{"id":950,"date":"2021-10-27T20:17:07","date_gmt":"2021-10-28T00:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/?p=950"},"modified":"2021-10-27T20:17:07","modified_gmt":"2021-10-28T00:17:07","slug":"personal-reflection-if-beale-street-could-talk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/2021\/10\/27\/personal-reflection-if-beale-street-could-talk\/","title":{"rendered":"Personal Reflection: If Beale Street Could Talk"},"content":{"rendered":"

I first encountered\u00a0<\/span>If Beale Street Could Talk\u00a0<\/span><\/em>by James Baldwin in the summer of 2020, during the peak of the pandemic. Those few months felt incredibly intimidating, often cold, and suddenly unsafe. In this novel, I found solace in exquisite writing about a potent romance. Its undeniable beauty served as a promising comfort. This first read forgot analysis at home, sat a chair on the beach, and kissed distraction on the cheek.<\/span><\/p>\n

In my current read of<\/span>\u00a0If Beale Street Could Talk,\u00a0<\/span><\/em>I have instead tried to stay aware of my reactions in order to source them. A newfound appreciation for Baldwin\u2019s maneuvers in character development and narrative structure has replaced distraction and imagination. In the novel, Baldwin seems to be using Tish\u2019s femininity to empathetically and meticulously analyze Fonny\u2019s masculinity and the implications of racism in the United States.<\/span><\/p>\n

I initially interpreted Tish\u2019s reflections on Fonny\u2019s situation to be nothing more than an encapsulation of what it means to truly know and love someone. As soon as the narrative introduces Fonny, Tish articulates, \u201cYou see: I know him. He\u2019s very proud, and he worries a lot, and, when I think about it, I know \u2013 he doesn\u2019t \u2013 that that\u2019s the biggest reason he\u2019s in jail\u201d (Baldwin 7). Now, I think that my original admiration for these descriptions was a subtle awareness of the intricacies of Baldwin\u2019s character placement and development. In presenting Fonny through Tish\u2019s gaze, Baldwin allows space for Fonny\u2019s pride to be deconstructed. If the narrative were to come from Fonny, the pride that Tish sees would cloud any awareness of how he ended up in jail or the effects of his situation. Femininity enables an intimate analysis of masculinity.<\/span><\/p>\n

When I first read the novel, Tish\u2019s nightmares and daily stresses broke my heart and made me want to protect her. However, Tish\u2019s femininity also reveals the external, familial, and emotional ramifications of racism in the United States. Due to conflict and tension between Fonny and a white male police offer, Fonny is wrongfully imprisoned for the rape of a woman that he did not commit. Many novels and essays deem tracking this type of experience enough, and it usually is. I see now that Baldwin\u2019s choice to place the narrative voice in Tish was a way to hold hands with that narrative but to walk in a new direction. \u201cWe\u2019re counting on you \u2013 Fonny\u2019s counting on you \u2013 Fonny\u2019s counting on you, to bring that baby here, safe and well. I held the white bar more firmly. My freezing body shook\u201d (Baldwin 158). Tish\u2019s struggles, notably feminine in her ever-present pregnancy, extract the analysis of racism in the United States from strictly Fonny\u2019s experience and expose the cracks that spread with the jolt of police brutality, wrongful imprisonment, and torture within the prison.<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, Baldwin marks Tish\u2019s femininity as Fonny\u2019s solution and salvation. \u201cEvery day, when he sees my face, he knows, again, that I love him \u2013 and God knows I do, more and more, deeper and deeper, with every hour. But it isn\u2019t only that. It means that others love him, too, love him so much that they have set me free to be there. He is not alone; we are not alone\u201d (Baldwin 223). Baldwin uses Tish\u2019s femininity as a tool to develop and escape Fonny\u2019s masculinity, but her femininity also provides the potential for Fonny to develop and escape, too.<\/span><\/p>\n

Baldwin, James. If Beale Street Could Talk<\/i>. Dial Press, 1974.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I first encountered\u00a0If Beale Street Could Talk\u00a0by James Baldwin in the summer of 2020, during the peak of the pandemic. Those few months felt incredibly intimidating, often cold, and suddenly unsafe. In this novel, I found solace in exquisite writing about a potent romance. Its undeniable beauty served as a promising comfort. This first read … Continue reading Personal Reflection: If Beale Street Could Talk<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3837,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[145909],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2021-blog-posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3837"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}