Notes of a Native Son is an essay collection by James Baldwin, written in 1955, about topics such as race in America and Europe. Here, QuotesGeeks is going to share some of the best James Baldwin notes of a native son quotes that will help you to learn and understand more about this essay.
Notes of a Native Son has been called one of the classic genre black autobiographical books for anyone who wants to know about the world. It is at number 19 on its list of the 100 best 20th-century nonfiction books. It is be called “a great favorite” and “a must-read for anyone who wants to know about the world.”
Notes of a Native Son is one of the most Notable works of James Baldwin. The book contained a wide range of material that would run through Baldwin’s work: containing major themes such as self-awareness, Ancestry, love, life in general, and race; including books such as address course; claiming an inheritance; loneliness; access to the artist.
List of ten essays in Notes of a Native Son:
- Everybody’s Protest Novel
- Many Thousands Gone
- Carmen Jones: The Dark Is Light Enough
- The Harlem Ghetto
- Journey to Atlanta
- Notes of a Native Son
- Encounter on the Seine: Black Meets Brown
- A Question of Identity
- Equal in Paris
- Stranger in the Village
What is the main idea of Notes of a Native Son?
The main idea of Notes of a Native Son is Inheritance, Tradition, and Belonging. The essay is about race, culture, and the power of memory.
What is the tone of Notes of a Native Son?
The tone of Notes of a Native Son is neutral, resentful, and violent.
Top 21 James Baldwin Notes Of a Native Son Quotes:
01.
“Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor.”
– James Baldwin
02.
“I am what time, circumstance, history, have made of me, certainly, but I am, also, much more than that. So are we all.”
– James Baldwin
03.
“We cannot escape our origins, however hard we try, those origins which contain the key -could we but find it- to all we later become.“
― James Baldwin
04.
“The writer’s greed is appalling. He wants, or seems to want, everything and practically everybody, in another sense, and at the same time, he needs no one at all.”
― James Baldwin
05.
“I love America more than any other country in the world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.”
― James Baldwin
06.
“You can not describe anything without betraying your point of view, your aspirations, your fears, your hopes. Everything.”
― James Baldwin
07.
“In those days my mother was given to the exasperating and mysterious habit of having babies.”
― James Baldwin
08.
“The American ideal, after all, is that everyone should be as much alike as possible.”
― James Baldwin
09.
“I conceive of God, in fact, as a means of liberation and not a means to control others.”
― James Baldwin
10.
“The root function of language is to control the universe by describing it.”
— James Baldwin
11.
“People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them.”
— James Baldwin
12.
“Any writer, I suppose, feels that the world into which he was born is nothing less than a conspiracy against the cultivation of his talent.”
― James Baldwin
13.
“No people come into possession of a culture without having paid a heavy price for it.”
― James Baldwin
14.
“It seems to be typical of life in America… that the second generation has no time to talk to the first.”
― James Baldwin
15.
“The price one pays for pursuing any profession or calling is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side.”
― James Baldwin
16.
“Rage can only with difficulty, and never entirely, be brought under the domination of the intelligence and is therefore not susceptible to any arguments whatever.”
― James Baldwin
17.
“Harlem had needed something to smash. To smash something is the ghetto’s chronic need.”
― James Baldwin
18.
“It is only because the world looks on his talent with such a frightening indifference that the artist is compelled to make his talent important.”
― James Baldwin
19.
“Our passion for categorization, life neatly fitted into pegs, has led to an unforeseen, paradoxical distress, confusion, a breakdown of meaning.”
― James Baldwin
20.
“At the rate things are going here, all of Africa will be free before we can get a lousy cup of coffee.”
― James Baldwin
21.
“America sometimes resembles, at least from the point of view of a black man, an exceedingly monotonous minstrel show; the same dances, same music, same jokes. One has done (or been) the show so long that one can do it in one’s own sleep.”
― James Baldwin
Conclusion
James Baldwin notes of a native son quotes are the work of a genius. In this collection of essays, you will find the great American writer’s ideas on race, gender, politics, and the state of the world.
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