James Baldwin’s Another Country is a love story between different races. The main character Rufus is a black male musician who is in love with a white woman named Leona. She loves him very much, but he beats her many times, which shows the reader that Rufus’depression makes him angry all the time. Leona suffers mental problems after her lover beats her. After becoming very sick from this abuse, Leona asks her brother to take her back to her hometown. Rufus’ depression continues, which drives him to commit suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge in New York. Baldwin uses black and white people’s love story to represent our society’s problems. From this love story people can learn more about the history of discrimination black people face in relationships.
This love story takes place between the years 1961-1970. Around this time America had many issues to solve including the Vietnam War, women’s right, and inequality and segregation due to skin color. In this story, Baldwin describes how everyone has a dream, but society’s perceptions and opinions about race, gender, and love get in the way of some people achieving these goals. For example, since the main character Rufus struggles to find a successful career and relationship that meets the standards of society, he is persecuted and chooses to end his life. The other characters in this book continue to struggle with their problems and search for ways to overcome them.
Love is powerful tool in Baldwin’s story, but when love depends on people’s skin color,social class, and background people’s love might not be true. In fact, in the 1960’s, the same time period as this story, America had laws that separated black and white people. Martin Luther King Jr. spent his lifetime fighting against racism,but in the end was killed by a white, racist man who disagreed with King’s activism. Settling the dispute on race problems has a long way to go. Even though there are no longer written laws that discriminate based on race, they still exist in some people’s minds. In this love circle story, all the characters, most of whom are artists, dream of finding a better life in New York. Furthermore, it teaches the reader about race be came a problem present in the United States. Rufus struggles with life problems, abuses his girlfriend Leona out of frustration, and ultimately becomes a patient in the hospital suffering from mental disorders. Furthermore, Rufus struggles with his desires when he falls in love with Leona, but face a lot discriminate from his music dream. Baldwin therefore uses people’s skin color identity to address problems race and relationships. Rufus is a dreamer and can not face the dark reality that in the real world, not everything goes as planned. This love circle story about race and gender, shows that it is difficult for two people of different color orientation to be together in a society that is unaccepting.
Baldwin’s love story paints a picture for the reader to understand that racism can occur anywhere despite people’s love for one another.
Love can Cross any Race(读书笔记）
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