Read the excerpt from Notes of a Native Son. A few hours after my father's funeral, while he lay in state in the undertaker's chapel, a race riot broke out in
Harlem. On the morning of the 3rd of August, we drove my father to the graveyard through a wilderness of
smashed plate glass.
Baldwin describes a personal event taking place amid a race riot to
O symbolize his detachment from the racial prejudice existing in society.
O emphasize his amazement with the events taking place around him.
O symbolize the destructive impact racial prejudice has on individual lives.
O emphasize the contrast between his father's experiences and his own.