Baldwin

This is obviously a very sensitive subject but Baldwin does a really great job of showing and telling his experience of being a "stranger" in a village who has never seen a black man.  What Baldwin does so effectively is he gets his point across, we know that he is mad, but he doesn't show it distastefully, that's probably what I admire the most about this piece.  He writes about experiences that are terrible.  They are even very uncomfortable to just read.  "If I sat in the sun sun for more than five minutes some darling creature was certain to come along and gingerly put his fingers on my hair, as though he were afraid of an electric shock, or put his hand on my hand, astonished that the color did not rub off."  Baldwin sarcasm in this sentence is clever.  "some darling creature" when referring to a white boy I presume, is great.  He describes this boy and the way the boy touched his hair.  The boy is examining baldwin as if he himself is a creature, as if he isn't human.  Therefore, this is how he describes the boy, and sarcastically calls him "darling."  It is obvious that Baldwin does not feel that this young boy is "darling," which makes this sentence great.

"In all of this, in which it must be conceded there was the charm of genuine wonder and in which there was certainly no element of intentional unkindness, there was yet no suggestion that I was human: I was simply a living wonder."

This sentence directly follows the example I just made.  The words he uses, "charm" "genuine wonder" are words that make this sentence sound and feel positive when it's read.  He is taking this terrible scene and making it better than it was.  Very clever.