What It Means to Be an American by James Baldwin
Directions: Read the essay while answering the following questions below using short paragraph answers. Pease leave your answers in this outline format. Cut-and-paste the outline format into a document, then simply type your answers into the outline. 1. What is the main idea, or thesis, you feel the writer is advancing? HINT: It will likely not be an obvious, single sentence. You will likely have to paraphrase it in a few sentences. 2. Interesting thought the writer uses to address his/her topic: a) Identify a specific idea the writer uses to address his/her topic that caught your attention. b) Explain that idea in your own language. c) Why do you think the writer is using this idea to advance his/her main idea? 3. Curious language (words and phrases you find unique, confusing, and/or worth mentioning): a) Choose three (3) words and/or phrases, then explain each with a definition. b) Write a brief note how understanding the word or phrase helped you understand the larger idea(s) in the essay. 4. Names of people mentioned in the reading, if any, important to the ideas in the writing. a) What makes the person mentioned important to the idea(s) in the writing? b) What specifically about the person, or his or her ideas, is significant to the direct meaning of the paragraph in which you found the person? 5. Background information: a) Name a specific piece of background information that you feel is important to know about the author as it relates to the reading. b) What is significant about this piece of information in regards to the idea(s) in the writing. 6. Critical thinking questions: a) What brings James Baldwin to live in Europe? b) What does he find in himself about being an American by spending time in Paris? c) Near the end of the essay Baldwin write, “This is a personal day, a terrible day, the day to which his entire sojourn has been tending.” Why do you think he calls the realization he has a “personal, terrible day”? What makes what he realizes so “terrible”?
Critical Reading Journal: The Discovery of What It Means to Be an American” by James Baldwin
Name
Course
Instructor
Date
What is the main idea, or thesis, you feel the writer is advancing? HINT: It will likely not be an obvious, single sentence. You will likely have to paraphrase it in a few sentences.
The main idea is that understanding self identity is like journey, as Baldwin is surprised after forming relationships white American citizens in Paris, something that would have been nearly impossible back in the U.S. It also chronicles the difficulties of finding the role African American writers in a white dominated society. 2. Interesting thought the writer uses to address his/her topic: a) Identify a specific idea the writer uses to address his/her topic that caught your attention./>
Baldwin mentions that the place of writers in Europe is well respected, but people in European societies have a more static status. The author mentions that “Europeans have lived with the idea of status for a long time,” (Baldwin, 1959).
b) Explain that idea in your own language.
It is possible for people in various social statuses in the arts world to interact more often in Europe unlike in America. c) Why do you think the writer is using this idea to advance his/her main idea?
The writer uses this idea to emphasize the contrasts between America and Europe on the role of writers and artists in the society, and how this allowed him to appreciate his identity better. 3. Curious language (words and phrases you find unique, confusing, and/or worth mentioning): a) Choose three (3) words and/or phrases, then explain each with a definition.
Ability to survive the fury of the color problem- this means the furious struggle caused by racial discrimination in the US.
A writer, when he has made his first breakthrough, has simply won a cruel skirmish – this means that writing is a never ending battle.
The waiter does not feel, with obscure resentment- this means that it would be incomprehensible to feel bitter
b) Write a brief note how understanding the word or phrase helped you understand the larger idea(s) in the essay.
Fury of the color- this allowed me to conceptualize the writer’s struggle to understand his identity from a historical perspective.
Skirmish – this illustrated that the profession of writing is fraught with challenges even for other Americans in Europe, and hence self discovery is a journey.
Obscure resentment- these words lay emphasis on difference between Europe and America, whereby even a waiter has respect for writers and has no reason to look down upon the profession that is part of an honorable tradition.
4. Names of people mentioned in the reading, if any, importan...