwin is, Baldwin is an African American male who has recently left the united States to come observe an know more about the relation of racism and societies. Baldwin Is very proud of his African American heritage even though it has become more segregated then ever in the early part of the civil rights movement. The village is so small that is almost unknown as claimed by Baldwin, he goes on to describe is as a unattractive own that Is stuck In the past; to add on to that the town seem to be very primitive as claimed in this passage In the village there is no movie house, no bank, no library, no theater; very few radios, one Jeep, one station wagon; and at the moment, one typewriter, mine, an invention which the woman next door to me here had never seen. Baldwin Paragraph 2. Baldwin being a African American male, Is the first experiences many of the people of the small Swiss village have encountered, that being a factor can be at times why the village seems very racial towards him, engendering the fact he is the first of his kind to step foot into the village. I will go on to explain the emotions that Baldwin starts to feel on the racism expressed in the essay and the way It touches on some of the modern day struggles that go on. The 4th paragraph you start to witness the rage building up from some of the villagers actions. With one case being the children calling Baldwin a Anger! this can be compared to the civil rights movement in the middle of the 1 asss when racial separation was very common In modern united States, when racial slurs would be led at Black Students who did not blend in with the surrounding. Baldwin shows us that because of Americans, black men were looked down upon, and the word Niger was created by Americans who failed to realize that blacks also have rights. This belief has spread world wide, even Into small villages. Because of this, black and white people alike will never be the same as they once were, and the world has been forever changed. This is an easy comparison for what Baldwin could have been easily be feeling right at that moment in time, not only is that degrading to him, but also his culture. Baldwin feels very strongly about his culture and his roots that he has come from. When someone shows such a strong hatred to another race and it spreads world wide it cannot be changed over night. Baldwin relies on us a smart individual to realize this. To show another example to modern times, the worlds view on homosexuality and the degrading things that are said about them, such as but not to limit, tag, homo, gay, fagged. Even though through out the world homosexuality Is becoming more and more accepted there is always going to be those places that cannot change their view. Another statement I want to examine is that shown in he 4th paragraph In all of this, In which It must be conceded there was the charm of genuine wonder and In which there were certainly no element of Intentional unkindness, there was yet no suggestion that I was human: I was simply a living wonder. This is seems to be the turning point for Baldwin, you can see that he has I OFF seem to give a little slack to ten village Tort not unreasoning. Ana Tanat teeny are more curious than anything about his different features. The next paragraph we start to feel some of the pain not much but it is starting to become more noticeable in that Baldwin speaks. l knew that they did not mean to be unkind, and I know it now; it is necessary, nevertheless, for me to repeat this to myself each time that I walk out of the chalet as I read this paragraph over to understand it more thoroughly. He expressing to himself that it never Just blows over but it hurts every time he leaves his cabin, that he must be brought to the same pain over and over again. They also wonder why the color of his skin does not rub off them when they touch him and that no electrical shock occurs when they touch his woolly hair. The adults come off in such subtle way in the way they present their insults. Later in the paragraph you notice some frustration that the author is feeling with the children some days he enjoys talking with the kids and then other days he Just want to blow right past them. As we go farther along in the passage we come along to an interesting fact about around some of the villages they buy African Americans to convert them to Christianity, this is very intriguing for it seems to be backwards from the norm that you always here about, with Africans being bought for only slavery, but is there more to this? Baldwin later goes on to explain that YES! For someone to take you away from your original environment and convert you to an all-new lifestyle is very disturbing. Imagine this youre a late asss male growing up to believe in one way of life and to be only taken and to be told that you have been taught wrong for all your life. This leads me to another part of Baldwin adventure were he compare the interactions between a white man visiting a black village and vice versa with a black man visiting a white village. He speaks on points such as the black village being astonished and marveling over the fact that the white man is different. But the fact that white men or in this case white village as put so much space between him and them is starting to get hit the core of him. His anger towards the white man is now showing, that he cannot forgive them for what pain they have cause to his ancestors. The fact is that Baldwin is trying to accept the fact that this part of the world has not yet experienced the racial diversity that has been expressed in America; most of the villagers have not even been able to leave the foot of the mountain. He goes on to conclude that there will never be an all white world and that we shall always be verse. To help explain this I want to look at one quote from Baldwin, The time has come to realize that the interracial drama acted out on the American continent has not only created a new black man, it has created a new white man, too. No road whatever will lead Americans back to the simplicity of this European village where white men still have the luxury of looking on me as a stranger. Baldwin is stating that the world is always changing that we need to start to adapt to these on going changes. In Biology you learn about the body and its ability to keep homeostasis, peeping everything balanced out, this is what is being show through out the essay and our generation. The body and the mind are trying to adapt to all the changes, but they are coming so fast that some groups are unable to adapt to such a shift in a way of life. This would involve change the ways on doing everything they have done for many centuries before the introduction of African American to their small village or even country like the United States. It almost compares to my statement I pointed out, tout ten religion topic. Your not Just addle to change In ten snap AT your Tellers, t took hundreds of years to break away from slavery. All you can do is wait it out. Look at this in this standpoint, here I am writing this paper more than 50 years later after these encounters with this village in Switzerland; what has change so far? Yes no, we have now become for the most part a non-segregated society, until you start looking more into the facts. Lets look at where we are at now SST. Louis, in the city how does the diversity look at when you go into north of downtown, are we simply human an this is all coincidence that this part of the city is predominately African American. Or when we travel east to Staunton, Illinois where there is a single African American family. Sure, there are towns between SST. Louis and Staunton but that have an even ratio of Blacks Whites but how I see a pattern going on. As the movement of more diverse society happens it seems that is a comparison of oil water. You can put the two in the same bottle and shake it up, the products appear to mix, but in the long run Just seem to separate themselves out. Baldwin views and theories are easily affecting what is going on in today, not Just in the on going struggle in diversity in the United States. But also in other countries as well, as much as we try to alienate ourselves from one another there will always be that someone to mix it up. All there is to do is to try to change are ways, and this by following the structure that Baldwin has laid out for us. That is to start learning the basics, even the littlest of changes matter and that is what it comes down. Homeostasis of cultures and learning how to adapt with our ongoing changes, around the world and within us is what has to be done. This is what is projected to me from Baldwin during his essay; learning to adapt is the first step.