society and challenged readers to confront and resolve these differences.

Born in Harlem, New York in 1924, Baldwin had a relatively unhappy childhood. He grew up under harsh and struggling conditions in a very poor part of town. James grew up as the first of nine children. He learned he was not only poor and black but the ugliest child his stepfather had ever seen, with a weak body and pop eyes. Because of his looks he was given the nickname frogeyes. To make it even worse, Baldwin was also left handed!

Knowing he was ugly, Baldwin grew up very defensive about his appearance. He was always around drunks as well as many other groups with different ethnic backgrounds such as Finns, Jews, Poles, and West Indians.

When Baldwin was eighteen years old he left Harlem. He never returned except for brief visits. As a writer Baldwin never actually left. Much of his writing still focused on the problems in the United States. Moving to Paris, in 1948, he used the funds from the Rosewald Foundation Fellowship money to pay for his trip. When he arrived, he had only forty dollars in his pocket. He spent most of his life here, and was soon appointed commander of the Legion of Honor by the French Government. During the time he spent there, Baldwin wrote and published many of his best works. He found readers of every race and ethnic background. Baldwin started writing as one of the many ways that he

Critics hailed Giovanni’s Room as a novel which Baldwin used to express his homosexuality. The novel became controversial because he was one of the first black writers to discuss homosexuality in a novel. This novel was set in Paris and is the story of a disastrous affair between a white American student and an Italian bartender. It is a novel about a young man’s search for his sexual identity. Through the use of flashbacks, the reader is first introduced to David, now living in France. He grew up in Brooklyn with his father and his father’s sister, Ellen. David’s mother died when he was five years old. His

This novel showed that a negro novelist could successfully take out elements of race from his works, if not from his life. Much of this novel is told in the first person. Baldwin tries to use theater as a pulpit for his ideas. Mainly his plays are talky, over-written, and cliché dialogue and some tereotypes, preachy and argumentative. Baldwin is not dramatic, but sometimes irritating as a playwright about his approach to life(qtd. in Riley 41). Many critics stated that Baldwin’s use of the flashback is old fashioned and dull (Riley 42).

Some topics in this essay:
Clinton School, South France, Mister Charlie, David Baldwin, African American, Life Baldwin, Harlem York, Throughout Baldwin’s, Joey David’s, Assembly Preaching, civil rights, blues mister, baldwin wrote, blues mister charlie, mister charlie, dewitt clinton school, throughout novel, readers race, found readers, baldwin dramatic, children mother, whites blacks, found readers race,