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James BaldwinA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
“John stared at Elisha all during the lesson, admiring the timbre of Elisha’s voice, much deeper and manlier than his own, admiring the leanness, and grace, and strength, and darkness of Elisha in his Sunday suit, wondering if he would ever be holy as Elisha was holy.”
John is confused about his attraction to Elisha, so he subconsciously projects a religious quality onto his admiration for the older boy. Rather than simply being attracted to a kind and gentle man, John wants to believe that he is attracted to Elisha because Elisha is holy. He fears that he is a sinner, so being attracted to Elisha for religious reasons is preferable to the truth. John frames his anxious thoughts in religious terms so that he can cast doubt on the reality of his emerging sexuality.
“There had never been a time when John had not sat watching the saints rejoice with terror in his heart, and wonder.”
For John, terror and wonder are never far apart. His fierce belief in the truth of Christianity fills him with wonder but also terrifies him, due to his fear that he is a sinner. John has been raised in a religious family and in a religious community so he cannot envisage a world in which God is not real. At the same time, his sexual thoughts about men make him worry that he will be considered a sinner by his friends, his family, and by God. Terror and wonder are common themes in John’s life for the same reason, leaving him in awe of the pain and suffering he may be forced to endure through God.
By James Baldwin
Another Country
Another Country
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A Talk to Teachers
A Talk to Teachers
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Blues for Mister Charlie
Blues for Mister Charlie
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Giovanni's Room
Giovanni's Room
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Going To Meet The Man
Going To Meet The Man
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I Am Not Your Negro
I Am Not Your Negro
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If Beale Street Could Talk
If Beale Street Could Talk
James Baldwin
If Black English Isn't a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?
If Black English Isn't a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?
James Baldwin
Nobody Knows My Name
Nobody Knows My Name: More Notes of a Native Son
James Baldwin
No Name in the Street
No Name in the Street
James Baldwin
Notes of a Native Son
Notes of a Native Son
James Baldwin
Sonny's Blues
Sonny's Blues
James Baldwin
Stranger in the Village
Stranger in the Village
James Baldwin
The Amen Corner
The Amen Corner
James Baldwin
The Fire Next Time
The Fire Next Time
James Baldwin
The Rockpile
The Rockpile
James Baldwin