James Baldwin and Alice Walker, both wrote about and lived through problems concerning African Americans in the 1900's. These problems affected them on global and local levels. Baldwin wrote in "Notes of a Native Son- about his struggles with the hatred that surrounded and almost eventually consumed him. Baldwin uses a personal account of his life and well-known history he lived through to tell his story. Baldwin is not only conflicting with the white society but also with black society and what it means to be black at that time. Walker's argument is that African American women all have these beautiful unique creative abilities, but because of the ethnicity they were born to they are not often seen. Walker proves her argument through various different types of evidence, including poems and personal. Baldwin's and Walker's styles of writing help to contribute to the diversity in their writings. Although they both are very talented writers, Baldwin's evidence seems more real, because it is coming directly from him, not this "he said- "she said- writing that Walker likes to use. .
Baldwin's evidence is very personal. Since "Notes of a Native Son- is a personal account of his life, the entire writing is essentially evidence. The majority of his evidence is personal inside his family life. "I had not known my father very well. We had got on badly, partly because we shared, in our different fashions, the vice of stubborn pride."" His father plays a huge role in his paper because he saw how bitter and tormented hatred had made this man and feared it would also happen to him. Throughout the course of this paper he learns and experiences why his father had been consumed by hatred. This helps him to gain an understanding for his father and let go of the feeling which he thought was hate, for this man and personally grow and become a better person, by not allowing himself to be consumed by the hatred.