"Equal" in Paris

Hemingway and his ‘lost generation’ came to Paris searching for something; to escape a discomfort that accompanies wartime. In this same manner, the WW2 African American expatriates were also searching for an escape, but rather an escape from being defined and confined by their race. 

We see Baldwin discuss his coming to Paris as a type of escape stating, “And it must have seemed to me that my flight from home was the crudest trick I had ever played on myself, since it had led me here, down to a lower point than any I could ever in my life have imagined—lower, far, than anything I had seen in that Harlem which I had so hated and so loved, the escape from which had soon become the greatest direction of my life.” There’s a sense of urgency to this escape too, Hughes describing America as, “The home he had fled.” Hughes isn’t looking for an escape from reminders of the war, but an escape from a racist environment; an escape from feeling different; feeling exiled from a community. Similar to the 'diaspora' that many Africans experienced, Baldwin is also leaving his 'homeland', venturing to Paris and he feels a sense of exclusion that is natural for anyone doing this. 

Ironically, coming to Paris, Baldwin finds himself exiled as well, having “no grasp whatever of the French language.” 

These same themes are apparent amongst both ‘lost generations’ (Hemingway’s and Baldwin’s). For one, there’s an ambiguity towards Paris’ authenticity. We never truly get a sense of a ‘true’ Paris from these expats. Instead we’re introduced to Parisians as an obstacle that surrounds these expats. They don’t focus on French culture, as much as they do the simpler aspects of life, such as employment or food. These expats use Paris as a place to escape obligations; a place to search for something that’ll bring them fulfillment. For example, amongst both ‘lost generations’ there’s a great emphasis put on food. Hughes states, “It tasted very good and cost little, cheese and crisp, fresh bread and a bottle of wine.” Baldwin also brings attention to food stating, “I relinquished the thought of dinner and began to think of lunch.” This hunger (emphasized by both ‘lost generations’) represents their struggle to find something. They have a ‘hunger’ to realize or create something great, and are using Paris as this outlet; as this opportunity to focus on life itself devoid of the distractions/unease that follow war and racism.

But, again, while in Paris these expats tend to write and lean towards a side of Paris which seems far from authentic. Hughes, for example, writes about “a tall Romanian girl, with large green circles painted on her eyes.” Even Baldwin writes about his American friend, “When my American friend left his hotel to move to mine, he took with him, out of pique, a bed sheet belonging to the hotel and put it in his suitcase.” Kramer even points out that, "Baldwin found few opportunities for contact with Parisian intellectuals, and most of his friends in Paris were white or black Americans."

Hemingway too found a circle of Americans living in Paris with which his main interactions took place. Hemingway and these writers were living in Paris, but not fully engaged in the Parisian culture. Rather, Paris was acting as a place that offered less responsibility; a place to be aimless, to wander, to be free. Hughes, “Like most African-Americans who expatriated themselves in this era, was not facing a direct threat of arrest or government harassment, yet he clearly felt the need to leave the United States in order to survive as a free person and write.” 

This freedom was a freedom from the harsh racism in the US, but also a freedom from the day to day agendas-responsibilities. Freedom from a place that saw Africans as "exceedingly primitive." Although slightly ironic considering that Baldwin is arrested in Paris, his sense of freedom still remains, Baldwin eventually writing about his arrest; creating. 

Hughes states, “There was nothing to do all day long.” Paris offered this freedom to these expats, which raises the question of whether the work these writers created while in Paris was a product of their situation (spare time, etc.), or truly inspired by the culture of the city.

Hughes describes meeting a man on a walk, “He told me most of the American colored people he knew lived in Montmartre, and that they were musicians working in the theaters and night clubs.” There’s a community of Americans within Paris that these expats cling to. Hughes continues, “The next day I went everywhere where people spoke English, looking for a job—the American Library, the Embassy, the American Express, the newspaper offices.” Again we see Hughes clinging to American culture. Later, Hughes meets a man: “Rayford Logan is now a professor of history at Howard University in Washington.” This American tells Hughes about an “Opening at a pop club on the rue Pigalle.” Americans looked out for each other and formed their own community within Paris. 

Baldwin states, “I was discovered by this New Yorker and only because we found ourselves in Paris we immediately established the illusion that we had been fast friends back in the good old USA.” Here we again see Baldwin clinging to American culture; the comfortable. Even Hughes, “Left alone in the streets and cheap hotels of Paris, he found himself reconstructing his American experience and identity in ways that were disorienting as well as liberating.” 

So what Paris was really offering these expats as this escape from responsibilities, giving these writers a sense of liberation, but also of irresponsibility, many over-indulging. Hughes, for example upon coming onto some money, does not think to save it, but rather he and Sonya, “Both dressed and went to the barber shop and got our hair cut. I got a shine, and Sonya a manicure. Then we had luncheon at a cafe on the Place Pigalle. After that we went to a movie on the boulevards.” 

Hughes also describes this over-consumption stating, “I consumed rather a lot of coffee and, as evening approached, rather a lot of alcohol.” 

We see this over-consumption amongst Hemingway as well, discussing gambling and drink. 

A sense of solitude also follows these expats. This solitude is natural, considering the position they have put themselves in. Baldwin states, “That night I felt lonesome and sad.” They have exiled themselves from home; from comfort, which explains why they cling so willingly to the American presence in Paris. This also solidifies their identities as American, Baldwin stating, “For them I was American.” For Baldwin, he is no longer defined as an African American, but rather simply as an American, which he seems to find a pleasure in. 

Kramer states, “There were of course important differences in the governing regimes of the nations they fled, and yet the exiles who left Europe before WW2 and the black Americans who went to Europe after that war shared the belief that they must leave their societies in order to find creative freedom and personal safety.”

Here we see that it was more about leaving for these expats than for soaking in another culture, leaving us again with this ambiguity towards Paris, but providing them with an environment where they felt they could create safely. 

Towards the end of the excerpt, Baldwin describes laughter stating, “This laughter is the laughter of those who consider themselves to be at a safe remove from all the wretched, for whom the pain of the living is not real. I had heard it so often in my native land that I had resolved to find a place where I would never hear it any more. In some deep, black, stony, and liberating way, my life, in my own eyes, began during that first year in Paris, when it was borne in on me that this laughter is universal and never can be stilled.” 

More than anything we see this theme of universality-of finding comfort in the known amongst these expats, but also of finding that no matter where they are, they are still the same-they are still Americans: an identity weaves its way that they eventually find pride and comfort in; finally accept as apart of their "hybrid" identity.