Notes of a Native Son Chapter Summary & Analysis - Stranger in the Village Summary

Stranger in the Village Summary

In a remote village in Switzerland, Baldwin realizes he is probably the only black person the villagers have ever seen. Baldwin has come here to write and, along with his typewriter, he brings a uniqueness that fascinates the natives, who ultimately come to accept him on his return visits but always look at him as some sort of natural wonder.

When the children call him Neger on the streets, Baldwin realizes that they have no harmful intent, but he cannot help but recall the more inflammatory calls of 'Nigger' thrown at him on the streets in America.

Baldwin longs to be recognized for the person he is, not the oddity he has become in this isolated mountain town, and he likens himself to the ailing and crippled who come to the town for its healing waters.

Baldwin muses that there is nowhere on earth that the black man can call...
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