Baldwin Discussion Reflection

For the "Notes of a Native Son" discussion I prepared by reading the entire essay three times but then rereading and concentrating on what I thought were key parts that I had circled while reading. I also read many articles, blogs, and responses that I found online concerning both James Baldwin and "Notes of a Native Son" and they definitely helped me shape my own opinions. My only regret about the discussion is that I had plenty more information such as quotes from Baldwin and others to share but the discussion never really went in a direction where I felt I could present it. I definitely found this differed from the previous weekly work because there have occasionally been readings for a week I wasn’t particularly interested in, in which case I tend to read the material once and then wait for the class discussion and see what others thought or had to say about it, however for this discussion I really wanted my input to be valuable and keep the group exchanging ideas.

In my research online I learned about the response to "Notes of a Native Son" when it was first published and more about James Baldwin such as his views on writing, his relationship with his stepfather, and his eventual move to France. Although I felt I was prepared for the discussion, I learned there were questions (such as the first about the structure of the essay) where I felt I benefitted from hearing others responses out loud because I found members in my group shared some of my thoughts but could word their response in a clearer way than I could. As far as the exercise in retrospect goes, I learned I should have concentrated on creating talking points that correlated to the questions instead of just forming a direct response to them because if I shared a nearly identical response to a question then there wasn’t much more I could say. I feel as though this discussion was more useful than some of the other general class discussions because focusing intently on just one piece and one writer really made me feel as though I understood the essay as best as I could when the discussion came to a close. There weren’t many questions I had left about the essay when the discussion was over (besides maybe still wondering how exactly the bottles and the bible quote were connected in the last few paragraphs.)