Shreya's Treasures

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...

THE CATCHER IN THE RYE JD SALINGER FIRST PUBLISHED : 1951 J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye has become, since its publication, an enduring classic of American literature. The novel is a favorite because of its humor, its mordant criticism of American middle-class society and its values, and the skill with which Salinger captures colloquial speech and vocabulary.   The basic story of The Catcher in the Rye follows the adventures of sixteen-year-old Holden Caulfield, an independent, self-indulgent, idealistic, and sentimental figure of adolescent rebellion, during a forty-eight-hour period after he has been expelled from Pencey Prep, the latest of three expulsions for Holden. His brother, Allie, died only a few short years before. H is growing anxiety about what people will think and make of him when they found out that he failed his academics again, forces him to impromptu decide what action to make.  After confrontations with some fellow students at Pencey...