I have always felt "We are here on earth to add what we can to life, not to get what we can from it." This is contrary to life as it relates to James Baldwin essay "Notes of a Native Son"and John Edgar Wideman collection of Homewood stories "Our Time." Life as a Black Man in America has been overwhelming for both authors. James Baldwin, a writer, poet and a playwright tells of his fathers death and the family life preceding his fathers death; John Edgar Wideman went to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, and currently is a English Professor at the University of Massachutes at Amherst. Wideman writes about Robby his brother who is in prison for a robbery murder. Both men attempt to understand where they came from, who they are and, where they are going. Although the two have similarities in education and family discontent, they both continue to discursively reflect on what they perceived to be the real relationship with white and black in America. The variance comes when they address their experience and perspective on racial and social injustice. This essay will attempt to distinguish the commonalities of both writers and their difference. .
While neither man was a mainstream ghetto dwelling ruffian. They both were .
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extremely educated. As a child Baldwin saw that writing would be his task; and as an adult he used his literary works to speak as a Black Man in America. Through his novels and essays, he voiced his discontent on social injustices: James Edgar Wideman earned a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, and is currently a Professor at the University of Massachusetts, he won the PEM/Faulkner Award. Wideman is also a published author, an example of Wideman works is the Homewood Trilogy. The first of the series is "Our Time.".
In addition to the educated background that Baldwin and Wideman have in common; they both were mutually discontent with their environment.