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James Baldwin As a Writer of Short Fiction: an Evaluation

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James Baldwin As a Writer of Short Fiction: an Evaluation JAMES BALDWIN AS A WRITER OF SHORT FICTION: AN EVALUATION dayton G. Holloway A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY December 1975 618208 ii Abstract Well known as a brilliant essayist and gifted novelist, James Baldwin has received little critical attention as short story writer. This dissertation analyzes his short fiction, concentrating on character, theme and technique, with some attention to biographical parallels. The first three chapters establish a background for the analysis and criticism sections. Chapter 1 provides a biographi­ cal sketch and places each story in relation to Baldwin's novels, plays and essays. Chapter 2 summarizes the author's theory of fiction and presents his image of the creative writer. Chapter 3 surveys critical opinions to determine Baldwin's reputation as an artist. The survey concludes that the author is a superior essayist, but is uneven as a creator of imaginative literature. Critics, in general, have not judged Baldwin's fiction by his own aesthetic criteria. The next three chapters provide a close thematic analysis of Baldwin's short stories. Chapter 4 discusses "The Rockpile," "The Outing," "Roy's Wound," and "The Death of the Prophet," a Bi 1 dungsroman about the tension and ambivalence between a black minister-father and his sons. In contrast, Chapter 5 treats the theme of affection between white fathers and sons and their ambivalence toward social outcasts—the white homosexual and black demonstrator—in "The Man Child" and "Going to Meet the Man." Chapter 6 explores the theme of escape from the black community and the conseauences of estrangement and identity crises in "Previous Condition," "Sonny's Blues," "Come Out the Wilderness" and "This Morning, This Evening, So Soon." The last chapter attempts to apply Baldwin's aesthetic principles to his short fiction. Following his own artistic standards, Baldwin has created broadly sympathetic characters and realistic events in each story except "The Death of the Prophet," an undeveloped fragment. Many of his stories show fidelity to black folk expression and brilliantly reflect the psyche of oppressed people. Almost all of his stories abound in flashbacks, which establish adequate character motivation. In short, Baldwin's aesthetic intentions announced in his essays and interviews have been effectively illustrated and firmly justified by his short fiction. iii Acknowledgement I am indebted to Dr. Prank Baldanza and Dr. Walter C. Daniel, my advisors and friends, who have provided inspiration and guidance. iv Preface Up from the cramped tenements of Harlem, the Mecca of many black writers during the New Negro Movement, and out of the urban schools and store-front churches, James Baldwin has emerged. While nobody knows his African name, lost for eternity in the Middle Passage, almost everybody knows his American name. Through his talent as a literary artist and his articulate voice, speaking out boldly and clearly for social justic* e, Baldwin has gained international recognition and his name has become a permanent part of literary and social history. A versatile, prolific, thought-provoking, emotion-arousing, and controversial artist, his works have been translated into French, German, Italian, Japanese, Danish, Swedish and other modern languages. Although he enjoys international fame as a brilliant essayist and a talented novelist, Baldwin has received very little critical attention as a writer of short fiction. To rectify that conspicuous and serious gap in literary scholarship, this study has as its central purpose to provide a close analysis of all of Baldwin’s short fiction published during his adult career, and to V evaluate each story, using the author’s own principles of fiction as standards of ¿judgment for the story’s literary and social value. The present study consists of six chapters which are followed by an evaluative summary. Chapter 1 serves the reader who is not very familiar with the terrain over which the author has traveled on his ¿journey toward a better understanding of himself and others. The biographical sketch concentrates on his development in Harlem, his educational background, publications, religious conversion, relations with family and peers, ¿jobs, frustrations, exile, adult publications of literary works, and his life as a national celebrity. This background chapter places the author’s short fiction in a chronological perspective through which the stories are seen in relation to his essays, novels, and plays, as well as significant personal events. Chapter 2 attempts to summarize Baldwin’s theory of fiction and image of the artist as reflected in several essays, interviews, reviews and articles. A study of these published works reveals some modifica­ tions in the author's theories which were developed between the late 194-0's and the early 1970’s. An vi important chapter in this dissertation, it contains the announced intentions of Baldwin as an artist, and provides an aesthetic which will be used in the evaluation section. Those critics who have evaluated Baldwin’s work have not always ¿judged it by the author’s own yardstick. This is clearly seen in Chapter 3, which surveys critical opinion of the author as essayist, dramatist, novelist, and writer of short fiction. This chapter points up the need for additional serious study of the author as a writer of short fiction. Seeking to fulfill that need, three chapters are devoted to a close analysis of nine short stories, products of the author's adult career as artist. Instead of a chronological approach, the stories are grouped thematically. "The Rockpile" (1965), "The Outing" (1951)» and "The Death of a Prophet" (1950) comprise the first group, dealing with the tension and ambivalence in a Harlem family, and relations of the Grimes sons outside their Christian home in the secular world. To link this Bildungsroman in terms of thematic and character development, I have included an analysis of "Roy’s Wound" (1952), a sketch which was incorporated into Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953)* vii Other thematic concerns growing out of these stories are sexual infatuation, religious zeal, hidden guilt, and estrangement from the father. The discussion of the four stories about the coming of age of two black brothers is followed by a treatment of the theme of affection between white fathers and sons and their ambivalence toward social outcasts; "The Man Child" (1965) and "Going to Meet the Man" (1965) focus on that relationship. Chapter 5 also deals with initiation into society, racial injustice, sexual impotence, and homosexual fantasies as significant subthemes found in those stories. The last thematic grouping consists of "Previous Condition" (1948), "Sonny’s Blues" (1957), "Come Out the Wilderness" (1958), and "This Morning, This Evening, So Soon" (I960), stories which contain the escape-return motif. The thematic pattern emerging from these four stories is ambivalence, escape, estrangement, identity problems, and the recognition of a need to affirm the cultural values of race. The analysis chapters focus primarily on the development of theme and character and secondarily on biographical parallels and details intended to illuminate the short stories. Some attention is given viii to such matters as point of view, structure, and reflections of black folk culture in the short stories. The final section attempts to synthesize the points of emphasis related in the other chapters and has as its main purpose the task of evaluating the literary and social value of each of Baldwin's short works of fiction in light of his theoretical assumptions and postulates. Since his interest in his aesthetic has been on thematic development and portraiture, the evaluation concentrates primarily on his handling of theme and character delineation. And since his movement has been from rather traditional artistic standards and concerns toward an adoption of a Black Aesthetic, this evaluation will also take into account the social value of his short fiction. IX Table of Contents Page Preface..................................... .... ............................................. .... iv Chapter 1. A Biographical Sketch of the Author .... 1 2. His Theory of Fiction and Image of the Artist . ....................................................... .... 28 5. His Reputation as a Literary Artist .... 53 4. Tension Between a Black-Minister-Father and His Sons 85 5. Affection Between White Fathers and Sons and Ambivalence toward Social Outcasts................................ ................................ 121 6. Escape, Estrangement, Identity Problems, and the Need for Racial Affirmation • • . 151 An Evaluative Conclusion 192 Bibliography . ............................ .... 226 1 Chapter 1 Biographical Sketch Essayist, novelist, short story writer, playwright, and social activist, James Arthur Baldwin was born August 2, 1924 in New York City’s Harlem Hospital. Emma Berdis Jones, his mother, who had migrated North from Deals Island, Maryland, worked as a domestic until illness forced her to retire in the 1960’s. In 1927 she married David Baldwin, a store­ front preacher and factory worker, who had migrated to New York City from New Orleans in search of greater economic opportunities. James was adojyted, but never fully accepted as a son in the Baldwih-4amily by his stepfather; Reverend David Baldwin had a way of always making James feel like an outcast—a bastard child.1 Consequently, in his desire to be loved and accepted, James grew closer to his mother after her p marriage. The long and ugly roots of hatred grew deeper in James Baldwin’s heart for his stepfather, who was "chilling in the pulpit” but "indescribably cruel in his personal life," as the stepson grew older.Although he held contempt for his stepfather, Baldwin loved his eight half brothers and sisters who 2 were born between 1927 and 194-3« Since both parents were common laborers and had to spend their work-days away from home, James, the elder son, was given the responsibility of rearing the other children. James Baldwin at an early age saw himself through the eyes of others.
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