(855) 4-ESSAYS

Type a new keyword(s) and press Enter to search

Stranger in the Village by James Baldwin

            Being a stranger in the village, to most people, is a terminology to be out of the crowd and lost in the community around you. In James Baldwin's essay "Stranger in the village" he is walking through a Swiss village where he believes no other black man has every walked before. Everywhere he goes the villagers are watching him and examining his every step. He is an oddity and a new member among their ranks. He is always asked questions about himself and the change in his skin. There are moments when he no longer believes he exist in the community. There are points when he was to leave. There are points when he no longer belongs. This is my "Stranger in the Village." In the corner of my old memories lay to rest my days as a brand new 6th grader. I in a brand new world. Not only was it a different school district it was the beginning to the worst 3 years of every kid's childhood. I'm talking puberty, 6 classes instead of 1, no more recess, and the pressure of dating starts. But before I go into details you need some insight of how I got to this point.
             My parents got divorced my 3rd grade year while I was at Cedar Wood Elementary School. Although that's when they stopped loving together the divorce was not finalized till a while after. My dad and I lived with my grandparents and continued going to my first elementary school Totem falls elementary. After my 5th grade year my dad got a pay raise and told me we were moving out and getting our own place and I got to choose the school. Now I can continue with the rest of my story. I ended up choosing Gateway Middle School home of the Guardians over in Mill Creek. My dad and I ended up moving into a house down the street from Cedar Wood Elementary which was reasonably close to Gateway. My 6th grade year started with me walking into the gym and being astounded by the sheer number of kids that where there sitting in the bleachers. I walked in and sat down on an empty row with my dad.


Essays Related to Stranger in the Village by James Baldwin

1. Stranger in the Village by James Baldwin

"Stranger in the Village" is an essay he wrote documenting his encounter while visiting a tiny Swiss village that is approximately "four hours away from Milan" (Baldwin, 165). ... In the essay "Stranger in the Village," Baldwin expresses his feelings of loneliness and being out of place in a tiny Swiss village, and compares it to black men's general feelings of being a stranger in an unfamiliar world created by white men. ... Baldwin lectures that black people are strangers in the white man's world. ... He deliberates the reason for this inconsistency; B...

  • Word Count: 1313
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

2. Biography of James Baldwin

August 2, 2014: it was James Baldwin's birthday. ... James Baldwin left Paris and came to Leukerbad for the first time in 1951. ... He wrote something else, too, an essay called "Stranger in the Village"; it was this essay, even more than the novel, that brought me to Leukerbad. "Stranger in the Village" first appeared in Harper's Magazine in 1953, and then in the essay collection "Notes of a Native Son," in 1955. ... "From all available evidence no black man had ever set foot in this tiny Swiss village before I came," Baldwin wrote. ...

  • Word Count: 1342
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Grade Level: High School

3. James Baldwin

The Works of James Baldwin We are responsible for the world in which we find ourselves, if only because we are the only forces that can change it. James Baldwin was born in Harlem on August 2, 1924. ... "After the death of his stepfather, he returned to New York where he settled in Greenwich Village, and was determined to concentrate on his writing" (World Book Encyclopedia, pg. 31). ... The essay Stranger in the Village has been much collected; it reported on the author's unique experience of being the first black man encountered by a small Swiss village, and it became the instr...

  • Word Count: 2618
  • Approx Pages: 10
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

Got a writing question? Ask our professional writer!
Submit My Question