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Underlying Themes In James Baldwin's If Beale Street Could Talk

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In James Baldwin’s, If Beale Street Could Talk, there are underlying themes of racism, justice, and prejudice. However, the main point of the book is to show humans’ capacity to love. Although the main character, Tish, is struggling with getting her fiance out of jail and working to raise money for her future family, she is also learning how to love herself, her baby, and the people in her life to the full capacity. Baldwin shows throughout the whole story that love can be very difficult, but that it is important to love as many people as possible. Tish wasn’t like other girls in that, she met her husband when she was very young and never had other boyfriends. This shows that people don’t necessarily have to go through several heartbreaks in order to find their soul mate. Source C says, “I love my man, I’m a liar if I say I don’t, But I’ll quit my man, I’m a liar if I say I won’t.” This shows that even though she loves someone right now, she doesn’t believe she’ll end up marrying him. Everybody is different, and some people have to go through many relationships in order to find the right one while others find them right away. …show more content…

“...People love different people in different ways,”(46). Baldwin shows that love applies to everyone in a person’s life. Tish, for example, loves her family, Fonny, Fonny’s dad, and her baby. She loves all of these people in different ways, however, “But these men are your brothers- your lost, younger brothers. And if the word interrogation means anything, this is what it means: that we, with love, shall force our brothers to see themselves as they are, to cease fleeing from reality and begin to change it,” Source A shows that people must take care of the ones they love, but care care of themselves too. There are many different people and ways to love, and Baldwin does an excellent job showing the reader

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