GOING TO MEET THE MAN

GOING TO MEET THE MAN
JAMES BALDWIN
GENRE : SHORT STORY, FICTION
FIRST PUBLISHED : 1965

It was indeed a great risk for Baldwin, an African - American author, to insinuate himself into the mind of a character of a different race - a political risk as a writer. He explores - from the inside - a character who is a southern white racist, Jesse. The story is a bold statement that transcends the festering sore of racism on the face of American history and cries out for the reader to examine all of the values which he or she subscribes to and to honestly appraise the foundations on which these beliefs have been constructed.

We see how the novel begins with Jesse, a police officer, and his wife in bed. It seems Jesse is impotent. Blaming tiredness and heavy work for this, his wife goes off to sleep but Jesse moves into a recollection of his day's affairs with a black man, who "had caused them much trouble". 

The narrative is in the form of flashbacks and soon enough Jesse goes into a dream - like recollection of a specific childhood incident of his life. Acccording to his father, it would be "a picnic which he would never forget". 

"The man with the knife took the nigger's private in his hand, one hand, still smiling, as though he were weighing them." 

"Then Jesse screamed, and the crowd screamed as the knife flashed, first up, then down, cutting the dreadful thing way, and the blood came roaring down"

His memories of the mutilation and castration of a black person in front of the entire White community comes as a shock to the reader. It is more of a "picnic" for all of them who did not seem to be affected a single bit by the torture.  

"The head was caved in, one eye was torn out, one ear was hanging. ... a black charred object, on the black charred ground."

This affair of heinous torture keeps the child Jesse restless and somehow finally satiates him. He feels a sense of affection towards his father which shows how the change is coming in him. How his ignorance is bygone and the bug of racism creeps in him.

"He felt that his father had carried him through a mighty test, had revealed to him a great secret which would be the key to his life forever." 

After this recollection, Jesse seems to feel sexually aroused. It is improbable that Jesse can recognize that the memories of the lynching had made him sexually aroused by violence. We reckon him as a violent man with a disturbed and twisted idea of love, sex, and Blacks. The fact that he seems to be in control of himself, simply by recounting the details of the control of the Whites over the Blacks as non-humane , shows how deep rooted racism is in his character; simply because of his upbringing.

It was also challenging on the path of Baldwin not to portray Jesse as a product of mental abuse in his childhood by his highly dominating father. He did not want the readers to sympathise with Jesse. Hence, he is simply another child who on the path of racism, surrounded by a culture of race hatred, is forced to forget his childhood friend Otis, a black, and is deprived of his identity as a man. The commentary through Jesse on both sexuality and oppresive racial dynamics is commendable. 

The story mainly points towards the animalism of the White Americans and sense of sexual insecurity they feel towards the Blacks. The African-American who "steps out of line" is viewed as a threat not only to white women, but also to the sexual dominance of white men. By extension, this also applies to the economic and political control exercised by white men. 

The song, which is repeated throughout the story, along with the sound of cars passing, while going for the castration scene, in all probablity symbolises the organizing and mobilization of the Civil Rights Movement. The river of Jordan holds an importance here as it sysmbolises freedom for the Blacks. In short, "Going to meet the man" was a tragic eye - opener showing one of the most gut-wrenching murder scenes in the history of literature and allowed me to delve into the psychology of the racist white man. 

"I stepped in the river of Jordan,

The water came over my head,

I looked way over to the other side,

He was making up my dying bed."