Editing James Baldwin (section)

===Struggle for self===
In all of Baldwin's works, but particularly in his novels, the main characters are twined up in a "cage of reality" that sees them fighting for their soul against the limitations of the human condition or against their place at the margins of a society consumed by various prejudices.{{sfn|Leeming|1994|pp=91, 128}} Baldwin connects many of his main characters—John in ''Go Tell It On The Mountain'', Rufus in ''Another Country'', Richard in ''Blues for Mister Charlie'', and Giovanni in ''Giovanni's Room''—as sharing a reality of restriction: per biographer David Leeming, each is "a symbolic cadaver in the center of the world depicted in the given novel and the larger society symbolized by that world".{{sfn|Leeming|1994|p=128}} Each reaches for an identity within their own social environment, and sometimes—as in ''If Beale Street Could Talk''{{'}}s Fonny and ''Tell me How Long The Train's Been Gone''{{'}}s Leo—they find such an identity, imperfect but sufficient to bear the world.{{sfn|Leeming|1994|p=128}} The singular theme in the attempts of Baldwin's characters to resolve their struggle for themselves is that such resolution only comes through love.{{sfn|Leeming|1994|p=128}} Here is Leeming at some length:
{{blockquote|text=Love is at the heart of the Baldwin philosophy. Love for Baldwin cannot be safe; it involves the risk of commitment, the risk of removing the masks and taboos placed on us by society. The philosophy applies to individual relationships as well as to more general ones. It encompasses sexuality as well as politics, economics, and race relations. And it emphasizes the dire consequences, for individuals and racial groups, of the refusal to love.|author=[[David Adams Leeming]]|title=''James Baldwin: A Biography''{{sfn|Leeming|1994|pp=128–129}}}}