Baldwin uses a variety of literary and rhetorical
techniques in Notes of a Native Son. He uses direct address
and shifting narrative points of view to name a couple. His use of imagery stands out
in the essays, most notably in the last essay of the collection, "Stranger in the
Village." Baldwin describes a trip that he made to Switzerland where he stayed in a
small village. He paints a vivid picture of the village and the peculiarities that mark
its character:
[While discussing the high number of people who
visit the local hot spring) There is often something beautiful, there is always
something awful, in the spectacle of a person who has lost one of his faculties, a
faculty he never questioned until it was gone, and who struggles to recover
it.
So, Baldwin not only
details the images in the essay, he also reflects on what he has seen and
experienced.
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