There are many links in here that should give you some context and ideas.
http://www.google.com/search?q=james+baldwin+rethink+freedom&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
When you get YOUR COMMENTS written up, please repost if you would like someone here to critique your thinking.
=)
Comment on what James Baldwin said of the Civil rights movement challenging the Unites States to rethink “What it really means by freedom, including whether freedom, applied to all Americans or only to part of the population.
3 answers
Knowing Baldwin's tortured life, it may be apt to wonder what he meant by freedom. Perhaps it was freedom from within, the freedom to escape from torture and persecution from ones own devils. If you ever have been associated with the insane, you have an inkling of what I mean. Specifically, Edward Allen Poe comes to mind. It is not uncommon for genius to come from tormented great minds, who often have one foot over the line that divides sanity from insanity.
As a note, in my own mind, I interpret Poe's The Raven in this light, his search to escape the devil of alcoholism and madness. Not many critics agree with me on this, but then, not many of them have fought alcoholism themselves. http://www.heise.de/ix/raven/Literature/Lore/TheRaven.html
And in my mind, a lot of Baldwin's works I see in this same light. Again, not many critics will agree with me entirely.
And in my mind, a lot of Baldwin's works I see in this same light. Again, not many critics will agree with me entirely.