Compare And Contrast Baldwin And Ralph Ellison

Mirroring the lives, experiences, and traditions of society in different eras of American history; Bernard Malamud, Ralph Ellison, and James Baldwin, chronicle the impressions, perspectives, and dramatizations, of three men living in three different worlds but all trying to maintain their struggles with-in. All three authors use similar methods of writing to capture the true veracity of living in America. With the use of personal conflicts with-in themselves, imagery, and finally narration and tone, Baldwin, Ellison, and Updike, captured the quintessence of living in America during their respected eras. With all three authors using personal and cultural conflicts in their stories the reader is able to fully comprehend with great clarity
He plays the part of the tool or the pawn so many times that he is driven to bump strangers on the street, as in the case of the blond man, simply in order to recognize his own existence in their eyes. Yet they still don't see him. "It occurred to me that the man had not seen me, actually; that he as far as he knew he was in the midst of a walking nightmare!" (2077.) He finally recognizes his ability to exist outside of the scientifically categorized world he lives within; the narrator thus avoids classification because he exists between it and outside of it. "I remember that I am invisible and walk softly so I don't awaken the sleeping ones…I learned that it is possible to carry on a fight with them without their realizing it" (2078.) In "Going to
"You're lucky we pump some white blood into you every once in awhile- you're woman!" (2194.) "This was his wife. He could not ask her to do just a little thing for his just to help him out…the way he could ask a n****r girl to do it" (2191.) In the end of the story Richard's flashback of a town lynching left little memory except of Richard's new found jealousy of the man's manhood. "The largest thing he had ever seen till then" (2201.) left Richard self conscious of his own sexual prominence and made him want to be a black man; strong, confident, reputable. The thought of becoming a black man in his own right excited him and gave him the energy (and means) to fulfill his desires. "He thought of the man in the fire... and he said to her "Come on sugar, I'm going to do you like a n****r, just like a n****r… and you are going to love me like you'd love a n****r"..he thought of the moaning as he labored" (2202.) Unlike the other two stories however," The Magic Barrel" written by Bernard Malamud based itself on cultural value and character issues to develop the storyline. After