Fly in the Buttermilk

By James Baldwin

What does the story convey?

• This story, depicted by a black-American, basically describes the problems faced by a student belonging to a minority group in America.

• It depicts the essence of having the experience of living life in a predominately white university campus.

Continued…

There are various things that are pointed out by this chapter. For instance – It’s not easy to stay away from our country and consider ourselves a foreigner.As described in the early lines of the chapter, “you can take the child out of the country, but you cannot take he country out of the child.”

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• This means that although an African may have shifted to America, leaving his country behind, he would still be referred to as an African.

• This story is about an African boy who tells the author about his daily experiences at his new school.

• The child is subjected to a lot of embarrassing situations by his classmates, daily.

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• The boy experiences incident like getting his way in to the classroom, blocked by his classmates.

• His classmates calling him bad names.• Him being beaten up by leather belts by

another classmate on the instructions of the old principal of the school etc.

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• This story also tells us about the child’s determination and hard work, with which he keeps himself busy enough to not let the memories of the day’s incidents fill his mind.

• The child says that he is not at all bothered by the name calling that he is subjected to.

• The child also refuses to go back to his former school, that was specially meant for the minority and coloreds.

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• The child is described as being a hard working student. All the while he sits on the sofa, doing his homework.

• His mother, although worried, feels proud of her son and other kids.

• His mother also tells the author about the carelessness of the white teachers towards the black students.

Continued…

• The story tells us about the feelings of colored immigrant students in the US

• It tells us how they feel when they see white people all around.

• The story also aims to clear the misconception of racism. It describes the white people as being ‘mean’.

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• The story got it’s name – “a fly in the buttermilk”, derived from a comparison

• Buttermilk has been compared with the white majority group and the fly has been compared with the black African-American.

• So the name literally translates to – “a black among whites” just as the story describes the child as being ‘one among many’.

What we have learnt from this story…

• We have learnt that teasing and bullying is a part of our early life. (as the principal says, “I have seen the students doing that to many other kids, including whites”

• We have also learnt that it is easy to face such situations, purely on the basis of our endurance.

The end