Stranger in the Village Analysis Notes

Paragraphs 14-15

• Negger and the n word : he hears the same word from the people of the village on which he is considered as a stranger for a good reason, but he hears the same words in America which Kane him feel like an outsider or a stranger which is not normal because the black history makes up the American history, they are an integral part of it and so the White man has no excuse to be racist.
• The function of the 14th paragraph is the man idea, the theme or the thesis statement of what Baldwin is saying
• The anecdote of the village
• When the white man arrived to America they thought of and treated the Native Americans like cattle = intense dehumanization

Pathos = émotions

Logos = logique

Ethos = credibility

Paragraphs 15-17

• The other slaves : Haitians
• The American slave and the Haitian slave : the American slaves can’t trace their history before their ancestor was stood to an American slave owner while Haitians can and they can trace it back to royalty IMPORTANT because this is the history of America 
• The rtjoriacl appeal is logos when he talks about the history of the Americans and ethos because he is a black man himself and this gives him credibility.

Paragraph 18

• Compare American negro to European black begin : white people in America are directly confronted to Shari g in space with black men so they have to live with them while the European black men are just removed from the geography. Therefore they’re no in the same space as the white people. = dehumanization through the actual removal from a a space.
• Style : logos and pathos = he plays with pity, he gives facts that act on the emotion of the reader. Notion of stepping back from his own emotions and his feelings about the situation

Paragraph 19-21

• Repetitions : “moral”, “idea”, “hopes”  to let the reader know the consequences of ideas
• Another literary device = euphorism : morality is based on ideas and ideas are based on morality ” + chiasmus the effect =
• “Our own” = refers to the African American and the oppression experiences by the community that refers to irony,( they to our) he uses our after he said white man created civilization, he denounces white supremacy, because in society we all belong in the same degree so it’s hypocritical.
• Moral and belief = point at the irrational side of racism and so it does serve his argument

Paragraph 22-23

• Repeated words = “American”, “white man”, “black man”, “blood” and “devil”
• Uses present and past = present to refer to a fact something that has been, that is and that will be and past = allegory
• According to Baldwin the identity of black people ( and boack people in a white community ) is comparable to the presence of the devil in a cathedral —> shocking

Paragraphs 25-26

• “white men still nourish the illusion” = illusion that white men can ever recover the concept of living in a world with no black men and that they have to accept their presence
• The rhetorical appeal is logos = because he is stating facts
• The paradox of the existence of the black men in America = the issue of the black men in America is somewhat of an achievement, because they have always faced the issues, they reacted to the issues that allowed progress.
• Plea = expose arguments to defend yourself to gain justice because explains many argument that are based on logos
• Form that makes you think of a plea = “the time has come..” —> through tone that is attention capturing —> almost becomes a speech

Conclusion 

Positive and negative = because he is giving us the key elements to evolve and the last sentence is addressed to white peoples to tell them that they exist.

He starts telling us about the village but then he starts talking about America and the Americans and we forget about the village until the last paragraph.