“I left America because I doubted my ability to survive the fury of the color problem here. I wanted to prevent myself from becoming… merely a negro writer. I wanted to find in what way the specialness of my experience could be made to connect me with other people instead of dividing me from them” (Baldwin 46).

Baldwin thinks he hates America. I think that he is instead blinded by the constant discrimination he faced growing up in 1950’s New York. During all those years he just listened, and he was never taught how to deal with it all. When he realizes that putting distance between himself and the country he hates is a good idea, then he has started the road to recovery. At this point he is about to undergo a big psychological change, much like I’ve been doing during these past six months. I think that this change I have made, while a good distance away from home, is similar to the one Baldwin experienced before discovering his identity.

Baldwin couldn’t take the growing racial tensions in 1950�

We can reverse the analysis just as easily, and I can think about my life at school in the big picture. I can see that the difference between these two lives I’m living is not the way that I’m thinking, but the actions that I take. Being a student at Northeastern has opened my eyes to so many new and exciting things. The biggest of anything, I think is that I now realize that life is full of risks, and sometimes not taking a chance you could be missing one of the greatest moments of your life. Most of the time these risks aren’t nearly as bad as they sound, its just that you have to find the strength within you to know if you want to do it or not. In the end it’s all about the memories, and I want to make the most of it, because at the end of the day that’s all we’ve got.

While in France, Baldwin met other American writers that were there for the same reasons. This is when he realizes that regardless of their ancestor’s history, they are all Americans and they already know each other better than any European could. However, because he had been exposed to discrimination for as long as he was, the cuts ran deep. He was brought to the mountains of Switzerland, given two ‘Bessie Smith’ records and a typewriter. There he remained, in the absolutely alabaster landscape, until he could put all the pieces of his past back together in a way that made sense to him. (47)

�s America. “I was as isolated from negroes as I was from whites, which is what happens when a negro begins, at bottom, to believe what white people say about him” (46). He left for France in hopes of finding inspiration in a less discriminating place. I think that if he had remained in America, the country that he thought he hated, then it would destroy him before realized the deeper attachment he had to his country. I think there is an important lesson right here: You’ve got to live for the moment, otherwise you’ll never know what big opportuni

Some topics in this essay:
Americans European, James Baldwin, France Europe, Europe Baldwin, France Baldwin, Baldwin Yorker, Truth Distance, grand plans, life risks, true identity, americans european, living home, james baldwin,