Death and Life with Black and White America

How does life and death relate to a relationship between father and son? And what makes this particular relationship significant to black and white America? These two questions are related in “Notes of a Native Son” an essay written by James Baldwin about his relationship with his father in black and white America in 1955.

Baldwin discusses death as life comes into the world. As life is given, so is the advice from a father to a son. The advice from a father to his son is a special memory to have and to hold because the father knows one day he will die. As the son receives the advice as a young child, he soon learns in his lifetime what the real message was from his father. The advices were blueprints to live life the right way. By saying to live life the right way is to say that in black and white America there was a right and a wrong way to live life.

Another way that black and white America is related to a father and a son’s relationship is how there is always a conflict with being a certain way. Since the black community in this era didn’t have much of a voice, they were trying to figure out what they could do to have a better future for themselves. So, with knowing that there were racial tensions between different races, specifically black and white people, there is a development of hatred. The development of this hatred is one that becomes exhausting and self-destructive. A relationship of a father and a son can be similar to the black and white America with the growing up issues and growing up to be a black man in “the white world”.

To relate the relationship between Baldwin and his father is to figure out what has made him into a man of the black and white America. The both of these relationships go hand in hand which each other because Baldwin grows up with a father preaching to him what is right and wrong in life, then live life in the black and white world of America. This creates a new relationship with his deceased father. This new relationship helps Baldwin find a new love for his father.

Me Talk Pretty Response

How do you think it feels to move to another country? What would cause you to want to move to another country to learn a language other than English? In the essay “Me Talk Pretty One Day” by David Sedaris shows someones journey to learning the French language and to understanding the language, but not speaking it yet.

In this essay I felt that it was a great thing to want to learn another language other than the one that the protagonist spoke. At the same time it was a dumb move for him to “move to Paris with hopes of learning the language”. Since it's said that you need to move to the country of the language that you are learning to become more fluent in, doesn’t mean you have to lose your confidence and self-esteem to learn a language. In saying this I mean yes the journey to learning anything is hard, but at the same time you should feel fulfilled.

I also felt that this essay wasn’t all that it could be. I would get lost and miss the message of what the writer was trying to say. During the second time that I read the essay I think I finally got the point of what the author was trying to make. “Much work and someday you talk pretty…” was the point of what the writer was trying to get across to the reader. It’s true with lots of practice you will eventually understand and speak the language that you most desire to talk with the people around you.

Change

My thoughts this morning around the subject of change are excitement, nervousness, and concern with the outcome of how the country feels about this drastic change of having an African-American man being president. The feeling of excitement is for how far our country has come from slavery and racism to now having someone other than a white, protestant man running the country. It makes me think that some people of other races have a chance to run for president or for anything that they put their minds to.

I also feel nervousness this morning because of the fact that not many people are opened minded to what other people of different colors or races have to offer this country. For Barack Obama to have won the election last night was nerve wrecking because many people that I had spoken with thought even though they were going to vote for Obama they still felt that McCain was going to win the presidency. There is also the worry of if our country allows another person of a different race to run for president, what is the catch that nobody knows about? Since, Obama won the election earlier during his campaign there had been rumors of once he was elected, he would be assassinated within a couple of months during his presidency. I found it to be disturbing and worrisome because he is putting his life on the line for a country that he believes in and is fighting for what he believes is right to make a change in this country.

Concern runs all over me because yes, it’s a wonderful thing that our country has elected an official out of our statis quote. However, what is going to happened in the future as our president is doing his job? Will he actually keep to his word or be just like every other president that we have had in our country. Obama is a man of change and is a man of color. Many people don’ like the fact of having an African-American president for many reasons whether its the color of his skin or his ideologies. I have heard that if Obama were elected to be the next president of this country that the African-American community would rise. I think that this is something to celebrate because African-Americans have come a long way from their ancestry of slavery. This also gives an opportunity for many other cultures and races alike to come forward and join in with this time of change. It has been long awaited for many years by many individuals of this country.