If Beale Street Could Talk: by James Baldwin​​​​​​​ | Conversation Starters E-Book

dailyBooks

• Herausgeber: Daily Books
• Kategorie: Bildung
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Beschreibung

If Beale Street Could Talk: by James Baldwin | Conversation Starters

Fonny, a sculptor, is arrested for the crime of raping a Puerto Rican woman. It's a crime he did not commit. Fonny's fiancee, Tish, is pregnant with his baby. In an attempt to appeal to the rape victim, Tish's mother goes to Puerto Rico to talk to her, but she only sees a woman who lives in even more dire poverty. Fonny's father, unable to bear seeing his son behind bars, commits suicide. James Baldwin's 1974 novel highlights primal emotions in his characters — love, terror, and hate— to stress the importance of human bonds and that human beings' survival is based on these bonds. Fonny's strong emotional bonds help him survive imprisonment. The thought of his unborn baby gives him hope. So do the desperate and heroic efforts of his family to get him out of jail. 
If Beale Street Could Talk is adapted into a film by award-winning director Barry Jenkins. The movie brings to focus the late Baldwin's literary career and his theme of black intimacy at a time when racism prevailed.

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Summary

of

If Beale Street Could Talk

James Baldwin

Busy Readers Conversation Starters

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John Mani,

London Sky Press

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Copyright © 2019 by London Sky Press. All Rights Reserved.

First Published in the United States of America 2019

Table of Contents

Copyright Page

Nine Lives

Introducing If Beale Street Could Talk

Discussion Questions

Introducing the Author

Fireside Questions

Inspiration Behind If Beale Street Could Talk

Quiz Questions

Trivia Facts About If Beale Street Could Talk

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Foster a deeper understanding of the book

Promote an atmosphere of discussion for groups

Assist in the study of the book, either individually or corporately

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Contents

––––––––

Introducing If Beale Street Could Talk

Discussion Questions

Introducing the Author

Fireside Questions

Inspiration Behind If Beale Street Could Talk

Quiz Questions

Trivia Facts About If Beale Street Could Talk

Introducing If Beale Street Could Talk

I

F BEALE STREET COULD TALK IS THE FIFTH NOVEL OF JAMES BALDWIN. THE novel, published in 1974, is hailed by critics as a story that celebrates love, between a man and a woman, and between family members. It tells the story of 22-year old Fonny, a black man who works as a sculptor and who is arrested for the crime of raping a Puerto Rican woman. It's a crime he did not commit. The rape victim is confused as he identifies him in a police line-up, the only black man included among suspected rapists. The distraught woman's testimony is influenced by the white policeman. Fonny's fiancee, Tish, is pregnant with his baby. In an attempt to appeal to the rape victim, Tish's mother goes to Puerto Rico to talk to her, but she only sees a woman who lives in even more dire poverty than them and who eventually loses her mind as she goes through a miscarriage. Fonny's father, unable to bear seeing his son behind bars, commits suicide just before Fonny is released on bail. The book ends as Fonny gets out on bail, not yet declared not guilty but full of hope for the future.

The story is set in Harlem. It is told from 19-year-old Tish's first-person point of view which relates the experiences of several complex characters in the novel.  Her voice is considered by novelist Joyce Carol Oates, who reviews the novel, as natural and this allows readers to know her intimate thoughts and feelings. Her "flights of poetic fancy" are revealed, as well as her ideas about relations between men and women, and her experience of being pregnant. The narrative is lean and economical, almost poetically constructed according to Oates. Baldwin highlights primal emotions among his characters, emotions like love, terror, and hate, to stress the importance of human bonds and that human beings' survival is based on these bonds. Fonny's strong emotional bond helps him survive imprisonment. The thought of his unborn baby gives him hope. So make the desperate and heroic efforts of his family to get him out of jail. But Fonny's father has a hard time coping with the strain and takes his own life instead. The narrative has a swift progression and is suspenseful. The movement happens in the interior lives of the characters whose sense of the horror happening in their lives is understated by the author. While the main characters are black, white characters are portrayed in a sympathetic manner. One of these white people sympathetically portrayed is Fonny's lawyer who goes through harassment and stressful moments. The novel shows how the birth of a baby is an inspiring element in Fonny's determination to fight for his freedom, and for Tish and the rest of their families to keep working for Fonny's freedom. Baldwin ends the novel with a sense of hope as he allows Fonny to go out on bail, indefinitely free but reunited with his loved ones. The novel highlights the use of psychological terror as a weapon wielded by the oppressor. The black men are constantly aware that they cannot control their own lives and are denied their manhood in the process. Fonny's father cannot find a way to get his son the justice he deserves and in the end, prefers to cease existing. Fonny feels that his love for Tish cannot always protect her by whites' insults and aggression.

Oates'review says "As a parable stressing the  irresolute nature of our destinies, white as well as black, the novel is quietly  powerful, never straining or exaggerating for effect." The Philadelphia Inquirer says Beale Street is one of Baldwin's best work, if not the best of his novels. The novelist Michael Ondaatje says Baldwin is the 20th century Van Gogh. The cosmopolitan review cites the books beautiful "rendering of"youthful passion" and is haunting in its effect. The Library Journal review says the novel is an "emotional dynamite" that assaults the cynicism that infects people's determination to face social problems. The New York Times Book Review says the story is  "moving, painful...vividly human and so obviously based on the reality that it strikes us as timeless." The Atlantic review says the novel got mixed reviews when it was published in 1974. "But what's clear in retrospect is how Baldwin articulates his vision of love from within black life, as the novel centers on the emotional bonds holding two African American families together. By contrast, the author had spent the previous decade instead of writing and thinking about love as a collective American experience, one whose power came from the fact that it could cut across racial lines."

If Beale Street Could Talk is adapted into a film by award-winning director Barry Jenkins. The movie brings to focus the late Baldwin's literary career and his theme of black intimacy at a time when racism prevailed.

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