Summary

“A Question of Identity” is an exploration of the many ways that Americans in the American student colony in Paris relate to European culture and what their stance reveals about their attitude toward their own culture. Baldwin begins by explaining though most of the people in the student colony are former soldiers studying under the GI bill, the common denominator of military experience does not explain their presence in Paris. For one thing, having been in uniform is not the same as having had a common military experience; many former GIs never saw combat and each person’s experience is unique. Moreover, the majority of ex-GIs are not in Paris but back home in the United States. Baldwin thus dismisses the idea that all these students stayed in Paris as a reaction to some shared shock undergone during the war in...