Along with the vivid imagery, the teacher also acknowledges the similarities between the students, his brother and himself. The teacher in the story, much like Baldwin himself understands that the cycle of oppression and discrimination will temper the hopes of many his students. .
Baldwin grew up in New York City, as a young black homosexual. A city where racism was not only common place, for much of his life it was legal. With interracial marriage illegal until 1967 and same-sex marriage illegal until 2011, discrimination was inescapable. In America at least, Baldwin and many other black artists found reprieve in the "Harlem Renaissance" in Paris, France. In a 1964 interview Baldwin was asked if racism was universal, he answered:.
I think so, because, after all the doctrine of white supremacy did not begin in America, it began here in Europe, and doctrines have a terrible way of coming home to roost. It was a great shock in some ways to see signs in London saying 'Keep Britain White' all the terrible things they did in Paris during the Algerian war including graffiti saying 'Pas de bicots a Paris' (Pratt 4).
The belief that all majorities, especially those dominated by whites would become racist was not only held by Baldwin but my many of his Parisian ex-pats. When he relocated to France in 1948 Baldwin's focus shifted from the intellectual, where he had previously written for both The Nation and New Leader toward the creative as he found success as an essayist. .
Baldwin's first novel was published in 1953; Go Tell it on the Mountain, managed to catch the eye of some of the critics. "Go back to where you started," James Baldwin wrote, "or as far back as you can, examine all of it, travel your road again and tell the truth about it. Sing or shout or testify or keep it to yourself: but know whence you came"(12). Scholar Douglas Field noted "Baldwin was the son of a preacher and the grandson of a slave, and his voice continues to resonate 50 years after the publication of his first novel.
