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Abstract. James Baldwin's stark, apocalyptic, and rage-filled portrayals of the white and black American racial psyche can overwhelm his readers who, as a result, may not appreciate that he goes beyond describing. Baldwin's scathing critiques of American race relations may eclipse a fuller understanding of his work. What did Baldwin prescribe? He ended with each individual's inescapable commitment to all others, regardless of race. Similarly, existentialism's focus on unavoidable individual choice and freedom dims its message that when we act, we act for all. Baldwin shares with existentialism, as put forth in Jean Paul Sartre's Existentialism and Human Emotions, that we exist "in the midst of others."
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VARIOUS WORKS BY JAMES Baldwin puts the author at odds with the liberal and postmodern championing of the unencumbered individual. 1 This is to not deny Baldwin's enormous concern and undying fight for the rights of African Americans, or his own orientation as a fearless writer and intellectual, exploring anything pertinent to his effectiveness as a truth teller. Any writer, he seems to convey, must be as honest as possible, which means that a writer cannot give in to her or his unwillingness to critically analyze personal, emotional, social, or psychological phenomena.2 Existentialism, which in the public mind has always attracted charges of nihilism or an "anything goes" philosophy, would also seem to be at odds with Baldwin. For example, Camus's Meursault, from The Stranger, seems the embodiment of unencumbered thought and action, a man unaffected by ingrained traditions and expectations.3 Of course, popular conceptions are not always accurate. Existential thought is tied up with "we" as much as it is focused on "I." The reality of individual freedom does not mean that we should or inevitably do become solipsistic, or live without responsibility to others. Similarly, Baldwin's literary efforts leave us with our essential commitment to each other as much as they do the imperative need for social equality. Baldwin realizes the notion of our inescapable connection to each other through his own racial experience. Essays from Baldwin's Notes of a Native Son and Nobody Knows My Name, and his novel, Giovanni's Room, demonstrate the "we" found in existentialism, especially Jean Paul Sartre's Existentialism and Human Emotions.
Existentialist perspectives, in practice, question traditions. Religious traditions,...