Baldwin Amen Corner Character Analysis Hypocrisy Essay

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Literary Analysis


Margaret opens the play by Baldwin by introducing the reader or audience to one of the themes of the play, which is what it means to be holy. Margaret is preaching to the congregation that when the world needs saving the world turns to the holy. She preaches that if they want to save the world, they have to be holy and that the holy keep themselves separate from the world. This idea is at the core of who Margaret is, for she left her worldly husband after her daughter died and she could not handle the grief. She blamed her husband’s worldliness and determined to be holy and to have her own church and to raise her son up in an environment different from that of his father’s.
Margaret is the protagonist of the play, but she is also the antagonist, because she is opposed to herself without even really realizing it. She states with regard to her son, “I praise my Redeemer that I got him raised right—even though I didn’t have no man….” (Baldwin 27). She leaves out the part about herself leaving her man. She is like a haunted character. It would seem that Luke, her husband, is the antagonist—but he is more like a ghost of Christmas Past come to haunt her and to remind her of her true self. Luke is not the antagonist, for he even…

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…saint has to be separate from the world—and that is what Margaret has sought to do.
But in the end, she realizes that love does not try to carve out safe spaces for itself.

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Love is giving to all. Love is patient, love is kind, and so on. Margaret sings, “I been walking my faith, / Praying with love, / Looking up above…” (Baldwin 20). But this attitude of hers is somewhat self-deceiving: she has been looking to save herself from risk. Luke, David, and Brother Boxer all show how angry the males are with her: she has tried only to save herself—she has not tried to show them real love at all. She is a self-centered woman. Luke dies, but he forgives her and….....

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"Baldwin Amen Corner Character Analysis Hypocrisy" (2022, March 26) Retrieved June 5, 2026, from
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/baldwin-amen-corner-character-analysis-hypocrisy-2182433

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"Baldwin Amen Corner Character Analysis Hypocrisy" 26 March 2022. Web.5 June. 2026. <
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Latest Chicago Format (16th edition)

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"Baldwin Amen Corner Character Analysis Hypocrisy", 26 March 2022, Accessed.5 June. 2026,
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/baldwin-amen-corner-character-analysis-hypocrisy-2182433