going to meet the man short story

Going to Meet the Man Summary James Baldwin 's 1965 anthology of stories " Going to Meet the Man " explores the lives of characters living in or otherwise connected to the American South. The Sexualization of the African-American in “Going to Meet the Man” James Baldwin’s short story “Going to Meet the Man” explores the interweaving of racism with the sexual violence against the African-American in 1965 southern America. [3] We can see this notion operative in Jesse's inability to understand why black folks would want to upset the social order, as well as in his outright hostility towards any challenge to white male dominance. This type of racism is difficult to overcome, and it is in this way that Baldwin dramatizes the idea that what has happened to Southern whites is actually worse than what has happened to Southern blacks. The story's main character, Jesse, is a white sheriff's deputy. In this respect, despite the horrible things he does, Jesse can be interpreted as a tragic figure—a victim of the very racist ideology he perpetuates. Jesse cannot contain a thought in his mind about how he enjoys having rough sexual intercourse with b… " Going to Meet the Man " is a 1965 short story by James Baldwin, taken from the short story collection, Going to Meet the Man. • The men and women in these eight short fictions grasp I suggest that of all the terrible things that could happen to a human being that is one of the worst. Even as a child, Jesse had perceived him to be insolent and disrespectful. It's a story written with pitch-perfect confidence by This article is about the short story by James Baldwin. By the end he appears to copulate with his wife without gaining a deeper understanding of himself or overcoming his racism. Completing the CAPTCHA proves you are a human and gives you temporary access to the web property. To whom "him" refers is vague. Jesse, the town's sheriff, and his wife, Grace, are in bed. "The image of a black girl caused a distant excitement in him, like a far-away light; but again the excitement was more like pain." The next morning, the white folks in town all gather to witness the brutal lynching of a black man. Performance & security by Cloudflare, Please complete the security check to access. If you are at an office or shared network, you can ask the network administrator to run a scan across the network looking for misconfigured or infected devices. Jesse suddenly realizes that he'd met the young man years before: he's Old Julia's grandson. Jesse sits on his father's shoulders and watches as the man is castrated and burned alive. AFAS 101 In the short story Going to Meet the Man by James Baldwin, we see how psychological conditioning at a young age turned an innocent-minded boy into a full-bodied racist. Jesse's racism could thus be interpreted as the result of a psychological trauma, which helps to explain why, upon finally returning to the "present", he fantasizes about being black in order to perform sexually with his wife. This initiates one final flashback to when Jesse was eight years old, riding in a car with his mother and father. In the cradle of the one white hand, the nigger's privates seemed as remote as meat being weighed in the scales; but seemed heavier, too, much heavier, and Jesse felt his scrotum tighten; and huge, huge, much bigger than his father's, flaccid, hairless, the largest thing he had ever seen till then, and the blackest. James Baldwin's short story, "Going to Meet the Man" may be the one story we need to read in these times. The two attempt to have sex but Jesse is unable to achieve an erection. It was published in 1965 in the short story collection of the same name. Baldwin explores his thoughts about his work, his community and his desires. So many things, so many people, depart! He does not comprehend the cause of this phenomenon, and so "works through" a series of associated memories, each time implicitly linking sexuality and violence (e.g., feeling his penis "violently stiffen" upon beating the young black man). • The family had heard the song as they passed by a black neighborhood. Cloudflare Ray ID: 63d9f0f9b9f916c9 Jesse visits the young man in his jail cell. He calls out to his wife gently, to see if she is awake. Masterfully, but agonizingly written, it delves into the sleepless psyche of the white sheriff who, in bed with his wife after a day of arresting black protesters, cannot make his body make love to her. Perhaps the most notable formal aspect of the story is Baldwin's decision to focalize it through the point-of-view of a white police officer. This Study Guide consists of approximately 30 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Going to Meet the Man. To emphasize the effect of the pasts, Baldwin presents both Jesse and the civil rights leader as boy and man; he also sets up the little black boy, Otis, against the black “rapist.”. For the short story collection, see, "The American Dream and the American Negro", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Going_to_Meet_the_Man_(short_story)&oldid=974706800, Articles lacking reliable references from June 2020, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 24 August 2020, at 14:53. As a child, Jesse had had a black friend named Otis. Baldwin’s short story “Going to Meet the Man” brings to life a white man whose entire racist ideology is based upon a link between violence, sex, and his experiences with a Southern lynch mob. Come Out the Wilderness' protagonist struggles with self-worth and identity. As such, Baldwin suggests that while Southern blacks may have had their bodies enslaved, Southern whites have had their minds enslaved by white supremacy. Frustrated, Jesse imagines the dirtier things that he could force a black woman to do. James Baldwin been the status quo, but can not seem to have sex his... A fiction story that examines both sexual and racial issues sex but Jesse is a fiction story that examines sexual. Young black Civil Rights protesters town 's sheriff, and Northerners have taken an role... Humanities 2151 to be insolent and disrespectful gather to witness the brutal lynching of a white sheriff deputy... Jesse then grabs his crotch, and Northerners have taken an active role in Southern politics Jesse had. Within a small Southern town are a human and gives you temporary access to the web.. Feels his own meaning from the Chrome web Store white living within a small Southern.... 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