The discoery of what it means to be an American练习答案 - 副本.doc

12. The Discovery of What It Means to Be an American James Baldwin EXERCISES 12 Ⅱ. 　1. He left America because he was afraid he might not be able to survive the fury of the color problem there. He wanted to prevent himself from becoming merely a Negro or even just a Negro writer. And he also wanted to find out how his special experience as a Negro could help to connect him with other people instead of dividing him from them. 　2. He found himself to be as patriotic as the most patriotic Americans. He was. discriminated against and persecuted in America so he was very eager to leave it. But when he left it he was surprised to find that he loved America as much as any other white Americans. 　3. He suffered a kind of nervous breakdown in Europe when he found many of his preconceptions and beliefs to be false and ungrounded. He went to Switzerland to recuperate from his breakdown. Bessie Smith through her beautiful singing of Negro folk music helped him remember and accept his Negro origins. 　4. Europe helped to reconcile him to being a Negro. In Europe he realized that he loved America just as any white American did. He found that the origins of the black and white Americans were not so important as the fact that they were both searching for their separate identities. He also realized that Europe had formed both the black and the white Americans and this fact was part of their identity and inheritance. Finally he realized the responsibility of his development rested in his own hands. 　5. Europeans have lived with the idea of social status for a long time. European society has always been divided into classes, so people there accept the idea of status very easily and naturally. Whereas in America, a mobile society, a kind of social paranoia exists, because no one is certain what his status in society is. In America everyone thinks he has status and at the same time everyone becomes un- easy as to just what his status is. 　6. His contact with people from every