Category: The Fire Next Time

From the story “The Fire Next Time” Baldwin explains his ideology on the fact that white people are basically crazy in a sense. This book is a story by James Baldwin, in the reading is two stories. Together these two stories begin to digest inequality in America and religion, and the way different races think. Baldwin had many views that were specifically toward white people and how they have been raised privileged and thinking life has always been “sunshine and rainbows”.

Baldwin thoroughly explains how white Americans think the lineage they come from was full of “good” and “wholesome” people, when in fact it wasn’t. He says that while white people thought this black people never had that idea, considering we know our ancestors lived through slavery. He explains to the reader how white people seem to think they know so much about black people and understand our life and the hardships that come with being black when of course they don’t. He compares their knowledge of this to a parent that thinks they know so much about their child, when in fact most parents don’t know the half of it. The thought, to my understanding is that white people understand black peoples struggle (to their knowledge) yet they still pity them. These white people look down on black people and make themselves feel better by doing so. They don’t do this on purpose, they think they understand, but they don’t. One would never understand how it feels to be a different race unless they became that race. Baldwin goes on to call white people “slightly mad victims of their own brainwashing”. This is a cycle that white people go on to tell their kids because they believe it, and the cycle just never ends. Baldwin only feels this way on white people’s behalf, but he also thinks that for black people to gain power that will last, they must learn to accept and “love” white people. Baldwin gets into the limitations of narrow-minded thinking when he discusses the lies and “myths” that white people have been believing about their ancestors. This doesn’t help them as a race it only makes them seem ignorant to other races.

The ideas have also made it hard for white and black people to co-exist in a way that’s helps both races grow and work together. The “negro problem” will forever be a problem, unless each race works together for that one common good, to rid of it.

James Baldwin was a writer in the mid twenty centuries. He was born 1924 and died in 1987. The time period of he lived was the period of the turmoil and oppression. During his life time he experienced the second world war and the cold war which bring him very large influence on his advocate later on the of the freedom of African-American movement. The effect of the second world war was not seems very dominated in Baldwin’s idea, it do bring him, actually to most of the people who experienced the war that how serious grieved the extreme violence could cause. To see the great tragedy of people, Baldwin’s idea was more peace rather than radical. It also because of his experience in church, he used convert to Christianity in his second essay he mentioned about that. Which also help to shape his idea of achieve the freedom by peace way and love. After the cold war, the civil right movement was began to grow again and the book “ The Fire Next Time” was finished in 1963 at similar time period. The oppression for many minority groups during the cold war period were expressed after the cold war and massive movement began to growth at that time period. [1: Baldwin p. 107]

Baldwin clearly point out who was his audiences in the first letter that he was writing for his nephew. Also to extend, his audiences were the youth African-American like his nephew who just began to noticed how the society sees them and defend their identities. Moreover, Baldwin in his letter especially indicated that which group is not his audience — “the innocent white” who was also a important part that Baldwin used to reach to his audiences. In the first letter Baldwin wrote to his nephew, he told his the nephew James the restriction and racism that he might faced when he got into society. Then Baldwin discussed the reason of what causes these restriction and racism and who is responsible for these action. Finally he came up the solution for the American to improved. What’s more the word “love” was frequently appear in his letter which was Baldwin advocating his idea.

To reach to his audience, Baldwin first discussed the “ innocent white” was the culprit of pushing the African-American into the plight at that time period. Even though the slave system was not exist anymore, but the misunderstanding of African-American by the white were still strong. Even more the white American refused to admit this circumstances. In the letter he wrote : “ This innocent country set you down in a ghetto in which, in fact, it intended that you should perish.” and “because you were black and for no other reason. The limits of your ambition were, thus, expected to be set forever. You were born into a society which spelled out with brutal clarity, and in as many ways as possible, that you were a worthless human being. You were not expected to aspire to excellence: you were expected to make peace with mediocrity.” There sentences shows that Baldwin thought what the society expect to the African-American was being obedience, non- ambition and stay where they are which is the bottom of society- the “ghetto”. These expectations didn’t have much difference with the characteristics of slave, so the Baldwin knew the physical oppression like chain or whip was gone but the invisible oppression from the society that push his race down was never disappear. Therefore, those innocent white was the cause. They choose to escape from the realty, refused to recognize African-American, ignore African-American, afraid that they will losing the idea of who they thought they are because they could feel that African-American do make contribution to united states community. [2: Baldwin p.7]

Of course Baldwin told his nephew how to faced those dilemma that he meet faced and what he believe the way to eliminate that. Love was the method that Baldwin believe that make his prospect of the freedom of African-American pretty optimism. In the letter Baldwin first told James that his family always love him, then underline within the nation we need to love each other. In letter Baldwin said : “we were trembling. We have not stopped trembling yet, but if we had not loved each other none of us would have survived.” Moreover, Baldwin also told Jams how faced the innocent white and the oppression from society, he want to his nephew know that the when he face racism it was not his fault but the ignorance and hostility from the white. But he should accept it accept it with love, and the white should accept them. But Baldwin was tell to accept the whole white idea like his father, instead he should also try to avoid these limitations from society. At last Baldwin point out : “The country is celebrating one hundred years of freedom one hundred years too soon. We cannot be free until they are free.” Therefore, Baldwin believe to free the black, the white need to free first and what connect these two race was the love, he believe they could show that they are as American as the white population. [3: Baldwin p.6 ] [4: Baldwin p.8] [5: Baldwin p.9]

The title of the book was at the end of second essay also the epigraph for the first section of the book: “ God gave Noah the rainbow sign, No more water, the fire next time!” According to Baldwin’s life he was a religious man. So at the end of the essay he warn the people up on the example of bible that god will punished the sinner by fire, it also might means if the problem was not solved the conflict would eventually turn into blood and fire to. The title was a strong title that shows the importance and critical situation for the African-American and for United States. The title of the letter for his nephew was “My Dungeon Shook” which also came from the sentence at the end of the letter: “ One of them said, The very time I thought I was lost, My dungeon shook and my chains fell off.”. This sentence was to remind James he was from the nation that was heavily oppress before the ‘dungeon” and “chain” was the symbol of slave to African-American, but after “dungeon” and “chain” was the words “ shook” and “fell” which means the free. Baldwin used this poem as a excitation to show that the captive and oppression will fall and yield to free because this was the letter for his nephew who was youth and represent the hope a his nation. Baldwin use the title “My Dungeon Shoot” to encourage his nephew to make change and reach the truly free for African-American in United States. The title for the second essay was from one of the epigraphs at the precede between the first section and the second section. The two epigraphs were “White Man’s Burden” wrote by Kipling and the poem from “Hymn” these two epigraphs provide the reader that how he would the discussed the issue of African-American in Untied States which was the religion. Therefore the title “Down at the Cross” was the way that Baldwin ponder the issue of black oppression in United States under the circumstances of religion as a believer of christian. [6: Baldwin p.105] [7: Baldwin p.9]

The second section of the book talked about two main point one is the Baldwin’s personal experience in church and his opinion about the Islam. First of all he told his own experience about the life of being in a christian community and how it associated with the African-American culture. Baldwin first accept the religion very quick but as he was growing he saw his friends were fall into the oppression and even didn’t noticed that was a oppression and he share his own experience when he was thirteen crossing the street the cop in the middle of the street muttered as Baldwin passed him, “Why don’t you niggers stay uptown where you belong?” and “When he was ten, two policemen amused themselves with him by frisking him, making comic (and terrifying) speculations concerning him ancestry and probable sexual prowess, and for good measure, leaving him flat on my back in one of Harlem’s empty lots”. Baldwin at that time period thought the boy need to himself a “thing” to do so they could avoid the crime and for himself was the church.for now the issue and oppression for him still blurry he knew they were there but haven’t a very clearly way to solve that. However he idea would develop and changed after he fell to floor of the church one night after a sermon landing in front of the altar. He remembers pain and the feeling that he was yelling up to heaven and receiving no reply, which led to a hopelessness that could consider as a turning point for him. He suddenly released the God was for the white not African-American which make him sort off put his attention on being a young minister. But the experience of church do provide Baldwin a perfect experience that make him thought about how religion play role in society due to the oppression of the black. Baldwin released religion itself can oppress to any group in society even though it could unite different group to some extent. White population was the beneficiary from this and they were the group who dominated in society at that time period, so with their pride it was impossible for them to initiatively know the achievement that African-American made to United States. And been believe what they had been told that they are superior to African-Americans. Baldwin was also paying his attention on the history of the christianity that he point out that church was representative of oppression, he calls this the “sanctification of power.” So that the action of spreading of the Gospel was an excuse for depression and the imposition of authority on nonwhite countries and nation. From the history, Baldwin figure out by the church made the white ignore the black in society it’s because the religion endow the superiority to the white population. [8: Baldwin p.19] [9: Baldwin p.19] [10: Baldwin p. 23] [11: Baldwin p.29-30] [12: Baldwin p. 50] [13: Baldwin p. 46]

After discussed the christianity, Baldwin put on his attention on another religion—islam. The Islam used to came up with the statement of the with devil. Baldwin didn’t really believe this idea. However he choose to accept some part of the statement. Baldwin showed interest o how the Islam united people together. However, the advocate of the Islam was opposed to what Baldwin promote which is love. So even though Baldwin had meet Elijah, the advocate of Islam was not as same as Baldwin’s idea love. [14: Baldwin p. 65]

Now a days , as Baldwin quotes W.E.B. Du Bois who wrote, “The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line.” in 1890. The problem of color line were never get completely put an end. Even though people were get more aware of racism, it were only stay on the speech aspect. Sometimes people might think that if they won’t say the words of racism or trait they unequal in daily life then the color line problem will not existed. However, the truth is the color line won’t disappear like that. What’s might the society of United States not noticed yet was the [15: Baldwin p. 102]

slums that created by the government before in the city was still there, many African-American there still live there and struggle for their life. It would very difficult for a African-American child to try to work hard for a better life if he or she live in the community like that. Obviously the society again ignore the problem that African-American have, the oppression was still there.

Because I am an international student from China, I do not really know how the color line play the role in Canada, but in recent years as China begin to cooperate its some African countries and international student from African came to the China. The idea of African was changing in social media, according to my personal experience there were some people will first declare they are not racism, but then begin to saying the bad thing of them and their nation. In my own opinion this self-contradictory speech was probably influenced by the idea that from United States where the main western country that influence Chinese society today. First some people in China influence by United States which thought African-American was violent and had high crime rate in their communities, but they don’t know the causes of the these conclusion because their people sees these social issue as foreigners. However, it is still very difficult to say the idea of color line problem China was consider as the racism or just xenophobic. Because China was not a immigration country for long time Chinese sees their race as their nationality. So the color line right now appear China was might be the idea of xenophobic and the influence mainly from United States but without knowing the reason.

Bibliography

1. Baldwin, James, Steve Schapiro, John Lewis, and Gloria Karefa-Smart. The Fire next Time. Köln, Germany: Taschen, 2017. (kindle edition)

A vast collection of folklore, traditions, and legends continue to mask an American truth, that, “Well, the black man has functioned in the white man’s world as a fixed star, as an immovable pillar, and as he moves out of his place, heaven and earth are shaken to their foundations.” In The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin’s commitment to bringing the past to consciousness requires America to confront their construction of racial lines, both physical and nonphysical. White American myths such as, “their ancestors were all freedom-loving, heroes, that they were born in the greatest country the world has ever seen, or that Americans are invincible in battle and wise in peace,” maintain racial lines and the steadfast failure to face the truth regarding race. Unable to come to terms with reality, White Americans ignore the social conditions that Black Americans experience.

A specific American myth that continues to repress African Americans behind racial lines is the myth of “the Negro artist.” While there are some exceptions, most spheres of fine art in America have had mediocre contributions from Black Americans. Thy myth of “the Negro artist” has cultivated a racial narrative that all Black art is a piece of “protest,” or a work “that not only criticizes and protests society, but that suggests, either explicitly or implicitly, a solution to society’s ill.” While the protest label arguably narrates the particular experience found within some African American work, the racial narrative also reveals, “something consequential that will follow in the lives of people or characters in ways that are presumably reflective of their membership in a particular racial group.” The racial narrative of the protest label articulates: When Black artists create work, they provide social, political, and economic commentary about Black life; therefore, their work is merely considered social commentary, not a serious work of art. African American visual artists, literary artists, and performing artists are all confined into the protest label, into a single, limited story.

Artists and their legacy, therefore, are never given extensive evaluation in regards to their craft. Viewers must delve beneath the race of an artist or their works social impact, and understand the gifted skill used to construct the work; arguably, understanding the craft transcends the social value. To ignore the creative facet of Black art not only reorganizes African American artists along racial lines but prevents the spheres of art from acknowledging the influence of Black artists’ craft. Black artists deserve a critique that recognizes their authentic and artistic merit and avoids simply adopting the Black artist myth and its protest label. The American myth of the Black artist manifests the racial narrative of the protest label, creating a racial project that ignores the skill of African American artists and the depth of their work. Black artists, therefore, are framed as solely spokespeople for African Americans rather than artists worthy of acknowledgment.

The myth of “The Negro artist” gangs Black artists into a creative ghetto, confining Black Americans’ work behind racial lines. Specifically, the myth of the Black artist is parallel to life within Harlem, New York City as James Baldwin describes in the novel The Fire Next Time. The particular experience Baldwin addresses to his nephew, “I said it was intended that you should perish, in the ghetto, perish by never being allowed to go beyond and behind the white man’s definition, by never being allowed to spell your proper name.” The oppressive conditions to which Black people experience appear in all realms of society. America has not only imprisoned African Americans into physical ghettos, but artistic ghettos. Black artists are characterized as a “fixed star” or “immovable pillar,” because “the Negro artist” myth only recognizes the race of the artist, disregarding the other individualistic characteristics each artist possesses. With the construction of these racial lines comes the grouping, labeling, simplifying, or classifying of Black artists and their work. A Black artist cannot only be an artist; rather their race deprives the work any ability to voice concerns for humankind, not only Black American. When an African American artist bears work, their work must already face a myth that segregates Black talent, and, therefore, suppresses that talent. The myth haunting Black American artists continues to trap their work within the confines of race.

With the myth of Black artists comes the creation of an oppressive racial label, categorizing all Black art as a work of protest. African American artists fall victim to the racial narrative that Black artistry lacks individuality and represents a particularly collective category: a pure pursuit of protest. The American myth organizes the racial narrative that all art created by African American individuals under the category of protest. A racial narrative such as the protest label is a story, and Imani Perry argues that these stories are, “schematization of race and individuals as racialized subjects.” (44) The myth of the Black artist racializes their work, ascribing the protest label. The racial narrative regarding Black artists within American art oversimplifies Black talent into a one-dimensional genre, thwarting the unrestrained expression and depth of African American artists. This one-dimensional genre, protest, discuss’s Black artists’ work in terms of how well it serves as an instrument in the fight against racism. Designating the protest label for all African American art dismisses Black artists’ work as individualistic pieces of art with particular aesthetics and skills.

Because African American artists traditionally concern themselves with the experience of being a Black person, critics have ascribed the racial narrative of the protest label to Black American’s art. African American artists create fine art that speaks to the uncharted depths of the human condition, but a racial narrative formed in response. When African American artists explore the Black soul, what follows is the racial narrative of their work: the protest label. The racial narrative articulates that all Black art appears to lack individuality because of the social setting in which the art arises, and what the art addresses: being Black in America. In More Beautiful and More Terrible, Imani Perry introduces her work with the poem “Justice” from Langston Hughes’ volume Scottsboro Limited: Four Poems and a Play in Verse:

That Justice is a blind goddess

Is a thing to which we black are wise

Her bandage hides two festering sores

That once perhaps were eyes.

Perry described the piece as “a work of protest literature.” that “followed an established tradition within African American arts of providing social and political commentary through creative expression.” Hughes published “Justice” in response to the infamous Scottsboro trials, exploring the baneful relationship between America’s judicial system and the African American experience. Referring to the Roman goddess Justitia, Hughes satirically redefines the blindfold, a symbol of impartiality in the justice system, suggesting impartiality is a facade due to racial inequality. Hughes’ art creatively addresses the American hypocrisy that victimizes African Americans; however, his work is only categorized as a protest because he calls attention to what appears as solely political or social commentary. While Hughes’ poem is addressing the political or social commentary regarding the American justice system, he is also dealing honestly with Black life in America.

But the racial narrative marks Black artists’ works as a protest because Black art can address America’s crimes against the Black human spirit and call attention to the particular damage of constructing race within a nation that preaches freedom. African Americans have unashamedly created art in response to the multifaceted experience of being Black in America. Expressing hope, courage, or joy amid sorrow and oppression, Black artists excavate meaning as their nation continues to deny them humanity. The beauty of Black art lies in its ability to create personal amid political; African Americans’ work arranges the sores of society into a healing artwork. The work of a Black artist, however, is considered merely a political or social statement. The protest label becomes a descriptive phrase that circumscribes African American artistry, designating a prescription that all Black art is a form of revolt.

Categorizing all African American artistry to the protest label confines Black artists by substituting the authentic and artistic within their work, as political, or social. Notably, James Baldwin undertakes what it means to come of age in The Fire Next Time, “Owing to the way I had been raised, the abrupt discomfort that all this aroused in me and the fact that I had no idea what my voice or my mind or my body was likely to do next…” Throughout the novel, Baldwin grapples with his youth and the struggle to invent himself both physically, mentally, and emotionally in America. Moreover, Baldwin also addresses themes such as religion, sexuality, and identity. The consequences of the protest label, however, stifles and suppresses Baldwin’s artistry to a Black manifesto or sociological work. Baldwin’s novel received a critique from the New York Times Book Review that identified his work as a “sermon, ultimatum, confession, deposition, testament, and chronicle… all presented in searing, brilliant prose.” These list of nouns essentially categorize Baldwin’s piece of literature as an evangelist’s speech for the civil rights movement, or a powerful priest’s revolt against the nation. Baldwin’s work, however, is not merely a preacher sermonizing about the wrongdoings of America. It would be futile to deny that Baldwin’s essay has tremendously impacted society, but the protest label equally ignores the depth of authenticity in his artistic achievement. The protest label creates a single story for almost all Black art; because the confining label protest is associated with Black art, the work is solely assumed a social piece: revolt against the economic, political, and social conditions of Blacks in America. Black American artists are confined because of the protest label and the consequences of the narrative, which substitute the artistry within the work as sociological.

By consigning the protest label, not only is Black American’s work assumed a social critique, but the Black artist becomes a spokesperson for the social conditions of African Americans. The protest label marked on African American artists’ work changes viewers’ conception of the artist, because, “racial narratives have a greater potential to intervene in deliberation and decision making because they both operate in people’s minds as knowledge.” The protest label creates the notion that Black artists’ work is a social or political comment; therefore, the artist is a voice for Black people. With unlimited freedom, Baldwin’s novel The Fire Next Time expresses Black conditions by conjoining the authentic with the social; he reckons with a threatened nation while coming of age. Yet critics cannot see Baldwin in a broader context, as simply a writer. Because the protest label applied to The Fire Next Time transformed James Baldwin as a spokesman, because reviewers from the… described Baldwin as a man who, “galvanized the nation and gave passionate voice to the emerging civil rights movement.” Baldwin challenged the “innocence,” or ignorance, of America, and honestly addresses the complexity of the Black and White identity in America. Baldwin, however, also renders an artistic rhetoric; he displays an individualistic and gifted command of language that reads beyond the voice of the African American people. Yet Black artists are not considered significant beyond their social value; therefore, denied their artistic skill and authentic achievement.

To disregard the creative facet of Black artists such as Baldwin and his work confines him into a creative slum; instead, one must analyze how he masters his material with a powerful command of prose, defying the label protest literature. The Fire Next Time is more than a civil rights manifesto that casts a spotlight over the American psyche; the novel is also a searing, torturous personal account of a youth coming of age in Harlem. In the nonfiction novel, Baldwin’s artistry is like a powerful lens that focuses on the intolerable conditions of Black Americans forced to survive in this country every day:

For the wages of sin were visible everywhere, in every wine-stained and urine-splashed hallway, in every clanging ambulance bell, in every scar on the faces of the pimps and their whores, in every helpless, newborn baby being brought into this danger, in every knife and pistol fight on the Avenue, and in every disastrous bulletin: a cousin, mother of six, suddenly gone mad, the children parcelled out here and there; an indestructible aunt rewarded for years of hard labor by a slow, agonizing death in a terrible small room; someone’s bright son blown into eternity by his own hand; another turned robber and carried off to jail. It was a summer of dreadful speculations and discoveries, of which these were not the worst. Crime became real, for example—for the first time—not as a possibility but as the possibility.

Baldwin’s mastery of rhetoric takes readers into the streets of Harlem. While maintaining an immense control of imagery, Baldwin’s prose style not only reveals the social ills of African Americans, but universal themes that emerge when living in society’s evil: isolation, and sin or its temptations. The explicit images and the tone and pace of the passage, forces readers to confront reality. Particularly, Baldwin’s repetition of “in every” reads as a rhythmic drum. Readers see the Avenue, but because of Baldwin’s repetitious rhythm, readers also feel the monotonous tragedies of life: the fury, the pain, the frustration, the fear, the rage, and the despair. Not only is the physical condition of the Black environment described, but the insights of the moral and psychological ghetto arise. Readers can envision the particular experiences of the “cousin” or “mother of six” or “ aunt” because of Baldwin’s keen eye for detail. What could have been a flat description of a ghetto in America becomes a delicate blending of physical and emotional details; Baldwin balances these details by juxtaposing a “helpless, newborn baby” with “pimps and their whores,” and “every knife and pistol fight.” The listing of these indignities, these conditions to which America has become totally apathetic, produces a shocking effect designed to offset the complacency of illusion. Baldwin’s fiery rhetoric in the phrase, “someone’s bright son blown into eternity by his own hand,” not only depicts the life of oppression but the inevitability of these streets determining one’s destiny. Precisely, Baldwin’s work illustrates the cycle of poverty and despair that trapped Harlem residents, when he simply changes the article in front of the word crime. The Fire Next Time defies the label protest literature because Baldwin’s writing possesses an artistic skill that transcends its social value.

Like a “fixed star” or “immovable pillar,” Black artists and their work cannot be separated from their race. The American myth of the Black artist and the racial narrative of protest labels, groups, and compares all African American artist and their works. This American myth surrounding the Black artist and its manifestation of the racial narrative of protest, not only prescribes a meaning to African Americans’ work but defines the merit of these Black artists. A discriminatory practice, the American myth, and its racial narrative, must be dismantled because the characterization emphasizes only assessing the value of work in terms of its critique against society’s wrongdoings. Protest, an oppressive label, substitutes craft and authenticity for political or social activism; the protest label sterilizes African American artists into a genre: simple, similar social commentator. Black artists and their efforts are dismissed or denied artistic acclaim. Critics must come to terms with the importance of each Black artist’s particular aesthetic and begin analyzing African Americans’ work on the basis that their pieces of art are authentic and required great skill. One must evaluate the impact of Black artists’ work in terms of artistry and how that creative talent impacts society. Black artists’ work must expand beyond racial lines.

Essayist and dramatist James Baldwin was brought into the world on August 2, 1924, in Harlem, New York. One of the twentieth century’s most prominent authors, Baldwin broke new scholarly ground with the investigation of racial and social issues in his numerous works. He was known for his papers on the black involvement in America. James Baldwin distributed the 1953 novel Go Tell It on the Mountain, proceeding to earn approval for his bits of knowledge on race, other world issues, and humankind. Baldwin built up energy for writing at an early age and exhibited a gift for composing during his school years. Baldwin published various short stories, plays, and poems. His initial work indicated a comprehension of modern abstract gadgets in an essayist of such a youthful age. Baldwin often experienced discrimination and battled to make a living. In 1945, he finally landed a fellowship and began writing articles and short stories in such national periodicals as The Nation, Partisan Review and Commentary. From then on, he began to further his profession in writing. The next year, he released his next novel, Giovanni’s Room. The work recounted to the account of an American living in Paris and kicked off something new for its intricate portrayal of homosexuality, a then-forbidden subject. Later, he likewise composed two other novels that investigate interracial connections, another dubious subject for the times. In 1963, there was a prominent change in Baldwin’s work with The Fire Next Time. This accumulation of expositions was intended to instruct white Americans on what it intended to be black. It additionally offered white individuals a perspective on themselves through the eyes of the African-American people group (‘James Baldwin Biography,’ 2019).

After completing the original copy Giovanni’s Room, Baldwin’s distributer proposed that he should trash the book because of its attention on a sentimental connection between two men. As an African American author, Baldwin was at that point defying the racial biases of his time. Presently, by expounding on his sexuality, the distributer expected that he would consider further estrange his crowd. The primary character In Giovanni’s Room, feels embarrassed about being gay and his family and society are not prepared to acknowledge his sexual direction. The way that he is gay is self-evident, but he figures out how to deceive himself again and again – until his mystery ends up open and he’s at last compelled to go up against reality. The novel worked up a lot of contention when it was finally published. In any case, the pundits broadcasted it a perfect work of art, and today is yet perceived in that capacity. It is one of only a handful hardly any generally acknowledged books to transparently manage an equivalent sex relationship (‘Giovanni’s Room Summary,’ 2019).

Baldwin begins The Fire Next time with a letter to his nephew by remembering commemoration of the marking of the Emancipation Proclamation. He tells his nephew that his granddad was eventually fixed—obliterated—by accepting that he was what white society said he was, subhuman. Baldwin indicates to his nephew; rather, he is part of another period, and another perspective. The writer urges his nephew not to commit a similar error as his granddad by accepting what white individuals state about him. The guidance to his nephew has a lot to do with the past, both as far as their family heredity, and as far as the chronicled shameful acts woven into the very texture of America (Lannamann, 2019). In the subsequent letter, Baldwin Shares his encounters as a kid, and his inevitable thwarted expectation with Christianity. Then Baldwin relates a night that Baldwin went to dinner with Elijah Muhammad, the pioneer of the Nation of Islam. Baldwin at that point talks about his conviction that there are inadequacies to the Nation of Islam’s limited attitude concerning race relations, even though he sees how Black Muslims feel. Towards the end, he infers that to push toward illuminating ‘the Negro Problem’ in America and states we should be happy to extend our perspectives about and encountering the world (‘What happens in The Fire Next Time?,’ n.d.).

Baldwin composed poetry till the very last day of his life. He composed with a connected, layered, easy hand. He composed poetry since he felt near this specific structure and this specific method for writing. Poetry helped string his thoughts from the papers, to the books, to the letters, and back to his creative mind. Baldwin coordinated the intensity of sex and the basic elements of the family easily. He talked frequently and energetically about the value of children and family. He never avoided any language that connected with society’s problems (Finney, 2014). In the poem Staggerlee wonders, Baldwin refers to the Panama Canal, China, Russia, and Vietnam. Along with Ronald Reagan, Mohammad Ali, and John Wayne. He utilizations them as vehicles for his fact telling in this poem. The sonnet seldom strays excessively a long way from hues, or even more precisely skin pigmentation. What’s more, Baldwin deftly mixes slurs and tongues in the voice of the speaker who seems both circumstances just as over the circumstance: the racial and social imbalances of being Black in the U.S. This poem uncovers Baldwin’s specialty, his capacity to be profoundly close to home and bound by his snapshots of history while opposing and to the extraordinary inquiries of being human when people destroy their mankind (Thomas, 2014).

James Baldwin broke new insightful ground with the examination of racial and social issues in his various works. He was especially known for his papers on the black association in America. Baldwin’s Scholarly notoriety sprouted after his first novel Go Tell It on the mountain, he composed serval different works soon after. All which managed to show the experience of being a black man in America before the civil rights movement. As he began to further his calling in writing headdress points that were then-prohibited such as, homosexuality and composed more material that was planned to educate White Americans on what is expected to be black. It furthermore offered White Americans a viewpoint on themselves through the eyes of the African-American. He was an extraordinary inspirational writer to many White and African Americans. Although he experienced childhood in a period that was unpleasant for black man, he never abandoned his gift of composition, and open the eyes of numerous people through his work. Staggerlee Wonders was one of the last poems that was initially distributed in 1982, only a couple of years before Baldwin’s death in 1987. It is a legend pregnant with imagery and is returned to again and again through the ages of African Americans. It delineates how Baldwin can weave together governmental issues and writing altogether for his readers to perceive how Black and White culture conflict with one another. “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced” (James Baldwin)

Two Worlds

In the book entitled Bread Givers by Anzia Yezierska, Sara Smolinsky deals with the clash of the Old World and the New World as an immigrant in New York in the 1920s as she struggles with placing her individual values over her family. On the other hand, James Baldwin in his book, The Fire Next Time, wrestles with segregation and racial discrimination between the white and African-American worlds amidst the Civil Rights movements. Both books address tensions between two different worlds as they struggle to either integrate into a particular world or completely separate themselves from it, each addresses struggles between generational values and both deal with oppression in the form of various types of discrimination.

Both Bread Givers and The Fire Next Time parallel each other in the sense that they address the conflict between two different worlds. Bread Givers presents the dilemma of Sara having to choose between either integrating fully into American society or accepting her family’s traditional values. Sara struggles with her father, symbolizing the Old World, on different viewpoints of values on gender roles, love, and marriage. Sara becomes enraged at her father for breaking off all the engagements of his daughters and then arranging marriages, leaving Sara’s sister stuck and unhappy. “And don’t forget it, you are already six months older – six months older – six months less beautiful – less desirable, in the eyes of a man… ‘What are you always blaming everything on the children?’ I burst out at Father. ‘Didn’t you yourself make Fania marry Abe Schmukler when she cried she didn’t want him?’” (85). However, she is not able to really do anything because of the fact that she is the youngest woman in the family. In addition, Sara struggles with gender discrimination. When she looks for rooms in New York after running away from home, she is rejected by female landlords just because she is a girl. “‘I don’t take girls.’ And the woman slammed the door.” (157). Moreover, Sara struggles with discrimination against immigrants. As a Jewish immigrant, Sara found it hard to fit in with other American college students because of the way she dressed as well as the language barrier. “After that, I was shut out like a ‘greenhorn’ who didn’t talk their language.” (180). Thus, it can be seen that Sara struggles with finding a place for her to fit in as she neither fits in her heavily gender-segregated, patriarchal family nor in New York as she is ostracized for being “different”.

On the contrary, The Fire Next Time presents the issue of African-Americans stuck in a similar situation of gaining equal rights by deeply reviewing Christianity and the Nation of Islam in historical and societal contexts. In Down at the Cross, Baldwin talks about how Christianity is used to reinforce racial segregation and is a tool for white men to able to conquer African Americans as described “The white man’s Heaven is the black man’s Hell.” (45). Elaborating on the point, “Those virtues preached but not practiced by the white world were merely another means of holding Negroes in subjugation.” (23). In this quote, Baldwin says that through Christianity, white people were able to create moral standards for black Christians to adhere to, while they themselves did not follow them in order to take advantage to better subjugate the African Americans. Moreover, Baldwin elaborates about Christianity being used in both politics and morals in the United States to favor the white world. “In the realm of power, Christianity has operated with an unmitigated arrogance and cruelty-necessarily, since a religion ordinarily imposes on those who have discovered the true faith the spiritual duty of liberating the infidels.” (45). As opposed to what the majority of African Americans believed, Christianity actually operated with great arrogance and cruelty in the United States and took advantage of the African Americans’ misconception to control them. As a result, Baldwin concludes that “The spreading of the Gospel, regardless of the motives or the integrity or the heroism of some of the missionaries, was an absolutely indispensable justification for the planting of the flag.” (46) [Emphasis added]. In this quote, Baldwin states that Christianity resulted in benefitting the white world by allowing them to gain control over African Americans, regardless of the actual motives in spreading Christianity. Overall, Christianity promotes the segregation of African Americans. On the other hand, the Nation of Islam mirrors Christianity in the fact that they emphasize separation, but this time separation from the white people. For instance, the Nation of Islam’s central doctrine is, “All White people are cursed, and are devils, are about to brought down.” (49). Therefore, both Christianity and the Nation of Islam as religions in the United States, only drive inequality, oppression, and separation between the white people and African Americans, hindering the efforts for African Americans to gain equal rights.

In both the Bread Givers and in The Fire Next Time, Sara and Baldwin come to the conclusion that escapism is not the right solution to handle their respective problems. Towards the end of the story in Bread Givers, Sara ends up living with Hugo in New York. After Sara’s father remarries, he declines in health and turns to Sara for help. Sara, despite finally being able to assimilate into American society at this point, chooses to take in her father. This is because she realizes that her father’s behavior is one that cannot be helped because it was taught to him. She also concludes that although she wants to be her own independent person in the New World, she does not completely want to throw away her heritage as well as her family. In other words, she is not leaving one world for the other, rather she is compromising so that she can accept a part of both the Old and the New. In the same sense, Baldwin pushes that African Americans must know the history of their people’s oppression and come to accept African American history. He also does not believe escapism through the Nation of Islam is the right solution either. Baldwin emphasizes the first step of his solution is to accept African American history and its current situation. “The Negroes of this country may never be able to rise in power, but they are very well placed indeed to precipitate chaos and ring down the curtain on the American Dream.” (88). Baldwin, states that although African Americans might not be able to gain power in the United States, the black people are still in a good place to instill some change in the United States through the chaos and close the “curtains” on the American Dream. Going further, Baldwin firmly believes that African Americans’ situation will likely not change in a long time and believes that it is essential for one to not deny this fact. “And thus there is no possibility of real change in the Negro’s situation.” (85). However, he suggests that the solution may lie in the true meaning of love. “Love is not a personal sense but as a state of being.”(95). Racial tension is not due to real antipathy. Rather, “it is involved with color rooted in the very same depth as those from which love springs or murder. “(95-96). In particular, the resolution is to “consent to become black himself, be become a part of that suffering and dancing country that he now watches.” (96). This essentially means that African Americans must know and accept black history and love as being a state of being. How can black history be used as part of a resolution? He considers that “Color is not a human or a personal reality; it is a political reality.” (104) He cautioned that “Blacks must not take refuge in delusion and value placed on the color skin.” (104). Although he does not offer a detailed plan to resolve racial tension, his resolution is well inferred, despite a lack of concreteness and detail, and has a deep resonance coming from his profound reflection on the root of racial tension involved with the then-current two major pillars of religion during the Civil Rights Movement, Christianity and the Nation of Islam. Therefore, the solutions that are presented in both books are similar in that both deny escapism as a valid solution, but rather compromises that utilize both worlds, whether Old or New or white and black.

In conclusion, even though The Fire Next Time and Bread Givers address different issues, they share many similarities in regards to their responses as well as suggested resolutions. Both books address the tension between two conflicting worlds where people are faced with the situation of having to either choose one world or the either. In addition, the books also share generational issues in the sense that Sara in Bread Givers deals with accepting the Old World through her father, while Baldwin addresses the struggle of African Americans to accept their own history. Finally, both address different types of discrimination. Overall it can be learned that one cannot simply choose one world over the other as Sara initially did by completely rejecting the Old World to assimilate completely into American society. Instead, it must be done in an approach similar to what Baldwin suggests, to accept one’s history and move forward, and also what Sara does at the end of Bread Givers when she chooses to not forget her Jewish heritage and history although she is somewhat integrated into American society.