![]() ![]() Baldwin implores his nephew to approach them with love. White Americans are “still trapped in a history which they do not understand” and thus need to look inside themselves for their own freedom to attempt to be like the white man would be an act of self-sabotage. He goes on to advise James that they should not endeavor to mimic the ways of white Americans in hopes of acceptance or integration. He writes that James has been given this lot because he is black “and for no other reason.” In facing this fact, Baldwin emphasizes that they must love themselves all the more, must hold steadfast to one another and love themselves fiercely. This innocent country set you down in a ghetto in which, in fact, it intended that you should perish. ![]() ![]() In just a few pages, Baldwin expresses a deep and fatherly love towards his nephew while still conveying the grim reality of their circumstance: In the first and shorter essay, Baldwin writes a letter to his nephew, also named James. The Fire Next Time is a collection of two essays, both which read somewhat like mementos of memoir, and so after having learned more about his mother and his life growing up in Harlem, I found these essays even more powerful. After reading The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation by Anna Malaika Tubbs ( read my review here), I had the inclination to read something by James Baldwin. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |