Going to Meet the Man by James Baldwin
STORY SUMMARY
James Baldwin’s short story “Going to Meet the Man” (1965) follows Jesse, a white Southern deputy sheriff, as he attempts to sexually reconnect with his wife one night. Struggling with impotence, Jesse reflects on the recent unrest caused by Black civil rights activists in his town. His inability to perform sexually triggers a stream of disturbing memories that intertwine his personal identity with racist violence.
The narrative blends the present moment—Jesse lying in bed with his wife—with flashbacks. He remembers brutally beating a young Black civil rights protester earlier that day and, more importantly, a formative moment from his childhood: attending the lynching of a Black man with his parents. This lynching, grotesquely treated as a family-friendly event, was Jesse’s first exposure to the normalization of white supremacist violence. The story ends with Jesse finally achieving sexual arousal, grotesquely intertwined with the
memory of the lynching—a moment that exposes the toxic conflation of violence, race, power, and masculinity.
LITERARY ANALYSIS
Themes
• Racism as Cultural Inheritance: The story examines how racism is transmitted generationally. Jesse’s father introduces him to white supremacy not through ideology alone but through a shared act of violence that becomes ritualized and sexualized. Baldwin shows that racism is not just learned, but felt—embedded in the body and psyche.
• Sexuality and Power: Jesse’s sexual dysfunction reflects a crisis of white male power. His arousal is restored only through violent, racist memories, indicating that his sexual identity is deeply bound up with domination. Baldwin critiques this perverse entanglement, highlighting how racism distorts intimate human relations.
• Memory and Trauma: The story’s non-linear structure reflects how trauma works. Jesse’s past erupts into his present; he is haunted by events that have become foundational to his identity. Baldwin forces readers to confront how historical violence continues to shape the
emotional and moral lives of individuals.
Narrative Technique and Style
• Free Indirect Discourse: Baldwin uses third-person narration filtered through Jesse’s consciousness. This technique draws readers into Jesse’s thoughts without endorsing them, allowing Baldwin to explore the psyche of a racist while maintaining critical distance.
• Juxtaposition: The story contrasts the mundane and the horrific, the personal and the political. For example, the seemingly ordinary domestic setting of a bedroom becomes the space for grotesque racial memories to emerge, unsettling any boundary between private and public violence.
• Symbolism: The lynching scene operates as a symbolic initiation into whiteness and masculinity. Fire, the mutilated body, and the crowd become dark symbols of communal belonging for the white community—a shared spectacle that binds them.
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER
1. How does Baldwin portray the connection between racism and sexual violence in the story?
2. In what ways is Jesse both a
product and a perpetrator of white supremacy?
3. How does the structure of the story influence the way we understand Jesse’s character?
4. What is Baldwin suggesting about the roots of racial violence in American society?
CONTEXTUAL NOTE
James Baldwin, an openly gay Black writer and critic of American racism, wrote “Going to Meet the Man” during the height of the Civil Rights Movement. His work confronts the psychological and emotional mechanisms of racism, especially among white Americans, and challenges readers to confront the hidden violence within their own histories and institutions.