Solidarity in If Beale Street Could Talk
If Beale Street Could Talk attracts young readers since the conflict is centered on two characters who happen to be young adults. The struggle of the two (Fonny and Tish) childhood hood friends who ended up becoming lovers upon maturity is vehemently opposed by Fonny’s mother, but immense support is exhibited by Fonny’s fathers alongside Tish’s family. All the ordeals that involve blood ties are quite engaging to the young readers since the meekness of Fonny, alongside Tish’s innocence possess the capability of capturing the feelings of all who might be wondering about human sexuality and love. Through this story, Baldwin is able to explore some of the social issues in society such as poverty, housing, racism, religion as well as justice. However, the major query posed by the narrator is whether many of the happenings in the world make sense, since we see a mother who is so possessed by religion to the point of cursing her own grandchild. However, the solidarity exhibited by the characters all through the reading is indeed appealing and encouraging, and the attempt is therefore made to expound much about it in this essay.
Solidarity is a display of unity by a group in the defense of a certain feeling, action or interest. Some human rights movements groups have in many occasions identified themselves with the given name as during major protests, while pushing for recognition. Therefore, when talking about solidarity, it would be necessary to identify the bone of contention (issue at hand), individuals’ perspective and unity of thought. In Baldwin’s presentation, the issue at hand is about the bond of love that joins Fonny to Tish. A bond that is even strengthened by the introduction of a new born baby with Tish as the mother and Fonny as the Father. However, the baby is brought into this world in ways that seem unacceptable in the society, and to make matters worse, the father is in jail. It is challenging to wonder what might be going on in Tish’s head as she breaks the news to Fonny, her family and Fonny’s kinsmen. It goes without saying that feelings of shame, guilt and probably stigma did threaten her well-being because the society at the time would consider such news as doom.
To ease the tension, Tish receives an uplifting response from his lover who happens to be happy for being a father. Although Fonny gets a bit sad, he becomes sad with the right reasons. He is afraid that the baby will be born during his time in Jail for he yearns to have him/her in his arms and he dreads the occurrence of his child’s birth with him in jail. Indeed, Fonny stands with his lover, and it is clear that his state as a convict prevents him from doing more than just being happy and supporting Tish with kind words.
Tish’s mother is indeed a pillar of support when it comes to showing loyalty and solidarity to his daughter and son in law. She happens to be the second one to receive the news and her response again serves to lift her daughter’s spirit. She does well to plan how to inform the other members of the family about the new occurrence. To her, the baby belongs to the family and has nothing to do with all that is going on the lives of its parents. This becomes clear when she whispers to Alonzo’s mother to remind her that she has cursed her own grandchild. Sharon does not only stand with her daughter. She goes ahead to follow up on Fonny’s case in the dire search for justice. She is the one who flies all the way to Puerto Rico to try and convince Victoria to make changes to her testimony. Although all her attempts to get Fonny out jail do not bear fruit, she still stands with her son in law in the wait for freedom.
Fonny’s mother allows religion to cloud her judgment and for this reason she fails to show solidarity. Her husband tries to knock sense into her to the extent of slapping her publicly, but she still remains defiant. In the end Frank and Joseph discuss how they will help Tish raise her child all through the hard times, and both of them collude that they will raise the child the same way they raised their own children(Baldwin, 1974). Indeed, a show of solidarity is displayed at a great scale by Tish’s family who stand with their daughter and his lover and they do all it takes to do so.
