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Comparison of Baldwin and Conley

            Although writers of different periods with different experiences, both James Baldwin and Dalton Conley wrote helpful and informative novels which both express the hardships of oppression, racism, and segregation. Baldwin's The Fire Next Time characterizes the isolationism that people of color are subjects of by showing that colored people are not accepted in the 1960s society. Conley's Honky illustrates the isolationism that he as a white person feels while living in a largely poor black and Hispanic neighborhood in the 1960s and 70s. However, while Baldwin believes and shows that most of white America commits the "crime of innocence" by which he means being oblivious to the reality that there is segregation, racism, and hatred, Conley shows by living in a neighborhood as the sole white family that most of white America does not commit the crime of innocence and simply sees other races as individuals instead of the labels that society has given us. Baldwin delivers the point that white America cannot escape the crime of unawareness to justify the biased society that we live in whereas Conley indirectly shows that the unawareness that he displays is not a crime and should not be considered one.
             Baldwin suggests in his novel that we cannot change our society because most white people believe they are "innocent" and do not address the issues we face. He says in the first pages of his novel that "it is not permissible that the authors of devastation should also be innocent. It is the innocence which constitutes the crime" (Baldwin 6). The authors of devastation he refers to are the countrymen who founded America. Racism and segregation to Baldwin are not talked about amongst white people. Although the problem is there, the white people avoid it because they believe that they are "innocent" of it. But Baldwin says that they are not excused of the crime. There is also a parallel in Lillian Roybal Rose's "Impacts of Racism on White Americans" that says "the inability of the nontarget group to "see" the problem continues to have an inadvertent impact on the lives of the target group" (Rose 36).


Essays Related to Comparison of Baldwin and Conley

1. Honky - Dalton Conley

"Honky," by Dalton Conley, tells the story of a young man who must come to terms with his whiteness in an African-American/Latino ghetto. ... In the case of this memoir, Dalton Conley's skin color proves a difficult life he must face in the racially tense climate of New York City in the 1970's and 80's. ... He says, "I even tried to get into fights in that school," he writes, "fights I knew I would lose; I wanted to feel the relief of being struck" (Conley 46). ... Conley's experiences growing up in New York City allow him to see how race and ethnicity operates in Amer...

  • Word Count: 1008
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2. James Baldwin

JAMES BALDWIN Losing a father figure and learning how to go on differently then what he has taught you, or what you have learned is in fact a tough thing to do. In Notes of a Native Son, James Baldwin looks at whatever he can gather up about his father who past away. ". . . He was, I think, very h...

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3. The Life and Influence of James Baldwin

Otherwise, Baldwin was influenced by poet T. ... Baldwin used essays to examine race relations. ... In "Baldwin's Harlem: A Biography of James Baldwin," Herb Boyd shares Baldwin's love of black people, writing, Paris and pure curiosity about life. He does not attempt to expand on earlier biographical accounts but instead focuses on the Baldwin's relationship to Harlem, where Baldwin was born in 1924, "what home meant to Baldwin and what it meant for and to Baldwin to call Harlem home" (Smith 238). ... Emphasis is given to a comparison of the book "Another Cou...

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4. Cain and Abel and Sonny's Blues - A Comparison

Mosher's piece discusses the significance of Baldwin's allusion to the biblical text, Isaiah 51:17-22, in the final scene of "Sonny's Blue's." ... Murray's writing emphasizes how Baldwin's use of light and darkness contributes to his goal of depicting man's struggle to find identity. It references many subtle clues in Baldwin's writing that points to the communal despair of the characters and their surroundings. ... Thereby, drawing close similarities between Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues" and the biblical account of Cain and Abel. ... They highlig...

  • Word Count: 543
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5. James Baldwin

To make it even worse, Baldwin was also left handed! ... James Baldwin grew up with his mother, Berdis Jones, and his stepfather, David Baldwin. ... David Baldwin was very enthusiastic about religion. ... As a writer Baldwin never actually left. ... In 1955, Baldwin wrote Giovanni's Room. ...

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6. James Baldwin

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  • Word Count: 1677
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7. Stranger in the Village by James Baldwin

"This world is white no longer, and it will never be white again" (Baldwin, 170). ... James Baldwin was a civil rights activist in America; not only did he fight for "the injustice system of racism, but also the rampant homophobia and ant-intellectualism" (Baldwin, 165). ... Baldwin lectures that black people are strangers in the white man's world. ... Baldwin writes, "the American Negro slave is unique among the black men of the world in that his past was taken from him, almost literally, at one blow" (Baldwin 168). ... Baldwin writes, "This world is no...

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8. Respose to Baldwin

-James Baldwin- Baldwin makes the above statement in his essay, "The Fire Next Time." ... This lack of personal growth is what Baldwin is referring to when he states that they can "never grow up." ... Baldwin goes on to say, "That man who is forced each day to snatch his manhood, his identity, out of the fire of human cruelty...knows, if he survives his effort, and even if he does not survive it, something about self and human life that no school on earth - and, indeed, no church - can teach." ...

  • Word Count: 805
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9. James Baldwin - Notes of a Native Son

Baldwin regrets not having chances to talk to his father when alive. ... Baldwin replies he would rather write. ... Baldwin recognizes there is a chance he might become like his father, and this scares him. ... It is another issue which arises in Baldwin's mind. ... Finally, Baldwin concludes that "blackness and whiteness did not matter" , for a lesson was learnt through his father's death. ...

  • Word Count: 943
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