Autobiographical Notes

Summary
At the time when he wrote these “Autobiographical Notes,” James Baldwin was 31 years old. He
begins by describing his childhood reading, which included Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle
Tom’s Cabin and Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities. Because people around him insisted he
read the Bible, he resisted reading it. Baldwin’s first publication came out when he was around
12 years old. It was a piece about the left-wing Spanish Revolution in 1936, but it was censored
in the church newspaper. Baldwin also received encouragement for his writing, as when New
York City mayor Fiorello La Guardia sent him a letter of congratulations and when he was
awarded a Eugene F. Saxton Fellowship at 21.
In his twenties, Baldwin began living in the Village (i.e., the Greenwich Village neighborhood of
Manhattan). He began writing book reviews, which he remarks were “mostly as it turned out,
about the Negro problem, concerning which the color of my skin made me automatically an
expert.” Tired of this situation, Baldwin went to France. This is where he finished his semi-
autobiographical novel Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953).
Baldwin describes how difficult it is to be a writer, saying that it sometimes feels like the whole
world conspires against him. Because the world does not care about the writer’s talent, one has to
find other ways to feel valuable. Baldwin writes that, for him, race represented both the
challenge to and the reward for being a writer: “[F]inally, I suppose, the most difficult (and most
rewarding) thing in my life has been the fact that I was born a Negro and was forced, therefore,
to effect some kind of truce with this reality.” He had to grapple with race before he could move
onto other topics. Race affects everyone in the United States, he argues. One can only understand
it by digging into the “[t]he history, traditions, customs, the moral assumptions and
preoccupations of the country.” He argues that race is central to the works of William Faulkner,
Robert Penn Warren, Ralph Ellison, and many others. Making reference to Ernest Hemingway,
Baldwin writes that his primary responsibility as a writer is to “get [his] work done.” He ends by
stating: “I want to be an honest man and a good writer.”
Analysis
Baldwin introduces his life to the reader by discussing his literary influences, what it means to be
a black writer in America, and his principles for creating good and honest writing. Baldwin’s
influences are wide-ranging. In trying to describe his style, he writes: “I hazard that the King
James Bible, the rhetoric of the storefront churches, something ironic and violent and perpetually
understated in Negro speech—and something of Dickens's love for bravura—have something to
do with me today, but I wouldn't stake my life on it.” Though Baldwin earlier states that he
avoided reading the Bible, here he admits that its language influenced his writing (after all, as a
teenager he worked briefly as a preacher) along with everyday black speech and nineteenth-
century novelists like Dickens.
Baldwin also argues that being a black writer in America means that one approaches the cultural
heritage of Europe and North America differently. He describes himself as a “bastard of the
West.” Having his family roots not in Europe but in Africa means that he approaches everything
from Shakespeare to Bach, the Chartres Cathedral to the Empire State Building differently.
“These were not really my creations, they did not contain my history.” While the black writer is
fully knowledgeable about these traditions, he is separated from them. “This was not my
heritage,” Baldwin writes. To live within a tradition while also being distant from it is a situation
particular to the black writer. Many of the themes in this book center on this question of the
black writer’s position in the world, which Baldwin describes here as a lack of place.
Another challenge of being a black writer, according to Baldwin, is that there is so much written
about the “Negro problem.” In terms of racism in America, merely compiling information is not
enough to transform things. In fact, the assumption that one has solved something simply
through reading can also be dangerous. However, the writer’s job, according to Baldwin, is to
dig deep into the roots of problems and social issues: “It is part of the business of the writer—as
I see it—to examine attitudes, to go beneath the surface, to tap the source.” Even so, Baldwin
argues that the issue of race creates a particularly difficult challenge for the black writer. To be a
good writer one must build on one’s personal experiences. However, being black in America
means being prevented from looking too closely at one’s own experiences because the hate and
fear one experiences can be so overwhelming. In this way, Baldwin states here, the task of the
black writer is doubly difficult.
Marriage a La Mode
Marriage a La Mode

Russell Baker’s “Marriage A la Mode” is a very interesting and surprising narrative writing. It is a

satire to the mechanized of human relationship as well as the criticism over the increasing the

machine that is replacing the human position. The limitless growth of advances in Robotic

technology has raised a serious concern over the future of human lives in the society. The

unpredictable progress of sun technology has invited anxiety. The essay “Marriage A La Mode”

has attempted to illustrate the danger of advance Roberts especial in terms of the growing

human Robert interaction emphasizing the loss of human connection and freedom that could

potentially come out from such technology.

A dramatic change on the future of human Robert interaction is presented in baker’s “Marriage

a la Mode” where a husband and wife are completely dependent on Roberts and computers

and have never even seen each other in fact the husband in the story has not been outside for

years. While there are only imagine futuristic vision and they may never happen, there is some

truth behind the speculation and a cautionary, message to be heard. The scientist has been

able to create Robert that successfully interacts with a human. The artificial intelligent is gaining

momentum. It is said that Robert will perform domestic household replacing human laborers,

assist in therapy in hospitals. Various research has forecasted that one may not be able to tell

the differences between Robert and human anymore in near future. Such reality, of course,

would be nightmarish. It could be not only one deprives of human labor but also world

deprived of individuality, comfort and human connection that is the essence of humanity. The

increase of human Robert interaction and the further humanizing of Roberts Forster concerned

over the future. Robotic technology could do damage to our society creating discomfort and

feelings of emptiness among human due to the vanishing of human to human interaction.

The extent of technology has come so far that Roberts are been build that is like a human in so

many ways and are in movement form, speech, ability and senses. In fact, such machines are

becoming more and more similar to human each day and the lines that separate humans from

Robert are becoming dimmer and dimmer. As we become more advanced it is probable that
the growing population will struggle even more to find jobs. More importantly, the concept of

our genuine humanness will fade and inherent spiritual connection among all human will be

lost. As a result of superior artificial intelligent, Robot have asserted their dominants and

human have become a slave to the system by living in a virtual world and becoming energy

sources for the robot. A different twist on the future of human-robot interaction is presented in

bakers Marriage a la mode where a husband and wife are both completely dependent on

robots and computers and have never even seen each other. In fact, the husband in the story

has not been outside for years.

Marriage a la mode is a satire, expecting the wonderful but very critical condition of machine

life. This story examines the surrender of man to machine. It makes fun of dignity of man

because one can realize that machine are controlling everything in this universe and very

surprisingly the man seems to have got married with machines rather than any human being.

The narrator's marriage with a human being is nominal only useful at the tax time. Throughout

the story, Russell baker presents the power of the machine over man and also highlights his

surrender to machines. Machine made loneliness; mechanization of human life and the

dehumanization brought by technology are the many themes of the story. Machines have

replaced human beings in the modern world to such a degree that even engineers and

managers of the machine have failed that they have lost human values. Besides people are

becoming inhuman. They have love and strong attachment with machines and thus avoiding all

kinds of relationship with other people. It is very humorous to read the story in which man has

not made other human beings for last seven years. The narrator wonders to meet and see

people just to inquire whether they looked the way they used to. That’s really very funny. The

man is in a dilemma whether to accept his age of science as paradise or to live the society. The

narrator rejects the society and lives in the fantasy of the new machine life. Even he forgets

about being married except at tax time when it is highly convenient. It is very funny to notice

that the tax office generally encourages marriage and childbirth. The narrator is selfish. He

gives more importance to the isolated but life with the machine.

The writer is very clever to show the tendency of the machine that wishes to see a human

being. The narrator was married to real women only for the purpose of tax obligation but he

had not met her and any other human being for last seven years. So he refuses any kind of
chance of meeting her. The machine proves to be much wiser than the man to say that people

ought to see people, ought to talk people, a practical and traditional saying that man must

prefer human society because man needs a man indeed at the time of real need. Bitter satire

on the human relationship with machine starts from the very beginning of the story. His wife

telephoned to ask if he would like to meet her. He did not wish to meet her. It had been seven

years since he had met anybody at all. With the seemingly limitless growth and advances in

robotic technology has come concern over the unpredictable direction of such progress. This

anxiety has manifested itself through the artistic medium such as essay Marriage a la mode.

This work illustrates the danger of advance robotic especially in terms of the growing human-

robot interaction by emphasizing the loss of human connection and freedom that could

potentially escape from such technology.