Going to Meet the Man by James Baldwin

Question: Describe about the Two short discussions regarding two short american literature pieces. Answer: The story Going to meet the man is centred on fierce racial discrimination on the black community and is narrated by a white man to his wife. It is a clear demonstration of the injustice imposed by the whites on the coloured members of the community. The narration appears to be a joke considering the nature it is narrated despite the fact that the narrator Is among the members of the society who are abused (James 1995, P1328). Irony It is not ironical that Baldwin who was an African American wrote this story. This piece of work is justified since he experienced racial discrimination to some extent. Racism is littered throughout his works as well as him identifying jazz music as part of the black culture. He says that jazz music was the only avenue that the black Negros used to air their predicament. Major Conflict The major conflict in the story is the fierce and tragic racial discrimination suffered by the black and coloured community in North America. The story demonstrates the physical aggression encountered by the black individuals in North America, a community dominated by whites. They are attacked and brutally assassinated with no apparent reason. For instance, Big C Jim beat Negros because of their singing (James 1995, P1328). It is ironical that despite the apparent inequalities and injustices the narrator considers himself to be a relatively better person than his compatriots. For example, he sees as funny the Negros ordeal. Hypocrisy The narrator is not hypocritical since his childhood experiences were to a large degree shaped by his father. His arguments are reflected in accordance to the white community as well where males were dominant in their family and could be referred to as role models by the rest of the household. Recitatif by Morrison Settings The story is set in a state childrens home in St. Bonny's in the early 1960s, where the two main characters Twyla and Roberta link up. The two meet again eight years later late into 1960s this setting is significant since this is a pioneering story regarding racial authorship. This is so because their ethnic backgrounds are debatable ( Smith Larry 1996, P45). Apparently, the two belong to different social classes, but this is not buttressed as being either Afro-American or Caucasian. Importance of the Setting The setting of the story is important since it keeps changing over time thus mirroring the how the two characters environment changes. Its movement originally is episodic in nature from the time the two Twyla and Roberta link up in the orphanage, up to the end- the fifth of the five scenes. While they were children, their lives fell into a rhythm which occasionally could be lost and later return. Main struggle of the protagonist Her main struggle is to resuscitate her relationship with Roberta, which used to exist at the beginning of the story at their childhood. She is sympathetic since she finds it hard to withstand racial abuse hurled at the friends ( Smith Larry 1996, P45). Postmodernist technique This is apparent in this piece since the idea of after-World War II atomization of identity in which the and integrity of selfness is engulfed in atomized fragments of identity that do not symbolize a major unit of determinable wholeness. Works Cited Baldwin, James. Going to Meet the Man. , 1995. Internet resource. Bloom, Harold. James Baldwin. New York: Chelsea House, 2007. Print. Smith, Larry E. Changing Representations of Minorities East and West: Selected Essays. Honolulu, Hawai'i: Univ. of Hawai'i Press, 1996. Print. Lochle, Stefan. Social Fact, Biological Fiction: the Deconstruction of Race in Toni Morrison's "recitatif". Munchen: GRIN Verlag GmbH, 2009. Internet resource.