{"id":160,"date":"2021-02-28T23:17:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-01T04:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/?p=160"},"modified":"2021-02-28T23:17:01","modified_gmt":"2021-03-01T04:17:01","slug":"baldwins-better-argument","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/2021\/02\/28\/baldwins-better-argument\/","title":{"rendered":"Baldwin’s Better Argument"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In his essay \u201cEverybody\u2019s Protest Novel,\u201d James Baldwin critiques Uncle Tom\u2019s Cabin<\/em> and makes a compelling argument for why it is a protest novel. He explains the dangers of its sentimentality and unrealistic characterization, and because of his strong rhetoric, I agree with his position. Baldwin outlines how Uncle Tom\u2019s Cabin<\/em> denies the complexity of the truth by focusing solely on convincing the reader that slavery is wrong. He details how the book fails to explain what motivated white people to commit such atrocities. In doing so, Baldwin provides strong evidence for his contention that Uncle Tom\u2019s Cabin <\/em>is a protest novel and thus, is \u201cforgiven, on the strength of [its] good intentions, whatever violence [it does] to language, whatever excessive demands [it makes] of credibility\u201d (18). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Baldwin\u2019s essay only ever addresses Native Son <\/em>in its final two pages. He gives himself very little room to support his claims with examples and to elaborate upon his comparisons, as he does with Stowe\u2019s book. As a result, his assessment of Wright\u2019s work as a protest novel is less persuasive than it could be, diminishing the strength of his argument. Baldwin alleges that Native Son<\/em> is \u201ca complement of that monstrous legend it was written to destroy\u201d (22). However, he does not show us why that is. The only support he offers this comparison is his assertion that Bigger must \u201cbattle for his humanity\u201d (23). In his view, this battle defines Native Son <\/em>as a protest novel, since such works deny the humanity of its characters by adhering to the importance of their categorization instead. At that point, Baldwin ends his essay. He does not support his claim that Bigger is battling for his humanity, but rather assumes that point, and he fails to provide a reason why the existence of that supposed battle renders Native Son <\/em>a protest novel. He writes that \u201cwe need not battle for [our humanity]; we need only\u2026 to accept it\u201d (23). If Baldwin explained the difference between battling for humanity and learning to accept it; if he showed how Wright\u2019s work is the former and not the latter; and if he clarified why the battle itself constitutes a rejection of humanity, then his argument would be improved. Instead, he leaves the reader with every opportunity to question it.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In his essay \u201cEverybody\u2019s Protest Novel,\u201d James Baldwin critiques Uncle Tom\u2019s Cabin and makes a compelling argument for why it is a protest novel. He explains the dangers of its sentimentality and unrealistic characterization, and because of his strong rhetoric, I agree with his position. Baldwin outlines how Uncle Tom\u2019s Cabin denies the complexity of … Continue reading Baldwin’s Better Argument<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3914,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[471414],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-native-son"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3914"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":161,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160\/revisions\/161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}