madtheory's Full Review: James Baldwin - The Fire Next Time
Few books truly captured the essence of the Civil Rights movement as well as The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin. His writing is a both a fierce examination of race relations in an unjust and unstable America, and an impassioned plea for both whites and blacks to abandon the hate and mistrust between them. A national bestseller when the book first hit the shelves in the early days of the movement in 1963, it’s apocalyptic title resounds as the inevitable consequences of continuing racial injustice: "God gave Noah the rainbow sign, No more water, the fire next time!"
The book is basically broken up into two main sections. Both sections are letters composed by the author, the first entitled, My Dungeon Shook: Letter to My Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Emancipation and the second is, Down At The Cross: Letter from a Region in My Mind.
With the first short letter, Baldwin is writing a letter to his nephew also named James, to inform him of the death of the young man’s father. He tells younger James that “he had a terrible life; he was defeated long before he died because, at the bottom of his heart, he really believed what the white people said about him.” He goes on to describe the existence of blacks in the United States, blaming is countrymen who, actively in hate and passively in “ignorance,” allow the author’s brother and thousands like him to perish in such detestable, sub-human conditions. In this piece, he makes a few references to the invisibility of the American Negro, which is a theme Ralph Ellison would use to craft his classic Invisible Man a decade later.
The writer ends the short correspondence with words of encouragement and strength, stressing that the young man not try to define himself by the white man’s definition, because that is a definition authored in abhorrence and ignorance. From this, the reader gains that the chief struggle for this black man, and many others, is to become his own man in spite of the adversity, and still find room to love and accept those who would not do the same for him.
However, the second letter is much more complex and involved, and comprises the majority of The Fire Next Time. Baldwin starts off describing his childhood in Harlem, beginning with the moment he realized that in order to survive as young black man in Harlem, he had to find a gimmick; something that would lift him up and start him on his way. Since he could not box, sing, or dance, the only options remaining were the church and the streets. He chose the former – a wise decision since his time as a young preacher ended up opening the door to the writing profession.
This larger section allows Baldwin to explore several themes on religion, race, and American society. He allows the reader to see how intricately these concepts are intertwined, and can serve to uplift or bring down blacks, depending on how one approaches them. His experience as a young preacher fuels his discourse on elements Christianity, filling the pages with doubts that he entertained even as he preached the Gospel. He honestly explores his thoughts on a God of love vs. a God of vengeance, and the hypocrisy of white Christians failing to act in a Christ-like manner – citing Nazi Germany and the treatment of blacks in predominantly Christian America as compelling examples. Baldwin even discusses the internal battle he fought with himself when he used the tales of a “gentle Jesus” to encourage his people to humbly accept their imposed hell on earth.
In contrast, he later writes on his meeting with the Honorable Elijah Muhammed and the power, pride, and love that the Nation of Islam exudes so potently that it attracts black youth in droves. He considers the attraction of the dogma that they teach, saying that, “one did not need to prove to a Harlem audience that all white men were devils. They were merely glad to have, at last, divine corroboration of their experience...” He shows much approval and even a degree of awe at all the positive things the Nation was able to do in the community such as rehabilitating junkies, keeping ex-cons out of prison, and instill a peace and serenity in the believers in the faith. However, that does not spare the Nation from a scathing critique of the faults of the organization, such as the detrimental nature of their separatist views and the improbability of some of their goals.
But regardless of the myriad of topics Baldwin explores in the book, they all rotate around the central issue of race. While the majority of it deals with black responses to white oppression, the writer is not content with only analyzing the issues of the black community. Baldwin also shows the reader how whites’ stereotypes, falsehoods, and need to portray themselves as superior to all others have, to a degree, trapped them in the unfavorable position of holding themselves to a standard to which they cannot and never have achieved. He writes: “The American Negro has the great advantage of never having believed that collection of myths to which white Americans cling: that 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, that Americans have always dealt honorably with Mexicans and Indians and all other neighbors or inferiors, that American men are the world’s most direct and virile, that American women are pure.” For the author, this disconnection from reality only fuels feelings of inadequacy and resentment toward others.
But despite all the anger and pain and harsh analysis that reverberates through the author’s expressive writing, Baldwin’s primary message is that love and understanding is necessary to heal America’s continuing racial strife. The theme runs fluidly and consistently throughout the book, from Baldwin’s dichotomous tenure in the church, to his time as an established writer who found himself with many close white friends. The writing style Baldwin uses is to articulate his thoughts are truly amazing, because his diction is eloquent and intricate, yet simple and easy to understand. He consistently manages to make even the most complex concepts and ideas clear, yet envelop them in poetic phrasing.
Though the book was first published in 1963, the topics James Baldwin tackles are unfortunately just as relevant today as they were prior to the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Anyone looking for more insight into race relations, whether during the Civil Rights struggle or post-September 11th, should definitely look into reading The Fire Next Time.
A national bestseller when it first appeared in 1963, The Fire Next Time galvanized the nation and gave passionate voice to the emerging civil rights ...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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