Comment below with stylistic and thematic links between “A Stranger in the Village” and any of the other OIB works we’ve studied so far!
English and History Class Blog
Comment below with stylistic and thematic links between “A Stranger in the Village” and any of the other OIB works we’ve studied so far!
A Stranger in the Village can be linked to Intimate Apparel: the racial discrimination.
I think we can make a connection to the stories in Interpreter of Maladies because Baldwin also talks about diversity of cultures.
A stranger in the village can be related to Intimate Apparel just like Lana said. Indeed, in the latter, there is a big racial discrimination as the ‘Whites” and “Blacks dont mix. the book is not only about racial discrimination but also cultural discrimination and discrimination it self and this discrimination is also observable in the Handmaid’s Tale with the discrimination made toward women
Links between A stranger in the village and other works
The first link that can be made so far between the James Baldwin essay and the other works, concerns the theme of identity. Indeed in the essay the Black man’s identity highly depends on all the rage and other strong emotions the White man has made him go through: “People whose culture control me, has even in a sense created me”. This theme can be linked to first of all the Handmaid’s tale and the fact that women get their identity chosen for them by men and do not get a say or whatsoever in this matter. Secondly through this theme we can link the essay to Love in the time of cholera in which women’s identity also depend in way of the decision of men, and the short stories by jhumpa Lahiri in which the characters have to face the side effects (whether good or bad) of having a dual identity.
A second theme that can link this essay to other stories would be dehumanization. Indeed in his essay, the author describes how the black man is dehumanized in the society of his time, just like in the Handmaid’s tale, in Love in the time of cholera and in intimate apparel women are dehumanized into something much less than men.
Thirdly another major theme discussed in this essay and in intimate Apparel would be the theme of racism, which the characters of each stories seem to be facing every day.
Finally a last theme that could be discussed would be loneliness. Indeed in the essay, despite being surrounded by people, the protagonist feels alone in a village in which he is seen as a stranger. This could be linked to multiple Robert Frosts poems in which the poet is constantly depressed and feel alone in this world. This could also be linked to The Handmaid’s tale in which Offred feels constantly feels alone without her loves and gets lost in old memories to feel that emptiness inside. Furthermore we could also link this to Love in the time of cholera, in which the male protagonist feels alone without the woman he love and wants.
It can be linked to The Handmaid’s Tale. Baldwin demonstrates in the essay how black people are dehumanize which is the same as the handmaids who are seen as objects by everyone else, especially the commanders.
In “Stranger in the Village”, James Baldwin demonstrates the difficulties black people have to go through in there lives. He also illustrates how hard it can be to move and start a life somewhere where black people are not common. Baldwin’s essay can be related to The Handmaid’s Tale because of it’s way of classifying people, which in this case are black being judged and put in there place by the whites. This story can also be connected to Intimate Apparel because they both have the same theme, being the injustices black people have compared to white people.
In James Baldiwn essay “Stranger in the Village”, Baldwin demonstrates how black people are struggling to integrate the society developped by white man, and to get away of the negative ideas due to history,like we can see in the book “Intimate Apparel” of Lynn Nottage, with Esthers dream of create a buty pallor.
Stranger In The Village can be linked to Frost’s poems because of the big identity question that surrounds James Baldwin in this essay.
A stranger in the village is a essay by James Baldiwn that talk about the acceptance of black people in society after the historical event of slavery and discrimination of black skinned men and women. This discrimination can be found in « Intimate Apparel » and « The Handmaids Tale »
Where we can find discrimination of colour and sexe.
Stranger in the village can be linked to the handmaid’s tale about humans being categorized and separated from the other, we also see some people being hanged in the handmaid’s tale because of who they are. There is a difference though, it is that in the handmaid’s tale, the government know what they do, and in stranger in the village he says « they don’t mean to be mean ». Also, about the title, « stranger in the village » we could link it to Offred who feels like she’s not home, not supposed to be here as a stranger in the society
Stranger in the Village can be linked with The Handmaid’s Tale: Superiority complex