Realism in African American and Russian Literature - James Baldwin and Leo Tolstoy - Research Paper Example

Majed Hazazi Professor Michael Morgan ENG- 639 May 6, 2011 Realism in African American and Russian Literature: A Comparison between James Baldwin and Leo Tolstoy Introduction Realism in literature, as the name suggests, is a literary style that seeks to make literature resemble real life experiences. Realism refers to a literary movement or theory that endeavors to represent life as it is bereft of idealization or romanticism (Farley 1). Simply put, literary realism uses fiction to give accurate descriptions of the real life experiences of its subjects. The themes in realist literature are often a critique of the social, economic and political condition in which the writers find themselves immersed. Therefore, literary realism is heavily influenced by the political or historical environment the writer themselves in. This paper will present a thematic comparison of two schools of literary realism, Russian realism in the 19th century and African American realism in the 20th century. This comparison will be based on the short stories of two renowned realist writers- Russian Leo Tolstoy and African American activist James Baldwin. The paper will highlight some of the thematic similarities in Leo Tolstoy and James Baldwin’s works. It will be demonstrated that both Baldwin and Tolstoy brought out the themes of social anguish, grief and war in their short stories. However, the paper shall focus on the primary distinction between African American literary realism in the 20th century and Russian literary realism in the 19th century as that between social and racial realism.It shall be argued that the dominant themes in Tolstoy’s works were a socialist critique of the materialistic, unspiritual and bourgeois life that was in vogue in 19th century Russia. Tolstoy’s major themes were the importance of a moral and spiritual life, anarchic Christianity and the harsh realities of life such as ageing and dying. On the other hand, African American activist Baldwin primarily focused on the representations of the suffering caused by racism and the roots of love, hate and conflict in American society from different perspectives. It shall also be demonstrated that most of Baldwin’s and Tolstoy’s works were loosely based on their own personal experiences. However, Tolstoy preferred to narrate his stories as a form of reprimand while Baldwin assumed the persona of his characters. The paper will make specific references to James Baldwin’s collection “Going to Meet the Man” and Tolstoy’s “The Death of Ivan Ilych” and other short stories such as “The Candle” and “The Kreutzer Sonata”. Thematic Similarities in the Short Stories of Leo Tolstoy and James Baldwin: A common thematic thread running through Tolstoy and Baldwin’s short stories is the role that religion played in their respective societies. Tolstoy would quote from the scriptures in the prelude to some of his short stories with religious overtones such as “The Candle”. Subsequently, his stories would reflect his belief in God and spirituality (Medzhibovskaya 10). In“God Sees the Truth but Waits” and “The Candle”, Tolstoy uses the experiences of his characters whose beliefs in God are strengthened at the end of the narratives. In “The Candle”, Tolstoy demonstrates the power of religious virtues such as patience, perseverance and good deed as the peasant’s suffering under a cruel master finally comes to an end. In this story, Tolstoy narrates how the peaceful peasant farmer Peter Mikhayeff is able to overcome the cruelty of his master Michael Simeonovitch through perseverance. Mikhayeff goes against the grain of his fellow serfs and opposes their plans to murder their cruel lord and at the end of the narrative, Simeonovitch dies an unfortunate death. In “God Sees the Truth but Waits”, a trader eventually finds forgiveness and spiritual redemption after he is framed for murder and spends twenty six years in prison. Tolstoy narrates how Ivan Dmitrich Aksionov’s life is effectively ruined after he is wrongly convicted of the murder of a fellow merchant. In prison, Aksionov eventually accepts his fate and becomes religious. He eventually runs into the man who framed him and has a chance to implicate him in a foiled escape attempt. However, Aksionov has finds peace and forgiveness through his death and dies before he is acquitted of his crime. These short stories demonstrate Tolstoy’s belief in God and a life of spirituality and virtue.In “The Death of Ivan Ilych”, Tolstoy critiques the materialistic and conventional life of the Russian bourgeoisie. Through the main character Ivan Ilych, Tolstoy demonstrates that a life without religious virtue or spiritual identity is meaningless and hollow. He delivers an ominous warning that aging and death is inevitable and that one should live his/her life in a meaningful and spiritual manner. Ilych lives a superficial and detached life without human compassion, warmth or empathy but when he is struck with a fatal condition and faces his demise, he rues the hollowness with which he had lived his life. In “Where Love is, God is”, Tolstoy narrates how Martin, a cobbler, is eventually able to overcome the grief of losing his only son when he reads the bible and performs good deeds. Through this particular story, Tolstoy underscores the importance of living a moral and spiritual life of following and submitting to God’s will in the lives of the lower class (Tolstoy 25). Baldwin also brings out the theme of religion in African American society. In the first two stories of his collection “Going to Meet the Man” – “The Rockpile” and “The Outing”- Baldwin narrates the experiences of two young boys against the backdrop of a staunchly religious black community. The setting of “The Rockpile” is after a church service in Harlem. As a realist, Baldwin reflects the value attached to religion in the predominant African American enclave of Harlem. In “The Outing”, Baldwin sets the story against the background of a boat trip up the Hudson River and a church picnic. He narrates a young boy’s, Johnny Grimes’ struggle to find his sexual identity as he is comes face to face with his homoerotic feelings for his friend in a religious black society that views homosexuality as sin. The influence of religion in Baldwin’s works has been attributed to his personal experiences as a child preacher (Tackach 110). His views on Christianity are colored by his Pentecostal background (Allen pp 20-25). Comparisons have also been made between biblical texts and Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues”. The predicament facing Sonny and the narrator (his brother) has been likened to the biblical themes in Cain and Abel and the prodigal son (Tackach 114). Sonny’s brother has been compared to Cain for abandoning his brother and breaking the promise he made to his mother to be his brother’s keeper. As Sonny seeks redemption from his life of sin, he and his brother areanalogically compared to the prodigal son and his biblical brother. Sonny has, like the prodigal son, lived a life of sin and indulgence while his brother has kept to the narrow and diligent path (Tackach 112). Baldwin’s choice of name for the narrator’s daughter, Grace, is also biblical. In the story, Grace dies by falling, a biblical connotation to both Sonny’s fall from grace as he is drawn into drug abuse and his brother’s as he fails to keep his promise to his mother (Tackach 113). Another common theme shared by Baldwin and Tolstoy are their depictions of suffering and grief in society. In Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues”, he demonstrates how the main character’s brother (Sonny) struggles to come to grips with the misery of his life punctuated by heroin addiction, imprisonment and bereavement (Tackach pp 110-112). Baldwin paints a tragic picture of Sonny’s life. Born and bred in the tough streets of Harlem, Sonny is drawn into the world of narcotics and is eventually imprisoned in a heroin bust. Through Sonny, Baldwin makes reference to the suffering experienced by black Americans in the tough streets of Harlem as they grappled with poverty and drugs. Baldwin demonstrates how music offers Sonny an escape from the pain and suffering in his life. In “Going to Meet the Man”, Baldwin highlights the suffering of black African Americans under white racist supremacist policemen operating under laws that legitimated racial discrimination (Nabers 222). In the story, Baldwin gives a horrific and graphic narration of how a young black man, Otis, is tortured and executed by having his genitals cut off , hung and set on fire for what is apparently a minor infraction. Through the main character, Sherriff Jesse, Baldwin demonstrates how bigotry and racism have led to the suffering of black Americans who are denied basic civil rights. For instance, Jesse takes pride in using cattle prods to discourage “niggers” from singing while in detention. Baldwin’s depictions of suffering among black people are reminiscent of the treatment endured by former slaves as they struggled to integrate into a racist American society and clamor for their civil rights (Nabers pp 223-224). Just like Baldwin, Tolstoy vividly brings out the theme of suffering and grief in his short stories. In “The Death of Ivan Ilych”, Tolstoy describes in great detail the suffering that Ivan Ilych endures as he lays in his deathbed. Not only is he ill, but he has had to suffer through an unhappy arranged marriage to Praskovya Federovna. He narrates how Ivan Ilych suffers from either a floating kidney and or veniform appendix which gives him intense physical anguish until even his own wife wishes that he would die and end his suffering. In addition, Ilych also suffers emotionally and psychologically as he yearns for the empathy and compassion which he did not extend to others while pursuing his career and materialistic ends (Micco, Villars & Smith pp 872-873). Ironically, Ilych finds compassion and empathy from his servant Gerasim, somebody from a social classthat he had paid little or no attention to. In “The Candle”, Tolstoy demonstrates the suffering of the serfs and peasants under their cruel lords in 19th century Russia. The serfs in this story are treated harshly and overworked even on public holidays by their serf turned Lord Michael Simeonovitch who shows little or no compassion to the plight of the serfs. Farley notes that Tolstoy and other realist artists often sought to juxtapose the poverty and suffering of the lower classes with the beauty and simplicity of folk life shown through the perseverance of country folk (Farley 1). In “Where Love is, God is”, the main character (Martin) also endures the grief of losing his only son and is filled with sorrow and despair. Tolstoy’s preoccupation with the suffering of peasants in his short stories was drawn from his personal experiences and close contact with peasants with whom he interacted for long periods of his life. He drew on these experiences and used them as a form of social commentary against the socio-economic injustices that were pervasive in Russian society (Christoyannopolous 15). However, while both Russian and African American literary realism focus on common themes such as suffering, grief and religious faith, their qualitative difference lies in the social issues that their writers sought to address. This logically follows from the fact thatrealist writers often seek to replicate real life through their works. Therefore, the prevailing socio economic and political conditions that the writers find themselves immersed in inform the themes that they subsequently project in their literature. Subsequently, to distinguish Baldwin and Tolstoy’s thematic focus in their short stories, attention should be paid not only to their personal experiences but also to the socio economic and political context of 19th century Russia and 20th century America. Socialist Realism vs. Racial Realism in the Short Stories of Tolstoy and Baldwin: Tolstoy as a Social Realist and Reformer: Social realism was a literary and artistic movement in 19th century Europe where artists and writers alike reproduced what they could see around them, devoid of romanticism or idealism. In the Soviet Union, this often took the form of paintings or works of literature which depicted social injustices by highlighting the struggles faced by the hardworking proletariat. Social realism criticized the prevailing economic conditions that contributed to the hardships of the proletariat and elevated the common working class tohero status (Farley 1). This can be seen throughout many of Tolstoy’s short stories. In “The Candle”, Tolstoy emphasizes on the virtue and hard work of the common peasant or serf represented by Mikhayeff who eventually finds his liberation from the shackles of slavery. In this story, Tolstoy gives a narrative log of social inequality in 19th century Russia where the lower working classes were brutally exploited for their labour(Medzhibovskaya 50). Tolstoy’s criticism of the status quo in Russia can also be drawn from “The Death of Ivan Ilych”. Tolstoy reconstructs the life of his main subject, Ilych, as he pursues a bourgeois and materialistic life. Through Ivan, Tolstoy shows how detached the bourgeois have become, devoid of compassion and emotion and only propelled by selfish gainsas the cut throat Tolstoy seeks to land a plum job in the judiciary. However, as Ilych lies on his deathbed, he is unable to find compassion or sympathy from his friends or even his wife who are preoccupied with their fortunes after Ilych’s impending death. It is at this point that he finds comfort and empathy in his servant Gerasim who is the only person that shows genuine concern to Ilych. Ilych has an epiphany about his life and he realizes that his humble servant is the embodiment of life as he should have lived it and not in the cold, calculating, detached and materialistic pursuit of a bourgeois lifestyle. Tolstoy thus elevates Gerasim as a man possessing great personal character despite his humble status as a servant. In his story “How Much Land Does a Man Need?” Tolstoy takes a thinly veiled swipe at the greed of capitalism and its predecessors that validate the private accumulation of land and property. Pakhom, an ambitious peasant eager to own even greater plots of land than he has, responds to what he believes is a good offer from the Bashkirs. On face value, the offer seems attractive, that he shall own as much land as he is able to walk around in a day with the condition that he returns to the starting point for only a thousand rubles. A greedy Pakhom sets off in the morning with the ambition to accumulate as much land as possible by walking the longest distance possible. However, as dusk nears, he realizes he may have overestimated his ability and struggles to return to the Bashkirs, running in the hot sun. When he eventually returns to the starting point, Pakhom is exhausted, collapses and dies. His servant buries him in a grave, only six feet long which ironically answers the title of the story. Tolstoy uses this story to criticize the greed and avarice of the ruling class (state) in a capitalist Russian society (Christoyannopolous 14). Apart from criticizing the socio economic inequalities in Russia, Tolstoy also tears into the moral fabric of society and delivers stern sermons on issues of morality and sexuality. In “The Kreutzer Sonata”, Tolstoy harshly criticizes of the profligacy and immorality that he witnesses in Russia. In the story, an anonymous gentleman on a train making his way across Russia witnesses as a group of passengers, including a lawyer and a clerk, engage in a conversation on sex, love and marriage. A passenger named Posdnicheff (or Pozdnychev) interjects and reveals to the passengers the frightful details of his tragic married life- that he had murdered his wife in a jealous rage on suspicion that she had a sexual affair with a musician. Through the narrator, Tolstoy shows his disgust for and denounces the corrupting power of sexual love (Tolstoy Foote and McDuff xxiii). This reflects his newfound radical Christian beliefs such as upholding chastity and celibacy. In the story, Tolstoy demonstrates the impurity of sexual love and how it degrades human beings leading to the strong feelings of jealousy that Posdnicheff (Pozdnychev) experienced. “The Kreutzer Sonata” is representative of Tolstoy’s renunciation of the lifestyles and conventions of the cultured class. It is also an indictment of the traditional Christian marriage. In Tolstoy’s own commentary to the story, he reiterates his beliefs in chastity and celibacy and refuses to condone moral laxity and profligacy in society (Tolstoy, Foote and McDuff pp. xxiii-xxvi). Baldwin as a Racial Realist and Activist: On the other hand, racial realism was a North American literary movement of the 20th century that focused on the accuracy of descriptions of race relations. The central themes in racial realism focused on the suffering, social anguish and injustices meted out against the minority black or African American race (Nabers pp 221-222). Most significantly, they highlighted the legacy of racism in America and painted grim pictures of the conditions black Americans had to cope with such as drugs and violence in racial enclaves such as Harlem. In addition to being a writer, James Baldwin was a staunch civil rights activist and campaigner and often used his work as a vehicle to criticizewhite supremacy and advocate forblack civil rights. Baldwin’s short stories examined racism from different perspectives; sometimes his own experiences and he frequently used first person narration to get the reader much closer to the suffering. Baldwin’s short story collection, “Going to Meet the Man”, is a fictional realist and naturalist depiction of the suffering caused by racism in America. Through a seriesof eight stories, Baldwin presents the sad, harsh and even tragic consequences of racism through the experiences of his main characters. In the story “The Previous Condition”, he presents the dilemma faced by Peter, a young black actor and intellect who struggles to find his place in society having been alienated by both races. In the narrative, Peter is kicked out of an apartment in Greenwich Village, which his Jewish friend had sublet to him, for being a nigger. Being realist,Baldwin is not afraid to use taboo words like “nigger”. Peter comes face to face with racism as the landlady bluntly tells him to his face that niggers are not allowed to live there due to the perceived insecurity that accompanies them. Rejected by the white community, Peter also struggles to fit into the black community during an encounter at a bar in Harlem. Through Peter, Baldwin demonstrates the futility of seeking new opportunities and bridging the race gap in the civil rights era. Another story, “Come out the Wilderness”, presents the race dilemma from the perspective of a young woman torn between the warmth and comfort she believes is to be found in a black man and the social prestige to be gained from dating a white man. Ruth Bowman, the character, is unhappy with her white painter boyfriend but is wary of ceding to the charms of her black supervisor Mr. Davis. This is due to the emotional scars of the abuse she endured in the past from her father and brother who referred to her as “dirty”. However, she has also had negative experiences in the past with a white man who treated her like a slave. Through this story, Baldwin captures the difficulty of maintaining interracial relationships against a history of abuse and the legacy of slavery (Nabers 225). Baldwin also uses his short stories to represent the reality of living inblack ghetto. In “The Rockpile”, the main character, Roy, is injured in a fight which depicts the violence pervasive in ethnic spaces such as Harlem- an African American enclave (Stone 200). These conditions can also be inferred to from the experiences of the characters in “Sonny’s Blues”. Sonny’s uncle was killed by drunken whites and he has fallen prey to the poverty, drugs and violence prevalent in Harlem as he tries to fight the limited possibilities facing him. Both Sonny and his brother (the main character) join the army to try to escape the confines of the harsh life in Harlem but are ultimately unsuccessful. As coping mechanisms, Sonny’s brother becomes an algebra teacher to try and fit into respectable society but Sonny finds his escape from the pain and suffering in his life through Jazz music (Tackach 117). In the actual story “Going to Meet the Man”, Baldwin gives an insight into the suffering of the black community under white supremacist rule. The brutal lynching of the young man Otis and the treatment of prisoners under Deputy Sherriff Jesse are realist depictions of the treatment black people received in America. In the story, Baldwin also offers perspectives of racism from outside the black persona. He attempts to explain the root of social attitudes such as racism and bigotry. Through the main character, deputy sheriff Jesse, Baldwin shows that social values such as racism are largely a product of the environment in which a child is raised and what is considered social norm in that environment. Jesse believes that his racist attitude and cruel treatment of black people is justified. He has grown up to become a bigoted, corrupt and racist policeman. He is also sadomasochistic, feeling sexually aroused by only perverted thoughts of having rough sex with black women. Another key contrast between Russian and African American realism in the short stories of Tolstoy and Baldwin is their views on Christianity, morality and sexuality. While Tolstoy preaches the themes of Christian anarchism, moral purity and chastity in his works such as “The Kreutzer Sonata” and “The Candle”, Baldwin ventures into homoeroticism, colored by his own personal experiences. Tolstoy considers himself an absolutist, a social reformer, a non conformist, a champion of morality and his works have even been referred to as “faithful realism” (Billington pp 173-175). On the other hand, Baldwin appears passive and less critical of institutionalized Christianity, is less critical of morality and even addresses issues such as homoeroticism-which Tolstoy would not have entertained. Discussion: Literary realism is a form of art that aims to reproduce or represent life as it is. Subsequently, realist writers provide a fairly accurate replication of the socio economic and political conditions that they find themselves in through the subjects of their stories. They accomplish this through the themes that they project in their stories. Short stories are an effective medium of literary realism. They provide a succinct means for writers to make commentaries on social or political issues by replicating the minute and often mundane details of their subjects. Therefore, literary realism implies that the themes will primarily tend to focus on either the personal experiences of the writers or of the people they come into contact with. From the thematic analysis of James Baldwin and Leo Tolstoy’s short stories, there are similarities in African American and Russian literary realism. Both Tolstoy and Baldwin project the themes of suffering, grief and religion in Russian and American society. Tolstoy draws on his own personal experiences as the basis for his short stories. He highlights the plight of peasants, serfs or the lower working classes in Russia, and his depiction of their suffering reflects his close contact with them. Tolstoy had given up a life in Russian high society, renounced orthodox Christianity (which led to his excommunication) and had embarked on a personal crusade of social reformation. His short stories also criticize the moral foundation of Russia’s bourgeoisie (The Death of Ivan Ilych) and what were considered social conventions in Russia (The Kreutzer Sonata). Much like Tolstoy, the themes projected by Baldwin in his short stories are closely correlated to his personal experiences. For instance, Baldwin has had to confront his sexual identity like his character Johnny Grimes (in The Outing). Baldwin’s short stories demonstrate the brutal and harsh legacy of racism and the suffering it causes through his subjects. However, the distinction between African American and Russian realism as seen through the short stories of Tolstoy and Baldwin is the social issues they seek to address through their literature. Tolstoy is a socialist realist. His works are a critique of capitalism and immorality, or a life devoid of spirituality. He puts together a kaleidoscope of the everyday lives of the Russian peasantry and engineers the outcomes of his narratives to shape the reader’s conclusions that the best life is one lived spiritually and morally, in obedience to God’s will and not the kind lived by the capitalist bourgeoisie such as the main character Ivan Ilych (in The Death of Ivan Ilych). On the other hand, Baldwin can be described as a racial realist. The themes in Baldwin’s most notable collection of short stories “Going to Meet the Man”, depict the suffering caused by racism from multiple perspectives. Unlike Tolstoy who focused on third person narration, Baldwin takes on a variety of personas in his narrations to accomplish this. These include from the perspective of a racist bigot policeman in “Going to Meet the Man”, a negro married to a white woman in exile in “This Morning, this Evening, So Soon”, a disoriented young negro actor struggling to find his place and identity in New York in “The Previous Condition” and an equally disoriented secretary with a white lover in” Come Out of the Wilderness”. Unlike Tolstoy who delivers a moral lesson at the end of his short stories, Baldwin’s short stories have sad, tragic, unresolved and unfortunate endings which relay the message that the suffering faced due to racism and segregation is harsh. There is no justice, closure or resolution for the subjects in Baldwin’s stories- their suffering is omnipotent and unresolved. In contrast, Tolstoy’s subjects come to some moral epiphany or realization at the end of the story. Another thematic point of contrast between Tolstoy and Baldwin is their view on morality and by extension Christianity. Tolstoy is a Christian anarchist, making little reference to institutionalized religion but instead uplifting the principles of moral purity, celibacy and chastity. On the other hand, in “The Outing”, Baldwin seems to validate from his personal experiences what would be considered by Tolstoy as taboo, homoeroticism. Baldwin also makes references to institutionalized religion in African American society and the impact it has on his subjects. Conclusion: The paper focuses on the comparison of realism in African American and Russian literature. Drawing on the works of two renowned realist writers, the paper compares and contrasts the themes projected in African American and Russian literature. The comparison is done between the themes in the short stories of renowned Russian novelist Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy and African American literary activist James Baldwin. Realism as a literary theory is characterized by the reproduction or replication of real world social, economic and political circumstances as they are. Both Baldwin and Tolstoy manage to depict the themes of suffering, grief and religious faith. However, what primarily distinguishes realism in African American and Russian literature as seen in the works of Tolstoy and Baldwin is the social issues they seek to redress. Tolstoy is a socialist realism, highlighting the socio economic inequalities of capitalist 19th century Russia. Closely based on his own experiences and his contact with peasants, Tolstoy critiques the way of life of the Russian bourgeoisie and offers moral lessons on how the peasants and serfs in Russian society can live more meaningful lives characterized by spirituality, morality, virtue and subservience to the will of God. On the other hand, Baldwin is a racial realist, depicting the suffering caused by racism from multiple perspectives and drawing on his own personal experiences. For Baldwin, however, the stories bear no moral lesson but simply paint a dark picture of the social evil that is racism. Works Cited Allen, Francine LaRue, "Reclaiming the Human Self: Redemptive Suffering and Spiritual Service in the Works of James Baldwin”. English Dissertations. 2006. Retrieved on May 2, 2011 from Billington, Josie. Faithful Realism: Elizabeth Gaskell and Leo Tolstoy: a Comparative Study. Pennsylvania, Bucknell University Press. 2002. Christoyannopolous, Alexandre. “Bethink yourselves or you Will Perish”: Leo Tolstoy’s Voice a Centenary After his Death. Anarchist Studies 18.2: (2010) 11-18. Farley, William. “The Forgotten One”: Manifestations of 19th Century Russian Realism in Contrasting Artistic Media. 2008. Retrieved on May 1, 2011 from Medzhibovskaya, Inessa. Tolstoy and the Religious Culture of his time: A Biography of a Long Conversion. Plymouth, Lexington Books. 2008. Micco, Guy, Patrice Villars and Alexander Smith. The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Pain Relief at the End of Life. The Lancet 374. 9693: (2009) 872 – 873. Nabers, Deak. “Past Using James Baldwin and Civil Rights Law in the 1960s”The Yale Journal of Criticism 18. 2 (2005): 221-242. Stone, Joshua Scott, "American Ethni/Cities: Critical Geography, Subject Formation, and the Urban Representations of Abraham Cahan, Richard Wright, and James Baldwin". Open Access Dissertations. 2010. Retrieved on April 29, 2011 from Tackach, James. "The Biblical Foundation of James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues.”Feinstein College of Arts & Sciences Faculty Papers. 2007. Retrieved on April 30, 2011 from Tolstoy, Leo. Where Love Is, There God Is Also (reprint). Charleston, BiblioBazaar. 2009. Tolstoy, Leo, Paul Foote & David McDuff. The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories. London, Penguin. 2008. Read More