POLD52H3 Lecture 8: Lecture 8
19 Apr 2011
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Baldwin resisted being classified into a section or group. He could be judged for who he is and his talent; that is an enormous risk to take. Now in paris he is judged as an american so his plan failed. But this impacted him because he begins to think about what it is to be an american. Found that french culture was very structured; everyone had a certain status. America wasn"t worse than france; it wasn"t worse than other places. He fooled himself that oppression was specific to the american society, however it was everything. He couldn"t find himself outside of the u. s which was the cruellest trick (it was an error on his part) There were 2 ways of being drafted into the army: secure the status of conscientious objector (a person who maintains that his conscious does not allow him to bare arms).
