CONSULTANTS Robert E. Beck, English Consultant Jin Swett Unified Shoe Dire Croke, Calera Sharon L. Belshaw, English Instructor Hopkins Jonioe High Shoo! Fremont, California Mary Gloyne Byler, Consultant Asociation on American Indian AfEirs New York, New York Kenneth L. Chambers, Asst. Professor Black Studies Deparment Wellley Callege Wellesley, Masachusets Barbara Z. Chasen Instructional Sopport Team, Boston Public Schools orton, Masachasetts Paula Grier, Education Consultant Intercultural Development Research Asocation San Antonio, Teass Nicolés Kanellos, Editor Revita Chicons-Rigucia University of Houston Houston, Texas University of Hawai t Manow Honolao, Hawait American Literature MTV REG 136754 8108 P8332 Porter, Andrew J ‘American literature / in 3 3438 00017 4170 Andrew J. Porter, Jr Great Neck High School, N.Y. Henry L. Terrie, Jr Darmouth Colge Robert A. Bennett 436754 Ginn and CompanyAcknowledgments Geatefal acknowledgment is made tothe following publisher, auon, and gen fr permis tw and adapt copyighed Doubleday &e Company, Inc, forthe excerpt fram "Foreword" and "Speach to the General Court" by John Winthrop which ‘ppeated in The American Puritanc: Thee Prose and Pocery by Perry Miller. Copyright © 1956 by Pecry Miller. Reprinted by permission ‘of Doubleday & Company, Ine. Abo for “The Waking” copyright 1983 by Theodore Roethke from The Collced Poem of Theodore [Rowhke, Reprinted by permision of Doubleday & Company, Inc ‘Alba for the poems “I Hear America Singing," "A Novseless Patent Spider," “One's Sef Sng," and “There War a Child Went Forth” from Lee of Gras by Walt Whitman. Farrar, Ser & Grou Ine, for “The Prison” fom The Mie Bare by Beroard Malamixl. Copyright © 1950 by Bervard Mala- ‘mad, Copyright renewed © 1978 by Bernard Malamd. Alto for "At the Fuhouss”feom Complete Perms by Elizabeth Bishop. Copy right © 1947, 1969 by Elizabeth Bishop. Also forthe poem “Mos dan fom The Blue Euuarits by Lovite Bogan, Copyright © 1923, 1928, 1930, 1951, 1933, 1954, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1941, 1949, 1951, 1952, 195s, 1957, 1958, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968 by Louise Bogan. Also for the poem “Water” from For the Union ‘Dead by Robert Lowell. Copyright © 1962 by Robert Lowel All eprinted by permision of Farrar, Straus & Gout, Ine Harcouet Brace Jovanovich, Ine, forthe excerpr fom A Waler in the City copyright 1951, 1979 by Alfred Kazin, Reprinted by pesmision of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, inc, lko for "The Life ‘You Save May Be Your Own” by Flannery O'Connor. Copyright 1953 by Flannery O'Connor. Reprinted from her volume A’ Goad (Man 1s Hard te Fad and Other Stories by peemision af Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. Also for “The jilting of Granny Weatherall” bby Katherine Anne Porter. Copyright 1930, 1958 by Katherine Anne Porter. Reprinted from her volume Flowering Judas end Other Stories by permision of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, In. Alo for three poems by EE. Cummings: “maggie and milly and molly and say’ 1956, by EE. Cummings, "M=Copyright 1950, by EF. Cummings, and “I(s"=© 1958 by EE. Cummings ll reprinted from bir volume Conplee Pocms 1913-1962 by permision of Harcourt Brae Jovanovich, Inc. Also for "Chicago" from Chicago Pons by Carl Ssndburg, copyright 1918 by Holt, Rinchase and ‘Winton, Ines copyright 1984 by Carl Sandburg” Reprinted by permision of Harenort Brace Jovanovich, In. Alo forthe pon "The people wil ive on” ftom Te People, Yes by Carl Sandburg, ‘copyright 1936 by Harcourt Brae Jovanovich Ines copyright 1964 by Carl Sandburg. Reprinted by permision of the publishers, Also for "New Face” by Alice Walker. From Revolutionary Petunis ard ther Poons, copyright © 1973 by Alice Walker. Reprinced by pemision of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Ine, Also for “The Beantifal Changes” by Richard Wilbur. From The Besutifl Changes tnd Other Paes, eopysighe 1947, 1975 by Richard Wilbur. Re= ponted by permision of Harcourt Brace Jovanovic, Ine Harper & Row, Pablihets, Ine, forthe abridgment of “Secing” Som Pili at Tier Cec by Annie Dillacd. Copyright © 1974 by ‘Ansie Dillard Alo for the excerpt abridged fou pp. 11-40 in Duct “Tucks on a Road by Zora Neale Harson. (J. B. Lippincott) Copyright 1942 by Zora Neale Hosrston; renewed 1970 by John C. Huston. Alb for “Night Chant/Blessing Way" from the Navaho fiom pp. 146-147 in Howe Male of Dawn by N, Scott Momadsy Copyright © 1966, 1967, 1968 by N. Scott Momaday. Alko for reedon” July, 1940-—in One Man's Mew by EB. White, Copy right 1940, 1968 by EB. White. Alo for “The Man Who Sow the Flood” by Richard Wright. Copycight 1937 by Weekly Mats Co, Ine. fom Bight Men by Richard Weighe (1961) (World Publishing Co}. Also for “Our Town” fiom Our Town: A Play in Thee Acs by Thornton Wilder. Copyright © 1938, 1957 by Thornton Wilder. [Ako for the poem “Life for my child simple, and is good” fom ‘The Worl of Gwvendaln Broke by Gwendolyn Brooks. Copyright 1849 by Gwendolyn Brooks Blakely. Also forthe poem “Truth” fiom The Wor of Gives Bros (1971) by Gwendolyn Brook Copyright, 148 by Gwendolyn Brooks Blakely. Alto forthe poor “From the Dark Tower" in On Those I Stend by Countee Callen, Copyright 1927 by Harper & Row, Publishers, Ins renewed 1955, by Ida M. Cullen. All reprinced by permission of Harper & Row, Publishers, fn. Holt, Rincharcand Winston for the excerpt from The Bluest Eye by Toni Mocrson. Copyright © 1970 by Tom Morrison. Reprinted by permission of Holt, Rinchart nd Winston, Publishers. Also for "Birches" “Deparmental,” "The Gift Ouwight,” and "Stopping by Woods on a Showy Evening,” all from The Poomy of Ralte Fst «edited by Edward Connery Lathem. Copyright 1916, 1923, ©1969 bby Holt, Rinchart and Winston. Copyright 1936, 1942, 1944, 1951 bby Robert Frat, Copyright © 1964, 1970 by Lesley Frost Ballantine. Reprinted by permision of Holt, Rinchart and Winston, Publish- Houghton Miflin Company forthe poor "Partemsfiom The Couple Pectcal Works of Any Lowell published by Houghton Miflin Company. Copyright 1955 by Houghton Miffin Company. [Reprinted by permission. Also for the poam “Courage” fora The ‘Aufl Roving toward Cad by Anne Sexton published by Houghton Miffin Company. Copyright © 1995 by Loring Conans, J. Re~ ited by permision, Lice, Brown and Company for “After great psn, » formal feeling comes” from The Complete Paes of Evly Dickinson edited by Thomas H. Johnson. Copyright 1929 by Martha Dickinson Adnouladonens consi an page 750 © Cepyrih, 1981 by Ginn and Company (Xerox Corporation) AIIRighs Reserved ‘Home Office: Lexington, Massachusetts 02173 0-663-37172-4poh The Creative Individual James Baldwin (1924—_) grew up in the Harlem section of New York City. Like many American writers before him, how- gver, he went to Paris to work out his rela~ tionship to himself and his country. In Paris hhe completed the first of many novels, Go Tall It on the Mountain, which was published in 1953. Some of Baldwin’s other novels are: Giovanni's Room (1956), Another Coun- try (1962), and most recently Just Above My Head (1979). Though he is 2 leading con- temporary writer, Baldwin is perhaps best The Creative Dilemma JAMES BALDWIN ERHAPS THE PRIMARY distinc- Pp tion of the artist is that he must ac tively cultivate that state which most men, necessarily, must avoid: the state of being ‘alone. That all men are, when the chips arc down, alone, is a banality—a banality because itis very frequently stated, but very rarely, on the evidence, believed. Most of us are not compelled to linger with the knowledge of our aloneness, for it is a knowledge that can paralyze all action in this world. There are, forever, swamps to be drained, cities to be cre- ated, mines to be exploited, children to be fed. Nore of these things can be done alone. But the conquest of the physical world is not man’s only duty. He is also enjoined to conquer the great wilderness of himself. The precise role of known as a literary critic and social com- mentator, Baldwin describes himself as a “public witness” to the situation of Blacks in Amer- ica. His collections of essays, Notes of a Native Son (1955), Nobody Knows My Name (1961), The Fire Next Time (1963), and No Name in the Street (1972), attest to his skill as a witness. In “The Creative Dilemma,” included here he presents the case for soci- ety’s need of the critical artist the artist, then, is to illuminate that darkness, blaze roads through that vast forest, so that we will not, in all our doing, lose sight of its pur- pose, which is, after all, to make the world a more human dwelling place. ‘The state of being alone is not meant to bring to mind merely a rustic musing beside some silver lake. The aloneness of which I speak is much more like the aloneness of bisth or death. It is like the fearful aloneness that one sees in the eyes of someone who is suffering, whom we cannot help. Or it is like the alone ness of love, the force and mystery that so many have extolled and so many have cursed, but which no one has ever understood or ever really been able to control, I put the matter this way, not out of any desire to create pity 4for the artist—God forbid!—but to suggest how nearly, after all, is his state the state’ of qveryone, and in an attempt to make vivid his crdeavor, The states of birth, suffering, love, snd death are extreme states—extreme, uni= wersal, and inescapable. We all know this, but Wve would rather not know it. The artist is present to correct the delusions to which we fill prey in our attempts fo avoid this knowl- edge. ‘tis for this reason that all societies have battled with that incorrigible disturber of the peace-—the artist. T doubt that farure societies Pl get on with him any better. The entire purpose of society is to create a bulwark Egainst the inner and the outer chaos, in order to make life bearable and to keep the human rece alive. And it is absolutely inevitable that Sthen a tradition has been evolved, whatever the tradition is, the people, in general, will suppose it to have existed from before the be= ginning of time and will be most unwilling oad indeed unable to conceive of any changes in it. They do not know how they will live Without those traditions that have given them their identity. Their reaction, when it is sug gested that they can or that chey must, is panic. Sind we see this panic, I think, everywhere in the world today, from the streets of New Or- Jeane to the grisly battleground of Algeria. ‘Anda higher level of consciousness among the people is the only hope we have, now or in the fature, of minimizing human damage. The artist is distinguished from all other responsible actors in society—the politicians, Jegislators, educators, and scientists by the fact that he is his own test tube, his own labora~ tory, working according to very rigorous rules, however unstated these may be, and can- ot allow any consideration to supersede his responsibility to reveal all that he can possibly discover concerning the mystery of the human T Algeria: Baldwin refers to the fahting then taking ples in the colonial French North Alican country during the febelion against France: po being. Society must accept some things as reals but he must always know that visible reality hides a deeper one, and that all our action and achievement rests on things unseen. A society must assume that it is stable, but the artist must | Know, and he must let us know, that there is nothing stable under heaven. One cannot pos Sibly build a school, teach a child, or drive a car without taking some things for granted. ‘The artist cannot and must not take anything for granted, but must drive to the heart of every answer and expose the question the an- swer hides. T seem to be making extremely grandilo- quent claims for a breed of men and women Historically despised while living and acy Claimed when safely dead. But, in a way, the belated honor that all societies tender their art- ists proves the reality of the point I am trying to make. Lam really trying to make clear the nature of the artist’s responsibility to his soci- tty. The peculiar nature of this responsibility fg chat he must never cease warring with it, for its sake and for his own. For the truth, in spite of appearances and all our hopes, is that every thing is always changing and the measure of ur maturity as nations and as men is how well prepared we are to meet these changes and, further, to use them for our health. ‘Now, anyone who has ever been compelled to think about it—anyone, for example, who thas ever been in love—knows that the one face that one can never see is one’s own face. One’s Jover—-or one’s brother, or one’s enemy—sees the face you wear, and this face can elicit the most extraordinary reactions. We do the things we do and feel what we feel essentially because we must—we are responsible for our actions, but we rarely understand them. Tt goes ‘without saying, I believe, that if we under~ Stood ourselves better, we would damage our~ selves less, But the barrier between oneself and one’s knowledge of oneself is high indeed There are so many things one would rather not know! We become social creatures becausewe cannot live any other way. But in order to Tome social, there are a great many other things that we must not become, and we are frightened, all of us, of those forces within ns that perpetually menace our precarious secur rity. Yet the forces are there; we cannot will hom away. All we can do is learn to live with them. And we cannot learn this unless we aré rling to tell the truth, about ourselves, and vaeteach about us is always at variance with ‘what we wish to be. The human effort is to bring these two realities into a relationship resembling reconciliation. The human beings vem we respect the most, after all—and wemetimes fear the most—are those who aré sore deeply. involved in this delicate and mae ruows effort, for they have the unshakable stthority that comes only from having looked on and endured and survived the worst. That ation is healthiest which has the least neces- Sity to distrust or ostracize or vietimize these people—whom, as I say, we honor, once they Pre gone, because somewhere in our hearts we Know that we cannot live without them. “The dangers of being an American artist are not greater than those of being an artist any- vchere else in the world, but they are very par= Healar, These dangers are produced by our history. They rest on the fact that im order to conquer this continent, the particular alone tress of which I speak—the aloneness in which Bhe discovers that life is tragic, and therefore Gnutterably beautifal—could not be permit aay and that this prohibition is typical of all emergent nations will be proved, I have no Goube, in many ways during the next fifty OK MeN HYears. This continent now is conquered, but Mir habits and our fears romain. And, in the same way that to become a social human being She modifies and suppresses and, ultimately, Suithout great courage, lies to oneself about all ‘one’s interior, ‘uncharted chaos, so have we, as ¢ nation, modified and suppressed and lied bout all the darker forces in our history. We know, in the case of the person, that whoever cannot tell himself the truth about his past is trapped in it, is immobilized in the prison of his undiscovered self. This is also true of na- tions. We know how a person, in such a patal= ysis, is unable to assess either his weaknesses or his strengths, and how frequently indeed he mistakes the one for the other. And this, 1 think, we do. We are the strongest nation in Discussion 1 2. In Baldwin's view, why does society tend to reject According to Baldw' ‘Why is the artist especially PéF the Western world, but this is not for the rea~ sons that we think, It is because we have an opportunity that no other nation has of mov~ ing beyond the Old World concepts of race and class and caste, to create, finally, what we must have had in mind when we first began speaking of the New World. But the price of this is a long look backward whence we came and an unflinching assessment of the record. For an artist, the record of that journey is most cleatly revealed in the personalities of the peo- pple the journey produced. Societies never know it, but the war of an artist with his soci- ety is a lover's war, and he does, at his best, what lovers do, which is to reveal the beloved to himself and, with that revelation, to make freedom real in, what is the role of the artist in society? qualified for that role? the artist? Why js it important nevertheless for the artist to insist on playing a part in society? 3, What is Baldwin's explanation for the fact that artists are not usu- ally honored during their lifetimes? 4. Why does Baldwin say that the artist 5, What, then, is the creative dilemma of the artist? How is the rela tionship between an artist and society described? has a special role in America? Summarize Baldwin's esay in your own words. Be sure to include each of his points. Conclude with a statement on whether or not you agree with his position on the artist's role in society and why Composition 1 2, Baldwin makes this statement in “The Creative Dilemma”: “We Know, in the case of the person, that whoever cannot tell himself {herself} the truth about his (her] past is trapped in it, is immobi- lized in the prison of his [her] undiscovered self.” Write a descrip- tive narrative of a situation, either real or imaginary, which supports this statement, Be sure to describe the past and tell how it trapped the person. Tell how an examination of the past provided a release. Conclude by relating this situation to the theme of The Individual.