Another Country (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: James Baldwin
- First Published: 1962
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Social realism
- Time of Work: The 1950’s
- Setting: New York and France
- Genres: Long fiction, Social realism
- Subjects: 1950’s, United States or Americans, Racism, Sexism, France or French people, Gay men, Homosexuality or homosexuals, Love or romance, Race, Sex or sexuality, Suicide
- Locales: New York, NY, France, Greenwich Village, Harlem, NY
Characters Discussed
Rufus Scott, a jazz drummer. Handsome, talented, and black, Rufus is the pivotal character in the novel, although he commits suicide at the end of the first chapter. He meets his girlfriend, Leona, a white woman from the South, while playing a gig. Their unstable relationship is torn apart by racial and other tensions between them. He beats her until his friend, Vivaldo Moore, intercedes. Rufus’ ensuing depression results in his suicide: He walks out onto the George Washington Bridge and jumps. Rufus’ struggle initiates the questions the novel explores,...
[The entire page is 1401 words long]
