Twice in "Previous Condition" by James Baldwin, Peter, the narrator, has sudden violent urges. These seem totally out of character for him, as he has an average temperament except for these moments. Each of these urges is directed at a white person and each is a reaction to racism. The first time this occurs is when the landlady kicks Peter out of the room Jules rented for him, and he has a sudden urge to kill her.
I started to close the door again but she moved and stuck her foot in the way. I wanted to kill her, I watched her stupid, wrinkled frightened white face and I wanted to take a club, a hatchet, and bring it down with all my might, splitting her skull down the middle where she parted her iron-grey hair. (91)
The thoughts running through Peter's head at this moment are very violent and graphic. I think it is out of the ordinary to have sudden urges to kill. However, I am not in Peter's position, so I cannot be a perfect judge. By this I mean that Peter is under stresses that I will never experience since he is black and I am not. It is completely understandable, in my opinion, that the frustration that racism causes could lead to such initially surprising, violent thoughts. Interestingly, in having such thoughts Peter is becoming exactly what racist people expect him to be: violent and inhuman. The second time he is taken by this strange urge is on the subway towards the end of the story. A young, white couple has just gotten on the subway.
He said something I didn't catch and she looked at him and at me and the smile died. She stood so that she faced him and had her back to me. I looked back at the ads. Then I hated them. I wanted to do something to make them hurt, something that would crack the pink-cheeked mask. (99)
This time Peter's thought is not as violent, but is its also less provoked by the white people. Is it normal for him to have such thoughts? Is it ok? He certainly has good reason to be angry, he is the subject of racism which gives him every right to be angry. Would this justify his actions if he carried through with these thoughts? Baldwin hits on something essential to understanding racism here and I think it is important to grasp this idea.
When lashing like he does, it seems Peter is raging more against what the white people stand for, rather than the person themselves (the first one for instance, he's going off about the idea of unjustly kicking him out). There's not really much that justifies carrying out the quite graphic actions he's thinking about, and as bad as the situation is, this isn't one of them. Anger is obviously justified, but in the end it probably has healthier expressions than depictions of violence.
ReplyDeleteWhen lashing like he does, it seems Peter is raging more against what the white people stand for, rather than the person themselves (the first one for instance, he's going off about the idea of unjustly kicking him out). There's not really much that justifies carrying out the quite graphic actions he's thinking about, and as bad as the situation is, this isn't one of them. Anger is obviously justified, but in the end it probably has healthier expressions than depictions of violence.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Peter's violent thoughts are a response to Bigger's character in Native Son. Wright depicts Bigger as fully molded by his surroundings in a very naturalist point of view, and I think that Peter's character shows signs of that as well. The white characters in the story throw him into a stereotype of being violent towards others and are scared of him, and as a result he has thoughts that support that view of him. The main difference is that he is able to think about why this is going on and what he can do about it, or the lack thereof.
ReplyDeleteTo me, the violent thoughts felt like a perverse mechanism for calming down. Each time they happened, it was in response to something where he would have been justified in being angry at the other person. However, racial dynamics prevented him from actively lashing out, so he just imagines what he could do. And to him imagining what he could do helps him calm down, just as much as a more tangible reaction would.
ReplyDeleteI think these violent thoughts/reactions are really his way of expressing the internal struggle that he is faced with. Although he is able to discuss some of this struggle with his friends, there is a lot of it that they simply can't really relate to and so he is forced to internalize it. As a result his only outlet for this is inside of his head, imagining what violent actions he could carry out in response to the terrible adversity he faces.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Danny in that it doesn't seem to me that he hates the specific people as much as while ideals. His thoughts come from built in frustration. I do worry a little for Peter. While he has violent thoughts, he initially does not act on them what-so-ever and is rather calm but we see him lash out again his own girl, someone that he actually cares about. Because of this I feel as if he may not be afraid to lash out against others in the future.
ReplyDeleteJust as it's not "personal" between the landlady and Peter--he simply represents "black man" and is therefore making her tenants uncomfortable by his mere presence--his murderous rage against her can be seen as not "personal." She represents this frightened, paranoid, northern brand of white racism (which constantly insists it's not racist even as it enforces racist practices), and it's this abstract force he wants to smash. The story does a great job of showing just how *exhausting* it is to be Peter, to deal with this stuff again and again. He's getting kicked out of this apartment as a "threat," when all he wants to do is listen to Beethoven in peace. He's clearly not who the landlady thinks he is, or projects him to be--and he *knows* this, which enrages him (thus, ironically, making him into the thing she thinks he is). But she *is* who he thinks she is--simply keeping the system in place, playing her role by policing these racial boundaries. It's fair to have her stand in for white supremacy more generally, under the circumstances. (And, of course, Peter doesn't act on his impulses. He just shares them with us, via his narrative.)
ReplyDeleteI definitely think it is ironic that when Peter gets angry at white people, he seems want to behave in the way that white people look at him: vicious and dangerous. However, I don't think he would ever actually carry out these actions. I think that he is justified in his anger and even the thoughts that he has because of his anger, because it's very hard to control this kind of this anger. However, if he were ever to actually carry out these actions, I don't think they would be justified because he would actually be behaving like the monster that some white people see him as. That brings up the question of whether the white people would be justified in their fear of him if he actually behaved like this. It's a weird circle.
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