Stranger in the Village

What does the symbol of the church do throughout Baldwin’s text? Does it change at all, from the first page to the last?

What is the difference between the word “Neger” and the n-word? How does Baldwin distinguish between the two like sounds, and what is his justification for treating them so distinctly?

How does the specter of racialized enslavement figure into Baldwin’s text? Where does slavery appear most strongly, and what is its significance?

Why is culture so significant for Baldwin, as he suggests on Page 121? What is it that a connection to Bach and other artists and cultural icons would give to Baldwin that he does not have? How does culture function in the text?

Throughout the text, Baldwin uses gendered language in discussing race relations. What is the significance of Baldwin’s intersectional discussion of Black and white men in particular? How does Baldwin draw out these two gender categories, of Black men and white men, and what does this mean for the text as a whole?

Describe the relationship between Black and white Americans, according to Baldwin at this historical moment early in the 1950s. Who knows what about whom? What does each think they know about the other? Why does it matter? What does this relationship sketch tell us about Baldwin’s text?

Why does Baldwin repeatedly appeal to history and historical fact? What do the particular instances do for his argument, and how does it affect his argument as a whole? What is the effect of using historical discourse in this way?

In contrast to white people, where does Baldwin argue Black peoples’ identities come from? What is the significance of Baldwin’s description of white and Black men’s motivations on Page 127? How does this help us interpret the rest of the text?