Artile - Magical Realism in James Baldwin

8/10/2019 Artile - Magical Realism in James Baldwin

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Magical Realism in James Baldwins Blues for M ister Charli e

M. Vijiya

Ph.D. Research Scholar

Department of English

Annamalai University

James BaldwinsBlues for Mister Charlie is often read as a political text that

dramatizes the events surrounding the real-life murder of Emmett Till. However, Baldwin

approaches the subject in a manner not fitting to most realistic texts and fictionalizes the story

to make it almost unrecognizable as an account of Tills lynching. Baldwin successfully

presents a play about a murder he never explicitly shows on stage. In order to do this he

employs magical realist techniques that allow for a simulation of Richards murder. He re-

imagines the traumatic events by creating a felt reality in which visual images and

supernatural occurrences work together to present the murder without using explicit details.

Through this felt reality, Baldwin creates a hybrid sense of time and space that allows for

multiple timelines, a dual ontology in which Richard is both present and absent at the same

time, and a synecdoche in which the image of a gun represents the murderous act. What

results is Baldwins magical realist play in which the audience is forced to draw from their

own experiences and imagination to understand Richards murder and empathize with a

father grieving over his dead son.

Magical realists texts strive to overcome the limits of realism by blurring conventional

boundaries and creating an illusion of reality with non-realistic textual elements. Lois Zamora

in Magical Romance/ Magical Realism: Ghosts in U.S. and Latin American Fiction argues

that In short, [magical realist authors] point to the literary devices by which realistic

literary worlds are constructed and constrained, and they dramatize by counterrealistic

narrative strategies the ways in which those literary worlds (and their inhabitants) may be

liberated (501). These counterrealistic strategies that she refers to include using elements

of the supernatural, inconsistent timelines, and visual metaphors, which in many magical


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realist texts are used to describe traumatic events. In his article on magical realism, Eugene

Avra in Writing the Vanishing Real: Hyperreality and Magical Realism states, although

rich in sensory details, [magical realist texts] conspicuously lack any specific words

Stephanie McDevitt denoting physical violence, but rely instead on metaphors suggesting

pain and horror of the events as experienced by individual characters ( 61). Textual elements

often work together to create a new reality in which a traumatic event can be re-experienced

in metaphorical terms that do not require the reader to relive the event. This type of reality, as

Avra argues, is called a felt reality. He states, Felt reality is thus the artistic reality

produced by magical realist writing in its attempt to reconstruct violent events. More often

than not, magical realist images attempt to recreate traumatic events by simulating the

overwhelming affects that prevented their narrativization in the first place ( 61). In the case

ofBlues for Mister Charlie, Baldwin sets out to develop his felt reality in order to liberate

Richard, a dead character, from the confines of realism, and simulate his murder in a way that

the audience can understand without witnessing the actual shooting.

By examiningBlues for Mister Charlie closely, Baldwins methodical use of a felt

reality, supernatural occurrences, and visual metaphors in order to explore Richards murder

becomes evident. First, he establishes the stage set as a multifunctional unit with one frame

that encompasses several different settings. The opening stage directions read, Multiple set,

the skeleton of which, in the first two acts, is the Negro church, and in the third act the

courthousethis means that Richards room, Lyles store, Papa D.s joint, Jos kitchen, are

to exist principallyby suggestion, for these shouldnt be allowed to obliterate the skeleton, or

more accurately, perhaps, the framework, suggested about (1). Here, Baldwin begins

Stephanie Mc Devitt to hybridize the space. Richards room and Lyles store, two conflicting

spaces within the text, can be on the same stage without disturbing the layout Baldwin puts

forth. Therefore, the hybrid set that allows for conflicting elements to exist together becomes


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part of the felt reality. Furthermore because Baldwin allows for the physical space to contain

contradictory elements, he then makes it possible for opposing abstract concepts, such as past

and present, to also exist in unison.

Baldwins hybrid space lends itself to a hybrid timeline that sets up what Avra refers

to as dual ontological structures: one in which Richard is present and one in which he is

absent. In the opening scene a gunshot is heard and the lights come up on Richards dead

body. By placing this scene at the very beginning of the play, Baldwin sets up a temporal

boundary. The audience knows that Richard is dead, therefore any scene after that in which

Richard appears breaks this timeline and creates another world, a past world, within the

timeframe of the text. As the transition from the church to Richards room is made, the scenes

Stephanie McDevitt overlap and after Richard appears Meridian, while not seen, is heard

speaking his final line of the scene. The location and the time period shift seamlessly from

one to the next. Mother Henry, who previously had been in the church, now appears in

Richards room and Baldwin gives no indication that she should exit the stage in between

scenes. Most importantly, Richard, who was dead, is now alive and singing. In the same

instant that the characters are reminiscing about him, Richard appears on stage and, for this

brief moment his presence and absence occur at the same time. Because Baldwin previously

established that contradictory elements are able to exist together within the hybrid time and

space of the felt reality of the play, Richards presence and absence can occur in unison

resulting in Avras kaleidoscopic reality.

While Richards appearance on stage occurs during what Zamora calls a slippage of

time and space, Richards (alive) physical body does not represent the spectral presence

Zamora referenced ( 501). Instead, Baldwin uses music as an apparition of Richard and

indicator that Richard is about to appear. The audience has already seen Richards dead body

and Baldwin does not show it again. The dead body is Avras unrepresentable object that


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requires a symbolic referent. The music is Zamoras spectral presence that not only

simulates Richards dead body but also allows the audience to travel within the hybrid

timelines of the play. The music becomes his ghostly apparation that not only creates the

hybrid space and time, but becomes part of Baldwins felt reality and allows Richard to exist

both as a musical metaphor and a real person within the same scene.

While the music and hybridization of space and time serve as signifiers and reminders

of Richards death, Baldwin relies on visual imagery to explain the cause of his demise,

specifically the image of the gun. On looking at the opening scene of the play, there is no

mention of a gun on stage, there is only the sound of a gunshot. Furthermore, there is no

indication that Lyle is holding a gun when the lights come up. In fact, since Lyle must pick

Richard up and carry him upstage, the gun most likely does not appear anywhere during this

first scene. The audience is left with the suggestion of a gunshot being the cause of Richards

death. The audience is forced to imagine the actual gun that was used to kill Richard and

create their own image. This simulation of the gun, and therefore the murder, further supports

Stephanie McDevitt Baldwins felt reality, a reality in which the audience is forced to

rationalize that this gun shot represents the act of murdering Richard.

The audience is forced to live with their imagined picture of the gun until Richards

first scene when a realistic gun finally appears. This revelation builds on the image already

created in the minds of the audience when they heard the gun shot. Richard states that he

cannot be separated from the gun and in the minds of the audience he cannot. By layering the

imagined image with the realistic image of the gun Baldwin allows the audience to conclude

that the cause of Richards death and the gun are one and the same. Furthermore, since the

audience can now make the connection between the image of the gun and the image of

Richards dead body, the gun represents the actual act of murder that took Richards life.


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Meridian is not alone on stage for long as the music allows for another time warp and

Richard soon appears on stage. Again the ghost of Richard signifies his impending

appearance and Richard becomes absent and present at the same time. Furthermore, since

Richard is present, so is the gun. The audience witnesses Richard hand the gun over to his

father. They are now able to draw the conclusion that Richard was unarmed when he was

shot. C.W.E. Bigsby in The Committed Writer: James Baldwin as Dramatist arguesthat by

giving his gun to Meridian Richard essentially dooms himself. Without the gun as a means of

protection, the audience fills in the gaps in the story and is able to conclude that not only was

Richard murdered, as the gun indicated, but it was the absence of the gun that made it

impossible for Richard to defend himself. Bryant in Every Goodbye Aint Gone: The

Semiotics of Death, Mourning, and Closural Practice in Toni Morrisons Song of Solomon

argues that this type of storytelling relies on, interconnecting narrative elements by reversing

causality, that is, writing or conceptualizing backwards from effects to causes (99). The

audience is forced to go back to the beginning of the play and put all of the pieces together

without actually witnessing the scenes in chronological order. While this is occurring

Baldwin adds another dimension, hybridization, by making the gun present and absent at the

same time. The guns presence signifies Richards murder but the guns absence explains

why he is dead. By making the gun absent and present at the same time, the audience can

conjure a clear image of the events that caused Richards death.

In these two scenes, the music, Richards presence, and the gun all act together within

Baldwins felt reality. However, all three magical realist elements do not need to occur in

unison for the felt reality to be successful. First, Baldwin further explores the hybrid space by

having a funeral in Blacktown but allowing it to exist within Whitetown. The music, which is

coming from Richards funeral ceremony and continues throughout the scene, should mean

that Richard is about to appear, but he never does. Instead of having Richard present on stage,


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Baldwin has Lyle repeat his line from the opening scene. The haunting presence of the music

and the repetition of Lyles line both work to conjure the image of Richards dead body. He

simulates the murder again through Stephanie McDevitt Lyles speech and then he simulates

the funeral through the singing. Baldwin does not need to show the funeral procession, the

audience can create the image themselves through Baldwins felt reality. What Baldwin does

differently in this scene, in comparison to previous scenes, is that he allows the music to

stand for Richards funeral, instead of Richards presence. While the audience gets to see the

people attending the funeral, and listen to Meridian preach, Richard is not at the funeral. The

music has stopped, so there is no ghostly presence, and the bier is empty. Baldwin gives no

indication that there is a casket or body in the church during this scene, therefore Richard is

not physically present. At first it seems as though Baldwin disturbs the felt reality he

establishes earlier in the text. However, he just heightens it by forcing the audience to create a

very specific image of the one thing missing from this funeral, Richards dead body.

Later in act two Baldwin presents another instance in which all three magical realist

elements do not work together in the felt reality of the play. This time Baldwin reverses what

he did in the previous scene. Richard appears but there is no audible music to signal his

arrival. Papa D. begins to testify about the last night he saw Richard, which was also the night

Richard was murdered. Two lines into his recollection Richard appears and Papa D. goes

from talking to the people in the courtroom to talking to Richard in his bar. Much like in

Richards first scene, the transition from present to past happens rather quickly and is

Stephanie McDevitt signified by a change in the lighting. However, these scenes do not

overlap; rather Richards scene interrupts Papa Ds testimony in the mid-sentence. Whereas

Mother Henrys stage directions indicate that she enters Richards room, giving the sense of a

scene change, Papa D. is dropped directly into his bar even though he never moves from the

witness stand. Papa D. also goes from referring to Richard in the past tense, to speaking to


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him directly. Again, Baldwin relies on this hybrid space and conflicting timelines to easily

bring Richard on stage and he is able to do that without music because Richard stands in the

lights of the juke box. Richards appearance makes perfect sense, because even though there

is no musical interlude, music is still present on stage in a physical form. The juke box, or

more specifically the lights from the juke box, make Richard visible and acts as Richards

ghostly apparition allowing space and time to shift from one world to the next.

The final example of Baldwins hybridized space and time comes in the final scene of

the play when Baldwin comes full circle and presents what looks like Richards murder

scene. After Lyle is found innocent of Richards murder, Parnell and Meridian are

questioning him and demanding to know the truth about what happened. Like the previous

scenes, Richard appears in a lighting change but this time there is no indication of music at

all. Baldwinbreaks his pattern of allowing time and space to hybridize through Richards

haunting music. However, in this instance the music is not necessary. This scene explores

Richards presence by showing exactly what made him absent in the first place. Baldwin does

not need to remind the audience of Richards dead body because what is about to happen on

stage should explain the cause of Richards death and fill in the gaps in the narrative. This

scene becomes Baldwins final unfolding of Richards murder and Richards life.

What Baldwin actually does in this final scene is that he interprets his felt reality to

re-present the murder scene that occurred at the start of the play. This time, the audience is

witness as Lyle pulls the gun on an unarmed Richard and threatens him. Richard begins his

speech, asking Lyle to leave him alone and Lyle fires the gun. After the first shot, Richard is

still standing and speaking, so Lyle shoots again but Richard continues to speak several lines

until he finally falls down. Even after he falls, Richard has one last line in which he calls out

for his Juanita and his parents . This is very different from the opening scene in which the

gunshot was followed by a brief silence and then Lyles line. Now, Lyle does not speak after


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firing the gun. Baldwin maintains his felt reality and his hybrid space by allowing Richards

presence and absence to resonate in this scene. Richard should have been silenced by the first

gun shot, like he was in the beginning, but he remains present even after he has fallen, and

the audience does not get another glimpse of his dead body. Baldwin reverses the sequence of

the magical realist elements. Unlike the other scenes, the music comes at the end to act as one

final ghostly reminder that Richard is gone. The dual worldhood that Baldwin sets up

allows for a dead character to come alive. However, as his murderer goes free at the end of

the play, the only thing left of Richard is the space he used to occupy. Baldwin approaches

this idea by allowing Richard to speak and sing and dance in a way that seems completely

natural within the felt reality of the play,but the conclusion of the text proves that Richards

absence will be all that remains.

Baldwin brings this point home when, in the final scene of the play, the gun becomes

the lone magical realist image to represent Richards life. Meridian reveals that he is still in

possession of Richards gun. While the gun isnot visible, its mere mention reminds the

audience that those who loved him, most importantly, his father, feel the effects of Richards

murder. Much like the scene in which Meridian sits alone while Richards guitar plays,

Baldwin evokes the image of a lonely father whose son was murdered. By keeping the gun,

Meridian is keeping the one tangible object that has been associated with Richard throughout

the entire play. However, the gun is also the visual reminder of the violent act that caused his

sons death. By combining these two final ideas, Richards presence in the image of the gun,

and Richards absence in the image of the gun, Baldwin allows for one final hybridization

and forces the audience to feel the sorrow and loss of Richards grieving father.

Over the course of this play, Baldwin worked to create a felt reality that combined

images within images, spaces within spaces, past and present, and presence and absence.

Though a Stephanie McDevitt carefully established felt reality,Blues for Mister Charlie was


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able to surpass realistic expectations and explore Richards murder in way that avoided

violent or vulgar images. However, what Baldwin achieved in the end may have proved to be

more traumatic than the murderous act itself. He forced the audience to draw from their own

trauma, their own sense of loss and grief, their own imagined fears, and apply them to the

play. Baldwin expected the audience to fill in the blanks and create their own visual images

in order to comprehend the narrative he was presenting. By doing this, Baldwin encouraged

the audience to understand, not only Richards death, but Meridians loss and, often times;

understanding grief is much more difficult than witnessing a death.

References

Arva, Eugene L. Writing the Vanishing Real: Hyperreality and Magical Realism.Journal

of Narrative Theory 38.1 (2008): 60-85.

Baldwin, James.Blues for Mister Charlie. New York: Vintage International, 1995.

Bigsby, C.W.E. The Committed Writer: James Baldwin as Dramatist. Twentieth Century

Literature 13.1 (1967): 39-48.

Bryant, Cedric Gael. Every Goodbye Aint Gone: The Semiotics of Death, Mourning, and

Closural Practice in Toni Morrisons Song of Solomon.MELUS 24.3 (1999): 97-110.

Simpkins, Scott. Magical Strategies: The Supplement of Realism. Twentieth Century

Literature 34.2 (1988): 140-154.

Wilson, Rawdon. The Metamorphoses of Fictional Space: Magical Realism.Magical

Realism Theory, History, Community. Durham NC: Duke University Press, 1995.

209-233.

Zamora, Lois Parkinson. Magical Romance/ Magical Realism: Ghosts in U.S. and Latin

American Fiction.Magical Realism Theory, History, Community. Durham NC: Duke

University Press, 1995. 497-550.

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Artile - Magical Realism in James Baldwin