Rhetorical Analysis Of Notes Of A Native Son

Within the borders of the United States’ limited, yet expansive history, there have been many cases of social injustice on a number of occasions. The relocation and encampment of Native Americans and the oppressions of the early movements for women’s suffrage are two of many occurrences. Around the middle of the 20th century, a movement for equality and civil liberties for African Americans was kindled from the embers of it predecessors. James Baldwin, a black man living in this time, recalls experiences from within the heart of said movement in this essauy, Notes of a Native son. Baldwin conveys a sense of immediacy throughout his passage by making his writing approachable and estimating an enormous amount of ethos.

Baldwin, throughout the

However, Baldwin could have easily chosen to make the memory easier to read and tell the events simply, he was able to give enough description to pull the reader into the memory. “And, with that sound, my frozen blood abruptly thawed…and I was frightened”. This passage gives a reader an image in their head of what had to have been taking place at that time, yet at the same time, it was not overly wordy or too complex. Baldwin describes his experiences with a great amount of detail, but not quite enough to mislead the reader with too much unimportant pieces of information.

Notes of a Native Son becomes even more approachable as Baldwin includes man personal phrases, notably the word I. His inclusion of I gives the reader the sense that he is telling a story from his own perspective, as he was there. This personal connection gives the essay an extremely close-knit feeling, like the story told by friends around a campfire. Even though the topic of writing the essay man not be quite so friendly, Baldwin’s writing style brings the reader in close and makes it approachable, which adds to the importance of the message he is trying to